And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Matthew 27:5
Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
Acts 1:18
The following is my interpretation of the events that led to the death of Judas Iscariot, as recorded in the Scriptures. It is a supposition based on the facts given. It very well could have happened the way I describe it, it may not have. I am not being dogmatic about it, I am just responding to those who use this question as a means of disparaging the Bible. By Bible I mean the AV 1611, or KJV, in this case probably any and all bibles are meant to be disparaged.
John 13:26-27 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
Judas, being an unrepentant thief and evildoer, was chosen by God to fulfill the prophecies concerning the betrayer of Christ. At the time to do the deed, as the Scriptures say, Satan entered into him to guarantee his plan. This was necessary, as we shall see later.
Judas goes to the Priest and makes his deal and goes out and betrays Jesus. This having been accomplished and Satan having no more need of Judas, departs from him. Satan’s motto: use’m, abuse’m, lose’m.
At this point, human nature and conscience take over, and Judas realizes what he has done, and guilt sets in, and he repents of his actions.
Matthew 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
Sometime between the betrayal of Jesus and the priest taking him to Pilate, Judas goes to the priest and tries to undo his deal. The priest being the fine fellows they were would not about to admit any guilt on their part would not offer Judas absolution nor take his money back.
So Judas knows he is condemned; the priest, I am sure, mentioned it to him. But unable to take him to trial without admitting their involvement, so they tell Judas to “What is that to us? See thou to that,” which is tantamount to saying go kill yourself.
In a state of despair and depression, Judas takes them up on it and goes out and hangs himself. This is shortly after he leaves the priest, who are taking Jesus to Pilate or thereabout. He is probably stepping off into eternity while the priest are lobbing their accusations and Pilate is examining Jesus.
Judas is hanging during the time Christ is being worked over and crucified, probably six to eight hours. He is getting ripe and bloating up with gases from the decomposition when something happens.
Matthew 27:54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
At the Lord’s death round about 1800, 6:00 PM for some, an earthquake happens. Judas’ limb breaks, tree falls, rope snaps, six of one, half a dozen of another, take your pick. His bloated body falls and burst open.
Now, unless you just want to belittle and disparage the Bible, there is nothing unreasonable about this scenario. Peter, in Acts as recorded by Luke, just assumes or knows that everyone being spoken to knows that Judas hung himself simply moves on to the end results. I do not know how else you could account for him “falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
I realize that many will not show any affection toward having any kind of logical answer to this question.
Back To: Verse Insights