Why does the Bible seem to contradict itself on the death of Judas?

Answer 1

Judas took the 30 pieces of silver and returned them to the priests. God miraculously multiplied the 30 pieces of silver into 60 pieces of silver. So after Judas gave back the money he still had 30 pieces of silver which he used to buy the field of Hakeldama. The Priest then took the 30 pieces of silver and bought Potters field. Judas went and hung himself on Hakeldama's field which happened to be right next to Potter's field. The tree that Judas used to hang himself broke and fell over onto Potter's field. As Judas was falling he turned over and fell on his head as Matthew describes.

When God wrote The Bible he purposely wrote 2 different accounts of Judas death. The plain fact of the matter is, there is a vast difference between what seems to be a contradiction and what truly is. And sadly, too many people do not do the detailed and thorough research it takes at times to see that the passages in question do not truly contradict when all the facts are carefully considered. Again, the facts in detail are offered: Judas died by hanging himself (Matthew 27:5). Later, it is logically plausible to argue that he fell from whatever he hanged himself up on, and his body experienced a horrible fate from the fall (Acts 1:17-19). While many attempt to argue that these passages contradict, nothing could be further from the truth. These passage actually complement each other and make perfect sense. There is no solid Biblical grounds for arguing that one passage denotes how Judas died physically (Matthew), and the other how he died "spiritually" (Acts).

While some attempt to argue that the passages are "entirely compatible," such a claim is based largely in ignorance and lack of careful study. There is no need for complicated and convoluted theories about "increased dead weight." Whether it was the rope or the branch or a combination of both, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that perhaps something broke and his body fell and burst open. Such is not impossible considering the facts stated in the text, the geography of Palestine, and the facts of gravity when hanging of a human body is concerned.

There is also the potential issue of a mistranslated Greek word in Acts 1:18. the Greek word translated "falling headlong" is "prenes," and it is now believed, based on linguistic study of the word's usage, that it should be translated "swollen up." So it is also plausible that after hanging himself, Judas hung there so long that his body began to decompose and swelled up to the point where his internal organs burst open in the midsection area. This, again, is also not implausible or impossible. Thus, the passages are easily harmonized when all the possibilities are taken into consideration. The fact remains that if indeed the Greek word "prenes" has been mistranslated, this changes the understanding of what happened to Judas' body. There is no need to suggest a "fall" from the hanging if the word "fall" is not part of the actual text. Thus, Judas simply hung there and decomposed (Matthew 27:5) until parts of his body burst open (Acts 1:18), which, again, is completely consistent with the scientific facts we know.

For example, Matthew 27:7 clearly speaks of how the priests physically, literally bought the land, using the Greek word "agorazo" meaning to buy or sell in the marketplace. In Acts 1:18, however, we clearly do not have Judas physically, literally buying a field according to the use of a different Greek word for the purchase ("ektesato," from "ktaomai," meaning to acquire, get, possess), and according to the contextual facts. Since it should be quite evident that people do not literally purchase land with "the wages of iniquity" or "reward of unrighteousness" (ἐκ τοῦ μισθοῦ τῆς ἀδικίας), we know that Judas' "purchase" was not meant to be taken as a literal business transaction. Thus we logically can conclude that there is an oriental or Semitic play on words, where we have the priests making a literal purchase, but Judas making a figurative or metaphorical purchase by his sin (the "wages" of unrighteousness) of betraying the innocent blood of Jesus. In other, more accurate words based on detailed and careful study, both Matthew and Luke tell us exactly how Judas died.

Answer 2

The account of the death of Judas in Matthew 27:3-10 is scarcely reconcilable with that in Acts 1:18-19. This is because the accounts were written by two different authors independently of each other. In other words, neither Matthew nor Luke really knew how Judas Iscariot died.

The author of Matthew's Gospel was a master at using the Old Testament. In 27:5 says that Judas threw down the silver in the Temple and went and hanged himself. The priests took the blood money and bought the potter's field, which they called the field of blood. Matthew knew the story in Zechariah chapter 11, of the potter's field bought with thirty pieces of silver. He cleverly added an allusion to 2 Sam 15:12-17:23, wherein Ahithophel hanged himself after his betrayal of King David was discovered.

Acts 1:18 says that Judas bought a field with the reward of iniquity, and fell headlong, bursting asunder and all his bowels gushed out. Because of this, the field was called the field of blood. Luke liked to use this kind of imagery for the deaths of anti-heroes, also for example Herod Antipas.

But some biblical literalists try hard to prove that there is no contradiction in the Bible. One argument seems to rely on the body becoming heavier due to decomposition, in contravention of the law of nature, that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. The most popular version says that Judas selected a branch barely strong enough to support his own weight, so that the extra so-called deadweight soon snaps the branch, while another version vaguely relies on the body somehow falling to pieces under the increased weight as it decomposes. By focussing on the gruesome, biblical literalists then ignore the fact that the manner of Judas' death was far from the only difference between the two accounts. Did the priests buy the land, or did Judas? The simple explanation, that requires none of the unscientific and non-medical assumptions of biblical literalists, is that the author of Acts did not know what Matthew had already written some decades earlier, and felt that something needed to be written about the death of Judas.