Some have been saying that Yehuda Iscariot was a Karaite because of the name "Iscariot", however this would be most unlikely. There are a few theories on this and I put them here and my own conclusion as to what Yehuda Iscariot was in belief.
From Wikipedia
In the name of Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus, the epithet "Iscariot" is read by some scholars as a Hellenized transformation ofsicarius. The suffix "-ote" denotes membership or belonging to - in this case to the sicarii. This meaning is lost when the Gospels are translated intomodern Hebrew: Judas is rendered as "Ish-Kerayot," making him a man from the townships. Robert Eisenman presents the general view of secular historians (Eisenman p 179) in identifying him instead as "Judas the Sicarios". Most of the consonants and vowels tally—in Josephus, Sicarioi/Sicariōn; in the New Testament Iscariot. (Eisenman 1997 pp 179 etc)
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Sicarii (Latin plural of Sicarius 'dagger-' or later contract- killer) is a term applied, in the decades immediately preceding the destruction ofJerusalem in 70 CE, (probably) to an extremist splinter group[1] to the Jewish Zealots, (or insurgents) who attempted to expel the Romans and their partisans from Judea.
"When Albinus reached the city of Jerusalem, he bent every effort and made every provision to ensure peace in the land by exterminating most of the Sicarii."
—Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (xx.208)
The Sicarii resorted to terror to obtain their objective. Under their cloaks they concealed sicae, or small daggers, from which they received their name. At popular assemblies, particularly during the pilgrimage to the Temple Mount, they stabbed their enemies (Romans or Roman sympathizers, Herodians, and wealthy Jews comfortable with Roman rule), lamenting ostentatiously after the deed to blend into the crowd to escape detection. Literally, Sicarii meant "dagger-men".
The victims of the Sicarii included Jonathan the High Priest, though it is possible that his murder was orchestrated by the Roman governor Felix. Some of their murders were met with severe retaliation by the Romans on the entire Jewish population of the country. On some occasions, they could be bribed to spare their intended victims....
There is a theory that Yehuda Iscariot was a Sadducee, this is sample what is known about them.
The Hebrew name, Tsdoki, indicates that they are the followers of the teachings of the High Priest Tsadok, often spelled Zadok, who anointed Solomonking at the start of the First Temple Period. F. F. Bruce claims that this explanation is unlikely since they make their début in history as supporters of the Hasmonaean high priests. He therefore suggests that 'Sadducees' (Heb. צַדּוּקִים) is a Hebraization of the Greek word σύνδικοι sündikoi ('syndics', 'members of the council') and that it marks them out as the councillors of the Hasmonaeans; although they themselves came to associate the word with the Heb. צַדִּיק, 'righteous'.[1]
The Sadducees were a priestly group, Levites, associated with the leadership of the Temple in Jerusalem. Sadducees represented the aristocratic group of the Hasmonean High Priests, who replaced the previous High Priestly lineage. The earlier Priestly lineage had been blamed for allowing the Syrian Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes to desecrate the Temple of Jerusalem with idolatrous sacrifices and to martyr monotheistic Jews. The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the ousting of the Syrian forces, the rededication of the Temple, and the installment of the new Hasmonean priestly line. The Hasmoneans ruled as "priest-kings", claiming both titles high priest and king simultaneously, and like other aristocracies across the Hellenistic world became increasingly influenced by Hellenistic syncretism and Greek philosophies: presumably Stoicism, and apparently Epicureanism in the Talmudic tradition criticizing the anti-Torah philosophy of the "Apikorsus" אפיקורסוס (i.e., Epicurus) refers to the Hasmonean clan qua Sadducees. Like Epicureans, Sadducees rejected the existence of an afterlife, thus denied the Pharisaic doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead.
The Dead Sea Scrolls community, who are probably Essenes, were led by a high priestly leadership, who are thought to be the descendents of the "legitimate" high priestly lineage, which the Hasmoneans ousted. The Dead Sea Scrolls bitterly opposed the current high priests of the Temple. Since Hasmoneans constituted a different priestly line, it was in their political interest to emphasize their family's priestly pedigree that descended from their ancestor, the high priest Zadok, who had the authority to anoint the kingship of Solomon, son of David.
The Sadduccees rejected the Oral Torah(Talmud), which the Pharisees claimed to be a continuously passed down oral tradition which Moses received on Mount Sinai as a companion and elucidation of the Written Torah (Five Book of Moses). Instead they insisted on strict literal interpretation of the Five books of Moses, the Written Torah.
Most of what is known about the Sadducees comes from Josephus:
For there are three philosophical sects among the Jews. The followers of the first of which are the Pharisees; of the second, the Sadducees; and the third sect, which pretends to a severer discipline, are called Essenes...the Sadducees are those that compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades...The Sadducees one towards another is in some degree wild, and their conversation with those that are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them.[2]
We know something of them from discussions in the Talmud (mainly the Jerusalem), the core work of rabbinic Judaism, which is based on the teachings of Pharisaic Judaism.
