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Contradictions
Surrounding Judas’ Death
How Did Judas Die?
by Dr. Georgia
Purdom
Did Judas Iscariot die by hanging (Matthew 27:5) or did he die by falling and bursting open (Acts 1:18)?
THERE IS NO CONTRADICTION SURROUNDING
JUDAS’ DEATH BUT RATHER TWO DESCRIPTIONS GIVEN BY TWO DIFFERENT AUTHORS OF THE
SAME EVENT.
The relevant passages are:
Matthew 27:5
”Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
”Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
Acts 1:18
“Now this man purchased a
field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong he burst open in the
middle and all his entrails gushed out.”
Some people have wrongly assumed that Matthew and Luke
(the author of Acts) are contradictory in their account of Judas’ death.
Since the Bible is inerrant Judas
cannot have died by hanging and died by falling and bursting open.
Rather they are two different
viewpoints of the same event.
For example, if I saw a car hit a
pedestrian, I might simply say that the pedestrian died because he was hit by
the car.
The coroner who came on the scene
later but did not actually see the accident might give a graphic description of
the injuries to the pedestrian.
Both the coroner and I are describing
the same event just different aspects of it.
Matthew tells us that Judas died by
hanging (death is inferred from the passage).
Luke, being a doctor, gives us a graphic
description of what occurred following the hanging.
The reason for ordering the events as
such is twofold.
First, if someone has fallen and
their internal organs spilled out, they would die and so could not subsequently
die from hanging.
Second, even when people suffer bad
falls, they do not usually burst open and have their internal organs spill out.
Skin is very tough, and even when it
is cut in the abdominal area, internals do not usually spill out. Thus, it is
unlikely that Judas could die in this manner merely from falling.
Gruesome as it is, Judas’ dead body hung in the hot sun of
Jerusalem, and the bacteria inside his body would have been actively breaking
down tissues and cells.
A byproduct of bacterial metabolism
is often gas. The pressure created by the gas forces fluid out of the cells and
tissues and into the body cavities.
The body becomes bloated as a result.
In addition, tissue decomposition
occurs compromising the integrity of the skin.
Judas’ body was similar to an
overinflated balloon: as he hit the ground (due to the branch he hung on or the
rope itself breaking), the skin easily broke, and he burst open with his
internal organs spilling out.
There is no contradiction surrounding Judas’ death but
rather two descriptions given by two different authors of the same event.
Dr. Georgia Purdom
Molecular
Geneticist, Speaker, Author, Researcher
Dr. Georgia Purdom holds a PhD in molecular genetics from The Ohio State University. She
formerly served as an assistant and associate professor of biology at Mt.
Vernon Nazarene University. Dr. Purdom is the director of Educational Content
and actively speaks and writes for Answers in Genesis.
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