Quoted By:
>Life of Jesus also includes a very obvious interpolation breaking the story structure in the middle of the narrative to describe an episode not found in Life of Christ in which Jesus and Judas have a mid-air sorcerer battle that is very similar to an apocryphal Christian story in which the evil sorcerer Simon Magus squares off against the apostle Simon Peter. Both versions of the flying battle ends with a crash landing. One of the reasons we can be sure that the sorcerer battle in the Toledot is a later interpolation is that this is only time Judas is introduced yet after this story, it goes back to the original plot in which Gaisa is the traitor
>Life of Christ changes the setting of the story from Bethel to the south to Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah. The Stone of Jacob is relocated to inside the Jerusalem Temple. The magic copper dogs that guard the temple are changed into magic copper lions, which better fits the totem animal of Judah. The traitor in this version is called Judas, which means that it was probably edited together after 70 CE since the name Judas most likely derives from Judas the Galilean, the Zealot resistance leader who brought about the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The name Iscariot is usually translated to mean a person from Kerioth but the Encyclopedia Britannica assocaited it with the word Sicarii, meaning “dagger-man” or “assassin”. Price instead cites Bertil Gärtner, who links it to the Hebrew Ishqarya, meaning “falsehood” or “betrayer”. A similar Jewish rebellion in the second century CE by Simon bar Kokhba brought about a similar defeat and punishment, and if the ill-will towards that “false Messiah” is any indication of what was said of Judas of Galilean, then it would not be any surprise as to understanding the reason why that name became synonymous with betrayal