Sadducees followed the Hebrew Bible literally. They rejected the Pharisees' notion of an Oral Torah even before it was written (the written Oral Torah, the Talmud consisting of the Mishnahand Gemara which were completed by many Pharisee rabbis by 500 CE) by which the Pentateuch could be explained hermeneutically.
An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of the law of retribution (lex talionis):
And a man, when he maims his fellow, as he has done, so shall be done to him. A fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—as he gives a wound in a man, so shall be given in him. (Leviticus 24:19-20)
Most Pharisees understood this to mean that the value of an eye was to be sought by the perpetrator rather than actually removing his eye too. In the Sadducees' view the law was to be taken literally.
R' Yitchak Isaac Halevi suggests that while there is evidence of a Sadducee sect from the times of Ezra, it emerged as major force only after the Hasmonean rebellion. The reason for this was not, in fact, a matter of religion. He claims that as complete rejection of Judaism would not have been tolerated under the Hasmonean rule, the Hellenists joined the Sadducees maintaining that they were rejecting not Judaism but Rabbinic law. Thus, the Sadducees were for the most part a political party and not a religious sect (Dorot Ha'Rishonim).
Professor Lawrence Schiffman also cites interpretations of the purity regulations in the Dead Sea scroll "MMT" (ca. 150 BCE) which closely parallel Sadducean views recorded by the spiritual heirs of the Pharisees, who authored the Talmud (Oral Law). But more importantly, he identifies very detailed Pharisaic (or proto-Pharisaic) views in the MMT scroll. However there is evidence[3] that there was an internal schism among those called "Sadducees" - some who rejected Angels, the Soul, and Resurrection - and some which accepted these teachings and the entirety of the Hebrew Bible.
In regard to criminal jurisdiction they were so rigorous that the day on which their code was abolished by the Pharisaic Sanhedrin under Simeon ben Shetah's leadership, during the reign ofSalome Alexandra, was celebrated as a festival. The Sadducees are said to have insisted on the literal execution of the law of retaliation: "Eye for eye, tooth for tooth", which pharisaic Judaism, and later rabbinic Judaism, rejected. On the other hand, they would not inflict the death penalty on false witnesses in a case where capital punishment had been wrongfully carried out, unless the accused had been executed solely in consequence of the testimony of such witnesses.
According to the Talmud, they granted the daughter the same right of inheritance as the son in case the son was dead (see chapter Yeish Nochalin of the Babylonain Talmud, tractate Bava Batra). Emet L' Yaakov explains that the focus of their argument was theological. The question was whether there is an afterlife (see above), and if there is, can the dead person be in the line of inheritance as if they were alive.
Some say that Iscariot derives from Hebrew איש־קריות, Κ-Qrîyôth, that is "man of Kerioth." The Gospel of John refers to Judas as "son of Simon Iscariot" (John 6:71), implying that it was not Judas, but his father, who came from here. Some speculate that Kerioth refers to a region in Judea, but it is also the name of two known Judean towns.
From Wikipedia
Kerioth - cities. (Hebrew: Kriyot קְרִיּוֹת)
A town in the south of Judea (Joshua 15:25). Judas Iscariot was probably a native of this place, and hence his name Iscariot. It has been identified with the ruins of el-Kureitein, about 10 miles south of Hebron. (See Hazor).
A city of Moab (Jeremiah 48:24,48:41), called Kirioth (Amos 2:2).
In my conclusion, my belief based on these facts above leads to a different theory. Yehuda Iscariot was not a Sadducee nor a Karaite as the facts do not even hold water for Sadducee to have become Karaim. The Karaim do take what Christians call "Sola Scriptura" the Scripture Only as means to to not except the Talmud and Mishna, however the Karaim do not from what I know of them lack in allegorical interpretation. The Sadducees would in taking a the command of Tefilin see it as that way it is done in Rabbinical Judaism today at the literal understanding. The Karaim do not see it as literal, also the Karaim do indeed believe in afterlife and the resurrection as the Sadducees did not. I do not see Yehuda Iscariot having any similarities to either. Yehuda Iscariot was from what I see expecting Yeshua to revolt and take the Roman occupation by storm, and that he in frustration (The Will of the Father) wished to help Yeshua along with inspiration, only to be grieved he turned over an "Innocent Man" and betrayed him. This leads me to believe that Yehuda Iscariot was a Zealot, that he like many others were zealous to get rid of all the Romans in Israel. As to the name Iscariot, by logical deduction, was from the city Kerioth, and may have been used as a play on words from Sicarios the group of assassins to become much more prevalent after 30CE.
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