After reading Matthew, Mark, and now Luke, we are pretty familiar with the man who betrayed Jesus for silver. His name was Judas Iscariot. He was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, and he is most infamous for the kiss of betrayal that directly led to Jesus’ arrest by the police force of the Sanhedrin. I noticed while reading Luke, however, that there was no further information concerning Judas after Jesus was arrested (as there was in Matthew). Judas is a very interesting character to me. So, I wondered, what happened to this rogue disciple after he betrayed Jesus?
I will start with the explanation of Judas’ departure that we first encounter in Matthew.
Matthew 27:5
“Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
This explanation is probably the most widely accepted out of the ones I found. Matthew describes Judas Iscariot as becoming so overwhelmed with remorse for what he had done to Jesus that he gave back his reward of 30 pieces of silver and hanged himself shortly after. There is, however, what seems like a contradiction to this story in Acts.
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.”
This biblical explanation in Acts seems to be a completely different ending for Judas Iscariot than what we read in Matthew. The story went from Judas, giving back his money and taking his own life, to Judas buying land with his 30 pieces of silver but then dying by falling face-first and his guts falling out. This field is still known today as the Field of Blood from Judas’ death. It does seem a little confusing that there are two different accounts of Judas’ final days in the gospels.
Now, the third theory is compilation by scholars that puts those two contradictions into one explanation of Judas’ death. Some scholars are keen to believe that the accounts in Matthew and Acts are just two descriptions by two authors that perceived the same event of Judas’ death differently. They aren’t saying that Judas either died by hanging or that he died by disembowelment. They are actually saying that he indeed died by hanging himself (Matthew), but then (as morbid as it is) his body hung for several days in the tree causing his body to swell in the heat. When the branch finally fell, these scholars conclude that his abdomen could have easily burst which would explain the description of Judas’ death found in Acts where his “entrails gushed out”.
The next theory of Judas switches gears entirely. In the Gospel of Judas, Judas Iscariot is not necessarily the traitor that he is considered to be by most today. In this version of the story, Judas turns Jesus over to the authorities for execution upon Jesus’ request, as part of a plan to release his spirit from his body. In this account, Judas was faithfully obeying the wishes of his master, Jesus. Therefore, he was innocent of betrayal because Jesus asked him to be turned over to authorities. This could possibly mean that Judas never received any pieces of silver. This, in turn, would mean that he never bought any farm land (as in Acts), nor did he feel remorse (as in Matthew) because he was only following Jesus’ command. So, in theory, he wouldn’t have been in on his newly purchased farmland where he fell and his abdomen burst, but he also wouldn’t have committed suicide. As far as this theory of Judas goes, he could have lived out the remainder of his days in peace. I could not find any definitive future for Judas in this account, though, so this is simply speculation on my part.
Lastly, there is a theory by Piapas, a bishop of Hierapolis and a disciple of John.
(WARNING: The following account by Piapas is extremely grotesque and could be disturbing to some readers!!)
Judas did not die by hanging[45] but lived on, having been cut down before he choked to death. Indeed, the Acts of the Apostles makes this clear: Falling headlong he burst open in the middle and his intestines spilled out.[46] Papias, the disciple of John, recounts this more clearly in the fourth book of the Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord, as follows:
“Judas was a terrible, walking example of ungodliness in this world, his flesh so bloated that he was not able to pass through a place where a wagon passes easily, not even his bloated head by itself. For his eyelids, they say, were so swollen that he could not see the light at all, and his eyes could not be seen, even by a doctor using an optical instrument, so far had they sunk below the outer surface. His genitals appeared more loathsome and larger than anyone else’s, and when he relieved himself there passed through it infection and worms from every part of his body, much to his shame. After much agony and punishment, they say, he finally died in his own place, and because of the stench the area is deserted and uninhabitable even now; in fact, to this day one cannot pass that place without holding one’s nose, so great was the discharge from his body, and so far did it spread over the ground.”
This overly gruesome, detailed account of Judas’ last days is different than that of Matthew, Acts, and the Gospel of Judas. Piapas’ story of Judas explains that he was cut down from the tree before he could die from hanging himself. Then, he suffered until his last day from some terrible disease that caused his entire body to swell and become infected.
I was very surprised at all the theories of Judas’ life/death after his betrayal of Jesus. This is one of the most intriguing subjects I’ve ever looked into. It’s pretty difficult to take a stance on just one of these notions of Judas’ future after Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. If I had to pick the explanation I like the most, I would pick the blended theory of Matthew and Acts. It takes into consideration that the authors probably described the same event, but portrayed it differently in their writing.
winteriscoming 