Question: You say that the Gospel accounts about Judas dying two different ways "complement" each other. They do not. He is described in Matthew 27:3-5 as throwing the money back at the guards. He is described as buying a field with it in Acts 1:16-18. This seems contradictory rather than complementary.

Another problem is you claim the "body ripping open" was that he hung himself and he fell on the rocks below. I don’t recall if rocks were even mentioned in that account for one thing, and for another, the Bible description in Acts 1:16-18 describes Judas as falling "headlong." That would be impossible if he had hung himself, and very unlikely. So it would appear to me that this a question left unanswered.

Do you have any other possibilities?

Rob

Answer: Dear Rob,

We should first begin with the nature of the evidence that is presented. The Bible gives us essential facts and information about salvation, but not always all of the details of historical events. That is not its stated purpose.

On the other hand, the Scripture cannot be broken, it is not in error, it does not contradict itself. It’s own internal evidence testifies to this – as well as external evidences such as fulfilled prophecy, modern finds of archaeology in only the past 100 or so years (the Dead Sea Scrolls being prominent among these).

Let’s revisit the issues you mention. Does the fact that Judas throws the blood money back mean that he did not, in fact, purchase the field? The Bible is like any other book, which uses human language, and the genre of human language. It is a well-known and oft-used figure of speech that speaks of a person or an entity of accomplishing something, when in fact that person or entity did not literally do that thing, but did so by proxy or by influence. The priests bought the potters field (Matthew 27) literally – Judas bought it (Acts 1) in that he furnished the occasion for it – he betrayed Christ, he earned and claimed the blood money, the money of betrayal, and having been stricken with conscience, could not use it – and returned it in a dramatic act. The priests most probably had their own dilemma at this point – what to do with the money? The only fitting thing to do was to use it for Judas – as a burial ground for the man who had "earned" the money. Thus Judas did in fact "purchase" the field – in the same way that Martin Luther King, Jr. "passed" civil rights legislation (not being an elected governmental official), that Jackie Robinson "opened the door" for African American athletes in major league baseball, etc. etc.

As for the reconstruction that we might do of the suicide of Judas – neither Matthew 27 or Acts 1 logically excludes the other. No law of logic would allow such a conclusion. Matthew does not deny that Judas, after hanging himself, fell and burst asunder – the book of Acts does not assert that Judas did not hang himself previous to his fall.

If we really want to investigate whether this is a biblical contradiction, then a visit to the "crime scene" would be in order. I have visited, as have many others, the general scene of this tragedy. An on-the-spot-visit reveals, along with a study of Jerusalem and its environs over the past 2000 years, that it is very possible that Judas chose a tree on the brink of a precipice of the valley of Hinom, and the limb or rope eventually gave way, and his body could easily have fallen on a pointed rock.

You say that the Bible does not mention a rock – that is true. But for your assertion to be supported by logic, an on-the-spot-investigation would reveal that the site of the suicide was a flat desert, with no rocks in sight. But that is the exact opposite of the truth. Jerusalem was then, and is now, filled with rocks – it is on and in the mountains of Judah. Rocks were and are everywhere – thus, using normal logic, it is not unreasonable to assume that rocks could have been involved in causing his body to burst asunder, especially if the corpse fell 20 or 30 feet before striking a rock.

Further, we do not know how long Judas remained suspended, nor how much decomposition of the body took place before he fell. A body in such a climate would decompose rather rapidly, and if the body had been suspended for some time, bursting asunder would be what one would expect, rather than the exception to the rule.

I hope this helps with your question, Rob. May God bless you.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht