CONTRADICTIONS: What About Matthew and Acts on Judas’ Death?
Whenever the word “traitor” is mentioned, many folks think of Judas Iscariot, who was paid 30 pieces of silver for betraying Jesus into the hands of the Roman and Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, who then subjected Him to mock trials, torture, and death by crucifixion. 
But Judas threw the silver back at the Temple Pharisees after he realized what they were actually doing to Jesus. Then he went out and committed suicide.
The seemingly contradictory accounts of his death found at Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18 are the source of one of the most frequently cited claims of a biblical contradiction.
Here’s why: Matthew describes Judas as having “went and hanged himself” after his horrifying realization of what he had done. But Acts 1:18 appears to relate a different manner of death; namely, that Judas “falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.”
So did Judas hang himself or jump off a cliff or tall building? Here’s how Eric Lyons of the Apologetics Press approaches the issue in his three volume “The Anvil Rings: Answers to Alleged Bible Discrepancies:”
“The differences in these two accounts are easily (and rationally) explained when we consider that Matthew and Luke were referring to two different times. Matthew recorded the initial hanging of Judas, while Luke recorded what happened sometime later (probably several days later.
“Soon after Judas took his life, his body would hae begun the decomposing process. If a dead body is left to itself (with no attempt to preserve it e.g. embalming), bacteria soon begin to break down various bodily tissues. As a result, gases are released within the body, which in turn cause it to swell.”
Lyons then notes an incident in Taiwan several years ago in which a dead whale that had washed up on the shore was being trucked through a Taiwanese city to a research center suddenly exploded. The gases produced by decomposition reached a certain point and people all around the whale were soaked with blood and guts in the ensuing explosion.
That’s what happened to Judas’ body. Matthew and Acts are complementary, not contradictory, because together they tell us how Judas killed himself, by hanging, and that his body was left hanging for long enough that either the rope snapped or the body slipped from the noose and fell a distance to the ground where it burst open on impact.
Homepage photo credit: Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash.
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The first sentence should probably read “Jewish authorities.”
Just because the money was thrown down by Judas does not mean the money belongs to someone else.
Just because the money was spent by someone else does not mean it belonged to them. Notice the money
was Not put into the treasury for official use, but rather for a potter’s field for strangers.
Interesting how one creates one’s own meaning.
This is nonsense. The author totally ignores the part about “falling headlong” and blames it on decomposition.
Yes, you can explain away anything. You just have to ignore the important parts, as this author has done.
w.
Just because the money was thrown down by Judas does not mean the money belongs to someone else.
Just because the money was spent by someone else does not mean it belonged to them. Notice the money
was Not put into the treasury for official use, but rather for a potter’s field for strangers.
Interesting how one creates one’s own meaning.
This doesn’t address the second half of the problem. Matthew says Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver into the temple. Acts says he used the money to buy a field. Obviously there are circumstances here we can only conjecture.
Because the money still belonged to Judas, Not the chief priests, or anyone affiliated with the religious sect.
It could not be put in the treasury.
Just because I throw down money in front of you does not mean the money actually belongs to you.
Or “hanging” by the neck with rope was unusual or unknown in biblical times. Hanging then meant impaling a body, often for public display. Perhaps Judas Impaled himself on a large sharp stick (think of Saul or a samurai) and his guts fell out the wound as he disemboweled himself. Remember Peter told the priests in Acts 5:30 “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.” Thus being nailed to a wooden cross was called hanging in a tree.
Word usage note: the accounts of Mark and Luke are “complementary”, not “complimentary”. Thanks!