Previously I have dealt with some alleged Bible contradiction concerning Judas’ last moments before his death. You might want to check out What did Judas do with the silver? and Who bought the potter’s field?
For today’s post we will tackle the question the Skeptic Annotated Bible asked: How did Judas die?
Here are the two answers which the skeptic believes shows a Bible contradiction:
He hanged himself.
“And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.” (Matthew 27:5)
He fell down and died.
“(Now this man acquired a field with the price of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.” (Acts 1:18)
(All Scriptural quotation comes from the New American Standard Bible)
Here’s a closer look at whether or not there is a contradiction:
- When dealing with skeptics’ claim of Bible contradictions it seems one can never be reminded enough of what exactly is a contradiction. A contradiction occurs when two or more claims conflict with one another so that they cannot simultaneously be true in the same sense and at the same time. To put it another way, a Bible contradiction exists when there are claims within the Bible that are mutually exclusive in the same sense and at the same time.
- It is important to know the context of both Acts 1:18 and Matthew 27:5.
- Acts 1:18 in the context of the chapter describes events after the resurrection and ascension of Christ but here in the immediate context the narrator looks back and recall what happen to Judas and why the early church had to appoint a new apostle in his place.
- Matthew 27:5 in the context of the chapter describes Judas’ regret of betraying Jesus. In the narrative Jesus has yet to be crucified. Judas’ regret led him to go to the priests and try to return the money to the priests.
- Attention to details matter. The skeptics’ question again is “How did Judas die?” But notice Matthew 27:5 did not mentioned the word “die” or “dying.” So while Matthew 27:5 mentioned Judas went to hang himself it did not say Judas died by hanging himself. Also it does not say Judas died “only” by hanging himself which is a logical prerequisite for there to be a contradiction that exclude other details in other passages. This opens up the logical possibility that while Judas hanged himself something else might have happened that resulted in his death.
- Similar to point 3 the verse Acts 1:18 does not mentioned the word “dead” or “dying” nor does it state that Judas could have “only” died by the details given in the verse. Again Acts 1:19 opens up the possibility that Judas could have fell and yet died beforehand.
- I’m more inclined to believe that the actual means of death that Judas faced is described in Acts 1:18. Our passage in Acts 1:18 mentioned that Judas fell “headlong” and as a result “he burst open in the middle and all his intestines.” This extra gory details seems to have caused Judas greater physical harm than just hanging.
- Even if one takes Matthew 27:5 instead as the actual description of Judas’ death by hanging I believe this is a permissible interpretation. Don’t forget point 3 and 4 allows room for there not to be a contradiction whichever means of Judas’ death one take.
- It also does not seem likely Acts 1:18 and Matthew 27:5 would be a Bible contradiction since these two verses could be harmonized and require each other to make sense. Acts 1:18 described a very graphic fall of Judas’ body. But this presupposes Judas was elevated high up enough to have such an impact when his body landed on the ground. Matthew 27:5 telling us that Judas hanged himself helps makes sense why Judas’ body could have had such intense trauma beyond a regular fall from your typical standing height.
- A history lesson can be helpful here of making the point that there is not a contradiction here and how the details in both passages does not undermine the historicity of the account of Judas’ death. In British history there was an English Catholic insurrectionists name Guy Fawkes who plotted to blow up the Parliament. The plot folded and Fawkes along with his conspirators were sentenced to death. You can read about his gruesome execution here. I bring up Guy Fawkes because his execution and details of his death parallel Judas’ death. Remember dying is a process and while certain means might be used to begin one’s process of dying that doesn’t mean there can be a sufficient cause for death later on. During Guy Fawkes’ era traitors were executed using three torturous means that became three consecutive steps for executions. We might ask the question if Fawkes body was cut into quarters just as he was sentenced (the final step). The answer was yes. But was being cut up the final means of Guy Fawkes’ death? No, apparently before he was hanged he fell to his gruesome death. The article I referenced described it as follows: ” Fawkes began to climb the ladder to be hanged until almost dead. His wits still about him, he jumped. Crack went his neck as he fell to his death and avoided the agony of the latter part of his execution. His lifeless body was cut into quarters and the body parts distributed to “the four corners of the kingdom” for public display as a deterrent” Note how Fawkes is supposed to be hanged, cut into pieces and yet fell to his death. Similarly we see the parallel with Judas in that he was supposed to be hanged as his means of death yet he fell to his death instead. The historical instances of Guy Fawkes should make us realize that history can be more stranger than we imagine, and that we shouldn’t be so ready to dismiss something as a “contradiction” from the details of history that we get.
