Aldrich Ames and Benedict Arnold have the distinction of being the most notorious traitors in United States history, yet they still do not come close to the greatest traitor of all time, Judas Iscariot. Judas, a chosen disciple, spent his time traveling with Jesus, listening to His teachings, witnessing His miracles, stealing from His moneybag, yet still Judas decides to betray Him. For just thirty pieces of silver, Judas signaled to the authorities to arrest Jesus by a kiss. Judas in his shame gave back the money and went and hung himself or did He buy a field and fall down and his body exploded.
The different accounts of Judas’ last moments have been a point of criticism from skeptics for many years. In Matthew 27:3-10, Judas returns the money to the chief priests and leaves to hang himself. The chief preists can’t put this blood money in the treasury so they go buy a field for burials which becomes known as the Field of Blood. In Acts 1:18-19, Judas bought the field and fell headlong, followed by bursting and bowels spilling out.
Critics and many a believer are left with a couple of questions. Did Judas hang himself or fall and spill his guts? Did the chief priests buy the field or did Judas? The following gives some responses to the claim that the Bible is contradicting itself in reference to Judas’ death.
The most common rebuttal to Judas’ death is that he did hang himself and then the tree branch broke causing him to fall and guts to spill. Another thought is that since it was the Passover time and right before the Sabbath that his body was left hanging until after the Sabbath since it was unclean and removing it would be work. The body might have swollen over that time and when it was cut down…well you get the picture.
Another rebuttal worth looking at is the idea that Matthew is doing a little poetic or creative writing here. The Greek word used by Matthew for “he hanged himself” is also found in 2 Samuel 17:23 in the Septuagint (the Greek OT). In 2 Samuel it is referring to Ahithophel who betrayed David and hung himself when he was found out. It is possible that Matthew wasn’t actually saying that Judas actually hung himself, but that he was a similar betrayer like Ahithophel.
As for the field that was bought, many people say that the two verses are actually referring to separate fields. Given the fact that they both are connected to Judas’ death, I find this pretty unlikely. If the chief priest and Judas both bought fields and they were both known as Field of Blood that might rival the resurrection as a good miracle. Instead I think a better explanation is that the chief priests did buy the field but in Judas’ name. They didn’t want to be associated with the blood money and more than likely in the books that amount of silver was already paid out to Judas. So they just use his name when buying the field. Luke, being the thorough researcher, may have even consulted the paper work when writing Acts and seen Judas’ name. It is not even that coincidental that the priests buy the exact same field that Judas died in. When Judas killed himself there, the land value probably plummeted seeing as how there was a dead body there and it was unclean. So I bet the priests even got a pretty sweet deal on the real estate.
Now these explanations may not be the actual remedy for explaining this passage, but it does allow for the possibility that both accounts of the events surrounding Judas’ death could be correct.
References:
- Matthew 27:3-10
- Acts 1:18-19
- 2 Samuel 17:23
- Matthew vs Acts on the Issue of Judas’ Death