Judas’ Demise: A Contradiction?

Mt 27: 3-8 Now when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders, 27:4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!” 27:5 So Judas threw the silver coins into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. 27:6 The chief priests took the silver and said, “It is not lawful to put this into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” 27:7 After consulting together they bought the Potter’s Field with it, as a burial place for foreigners. 27:8 For this reason that field has been called the “Field of Blood” to this day. (NET)

Acts 1:18 Now this man Judas acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, and falling headfirst he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. (NET)

This is a favorite “contradiction” appealed to by skeptics to demonstrate the unreliability of the Bible. But are these two passages really contradicting one another? After all, it’s not as though Matthew tells us Judas hanged himself, and Luke says he didn’t hang himself. In fact, Luke doesn’t even tell us how he died. He only tells us that he fell headfirst and his guts gushed out. Clearly this cannot be referring to the mode of his death because falling down, in and of itself, cannot cause someone’s belly to burst open and expose his intestines! Falling from a distance, however, could. If Judas was hanged as Matthew tells us, it would provide the fall-distance necessary to explain the phenomenon Luke records for us. Indeed, if Judas hanged himself and his body was left on the tree rather than being removed, his body would have begun to decay, and his belly would have swollen. Once he was caused to fall (for whatever reason: the rope giving way, his head slipping out of the noose, etc.), his belly would have easily burst open and his guts gushed out. Matthew’s account and Luke’s account are harmonious, not contradictory.

Nico Says:

November 29, 2010 at 11:43 pm

This is probably just for interest – perhaps it could help you refine your argument.

I used to be an army medic in the early 90’s and had to deal with a couple of parachute accidents – even two that involved terminal velocity impact. In fact, the only time I saw a human “burst” open was during these terminal velocity impacts. I would therefor propose that Judas may have fallen from a rather great height… Keep in mind it takes about 23 seconds for an average person in free fall to reach terminal velocity.

It’s possible that a human body could burst open on impact at much lower than terminal velocity. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any useful information on this yet. Perhaps some one else can shed some light?

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jasondulle Says:

November 30, 2010 at 11:26 am

Thanks for chiming in with that, Nico. You are right, it would have to be a fall from heights. One might take your observations about terminal velocity to argue that Judas’ body could not have burst open because it would not have reached terminal velocity, but it should be pointed out that your observation is about a healthy, living human body, not a dead, decayed human body. If Judas had been hanging for some time, resulting in a decaying of his body and a swollen stomach, a lower velocity could probably produce the same effect.

Jason

November 30, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Agreed – The important fact is that we do not see any contradiction!

Arthur Says:

December 1, 2010 at 5:36 pm

Jason,

These kinds of reconciliations do great damage to our conception of God. It’s like the claim that God intentionally filled the earth with fossils as a trick to test our faith. What kind of a God does that?

It reminds me of Jesus’ last words on the cross. We have three versions, so some claim that he made all three statements, which would be nonsensical. Another example is where one accounts says three angels, another says two, and another mentions five women but no angels, then perhaps there were five angels and five women but each author only focused on different things? Perhaps there were seven angels and three fire breathing dragons but the author didn’t see any point in mentioning the dragons or the remaining angels?

With Judas, it certainly seems to be a contradiction. If you need Judas to be hanging himself with a bungie cord from a mountaintop and “telescoping” in order to reconcile the verses, it’s a contradiction.

Arthur

December 1, 2010 at 5:51 pm

Harmonization is a normal part of historical method, so there is nothing wrong in principle with attempting to harmonize historical accounts. The problem is when the harmonizations are far-fetched and ad hoc. I don’t think such is the case at all in the instance of Judas’ death. As I noted, the two passages do not explicitly contradict one another, and when you consider the details of both, they are consistent even if one records details the other does not.

I won’t get into Jesus’ last words and the number of angels/women, but these are basic, easy harmonizations that only a modern reader who fails to grasp the nature of historical reporting and ancient writing would quibble over. While there are some statements in Scripture that do seem to contradict and do not have very good non-ad hoc explanations, these are definitely not it. They are easily explained. Indeed, one can find the same kind of “contradictions” in news reports in the modern era.

Thinking to Believe