There’s no contradiction here.
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging.
Thanks for the reblog!
Yankee Whiskey Bravo
Thanks for the thorough analysis including the Guy Fawkes incident. I must admit I was a little troubled by the apparent disagreement between the two Biblical accounts regarding Judas’ death. But as you point out, there is a satisfactory explanation. I imagined that for lack of any tall trees in the area surrounding Jerusalem, Judas chose a modest tree on a steep cliff so that his legs could freely dangle. When the rope snapped, he perished on the jagged rocks below – the same possible scenario that you surmise.
“I must admit I was a little troubled by the apparent disagreement between the two Biblical accounts regarding Judas’ death”
Response: I have been putting off looking this alleged Bible contradiction even though I have heard people called it a Bible contradiction for so long; maybe the reason why I didn’t look into it was because I assume many other people have responded to this alleged contradiction since it is mentioned so much. But looking at this more closely I feel there’s not as much of a difficulty than I first anticipated. And the example of Guy Fawkes makes it less of a problem for me in terms of overall of how Judas died. Of course when I am bringing up Guy Fawkes I’m not for his theology or terrorism….hope no Evangelical author would write a children’s book condoning him, you know what I mean?
I can imagine Left leaning evangellyfish adore Guy Fawkes
RE: Guy Fawkes
A sad LOL! Right, since we have evangelical leaders calling the co-founder of the Jesuits a “hero of the faith” I guess the next step is to proclaim Guy Fawkes a martyr of the faith! Argh, what a mixed up mess!
Nice post, Jim! I has me thinking about lessons in Church tradition. I must admit that my mother brought me up with a lot of Bible teaching and she always taught that Judas hanged himself, the rope snapped, and he fell to his gory destination. As a result, to me the different Scriptures never contradicted each other. On the other hand, I can see how someone who hadn’t had a Scriptural upbringing could find these different accounts disturbing. Although I don’t hang my every hope on Church tradition, a lot of these traditions have come down from the early Church leaders who were only a generation or two away from the actual witnesses of Christ’s Ministry. I wonder if this is an example of one such tradition which has been forgotten in the mainstream, and we’re having to research to discover it all over again. Just a thought.
That would be good to see what church history has to say, there were some alleged Bible contradictions where I did consider what does the Patristics have to say but I didn’t look it up for this specific problem. Good point though and also thank you for reblogging this post!
🙂
Reblogged this on RG's 2 Cents Studios.
Thank you for the great work you haved done on the death of Judas !
Blessings !
You’re welcome Crissy, I hope you have a blessed Saturday afternoon (I believe it is afternoon in Australia)!
Yes Saturday afternoon !😊 Time to rest in front of heater and read excellent posts from my brothers and sisters in Christ!
Take care
Amen-Amein!! ❤
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Brilliant!
Thanks Lee, also thank you for the reblog!
Reblogged this on Lee Duigon.
Well one thing we know, there are no contradictions in scripture; loose reading yes, sloppy understanding yes,but the text stands secure, waiting to be rightly divided.
Amen
Good and well thought out. Did you mistakenly enter Jesus name for Judas about 2/3 the way through item 7? Wife and I are attending free online college for ministry and this is a great example of how to discuss this item. Will link to it from our online station so others can read. Keep up the good work. Found it through Lee Duigons blog by the way – Thanks Lee!
Wow thank you for catching that, I’m going to change that right now. Thank you!
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Well done. A good explanation. I see skeptics say this is a contradiction all the time. They need to read this
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This are many good observations you made. I hear atheists bring this one up often so its good you wrote this article.
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Why does the skeptic like bringing this up? Its not even a contradiction
I just witnessed the skeptics’ argument died, just reading this response!
Why would the atheist always bring this one up?
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