Judas’ name means “praised one” and more concretely by its Hebrew root, either “Casting Forth, Hurling” from or “Majestic, Splendor” from הוֹד, also name which occurs once in 1 Chronicles 7:37.
Let him be praised! Majestic!
What?
The Greek verb παραδίδωμι (paradidōmi) is one of those wonderfully flexible words that native speakers used in dozens of ordinary situations. Its basic, literal meaning is simple: to give/hand something over to someone else. From there it branches out naturally—transmit, deliver, surrender, pass on, teach, allow—depending on context.
Yet in many English Bibles and lexicons you will see “betray” listed as a meaning, especially because of the famous New Testament phrase ὁ παραδιδοὺς αὐτόν (“the one who betrayed/handed him over”) in the Passion narratives. This has led generations of readers to assume that “betray” is a core or even primary sense of the word.
It isn’t. It’s a perceived contextual nuance—and a rather late and loaded one at that.
Look at the evidence from the standard lexicon (LSJ, slightly condensed here):
- The overwhelming majority of uses are neutral or positive:
- hand a child to someone (Hdt.)
- pass the torch of life (Plato)
- hand over the morning watch, a letter, an inheritance, a city to its citizens, ancestral armor, an argument, a purchase, the year in astrology, virtue to students, etc. Absolutely everyday “giving over.”
- The first clearly negative use is “give a city or person into another’s hands,” especially to an enemy or as a hostage (Hdt., Thuc., Xen., etc.). This is still literal surrender, not necessarily treacherous.
- Buried amongst all these primary definitions we find the note: “with collateral notion of treachery, betray” — and the very first citation is Xenophon Cyr. 5.4.51 (4th century BC), followed by Pausanias (2nd century AD). In other words, centuries after the word is in common use, a treacherous coloring can creep in when the context screams betrayal.
A Little Known Secret: παραδίδωμι is not προδίδωμι
That little phrase “with collateral notion of treachery” is doing all the heavy lifting. The treachery is not in the verb itself; it is supplied by the situation. So what is the situation exactly? If I hand my friend over to the police because I secretly hate him, the betrayal is mine, not the verb’s. The Greek could just as easily have said προδίδωμι (prodidōmi, the dedicated “betray” verb with the prefix προ-), but koine writers don’t use it in the NT. They stick with the plain παραδίδωμι and…let the reader understand.
Another little known secret: Jesus himself uses παραδίδωμι of the Father “handing him over” in Romans 8:32!
…he who indeed refrained not from the Son of his own but rather handed over [παραδίδωμι] himself over all of ourselves..
(Romans 8:32 RBT)
The verb is theologically neutral; the moral valence comes from who is doing the handing and to whom.