Editing Judas Iscariot (section)

===Death===
[[File:Judas Iscariot from Tarzhishte Monastery.jpg|thumb|16th-century fresco from Tarzhishte Monastery, Strupets, Bulgaria, showing Judas hanging himself as described in {{bibleverse||Matthew|27:1–10|9}}]]

Many different accounts of Judas's death have survived from antiquity, both within and outside the New Testament.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|pages=28–29}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|pages=16–17}} {{bibleverse||Matthew|27:1–10|9}} states that after learning that Jesus [[crucifixion of Jesus|was to be crucified]], Judas was overcome by remorse and attempted to return the 30 pieces of silver to the priests, but they would not accept them because they were blood money, so he threw them on the ground and left. Afterwards, he committed suicide by hanging himself{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}} in accordance with Mosaic law ({{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|21:22–23}}<ref name="Smith2016">{{cite book |first=Barry D. |last=Smith |title=The Meaning of Jesus' Death: Reviewing the New Testament's Interpretations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ww8eDQAAQBAJ |publisher=[[T&T Clark]] |year=2010 |isbn=978-0567670694 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ww8eDQAAQBAJ 93]}}</ref>). The priests then used the money to buy a [[potter's field]], which became known as [[Akeldama]] (חקל דמא – ''khakel dama'') – the Field of Blood – because it had been bought with blood money.{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}} {{bibleverse||Acts|1:18|9}} states that Judas used the money to buy a field,{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}}<ref name="Ehrman2008">{{cite book |first=Bart D. |last=Ehrman |title=The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed |url=https://archive.org/details/lostgospelofjuda00ehrm |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxfordshire, England |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-19-534351-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lostgospelofjuda00ehrm/page/147 147]}}</ref> and "[fell] headlong... burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out."{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}} In this account, Judas's death is apparently by accident,{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}} and he shows no signs of remorse.{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=16}}

The early [[Church Fathers|Church Father]] [[Papias of Hierapolis]] records in his ''Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord'' (which was probably written around 100 AD) that Judas was afflicted by God's wrath;{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} his body became so enormously bloated that he could not pass through a street with buildings on either side.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} His face became so swollen that a doctor could not even identify the location of his eyes using an optical instrument.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}} Judas's genitals became enormously swollen and oozed with [[pus]] and worms.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}} Finally, he killed himself on his own land by pouring out his innards onto the ground,{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} which stank so horribly that, even in Papias's own time a century later, people still could not pass the site without holding their noses.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} This story was well known among Christians in antiquity{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} and was often told in competition with the two conflicting stories from the New Testament.{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}}

According to the apocryphal [[Gospel of Nicodemus]], which was probably written in the fourth century AD, Judas was overcome with remorse{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=28}} and went home to tell his wife, who was roasting a chicken on a spit over a charcoal fire, that he was going to kill himself, because he knew Jesus would rise from the dead and, when he did, he would punish him.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=28}} Judas's wife laughed and told him that Jesus could no more rise from the dead than he could resurrect the chicken she was cooking.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|pages=28–29}} Immediately, the chicken was restored to life and began to crow.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}} Judas then ran away and hanged himself.{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=29}} In the apocryphal [[Gospel of Judas]], Judas has a vision of the disciples stoning and persecuting him.<ref>[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf Gospel of Judas 44–45] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110911005041/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf |date=11 September 2011}}</ref>

The discrepancy between the two different accounts of Judas's death in {{bibleverse||Matthew|27:1–10|9}} and {{bibleverse||Acts|1:18|9}} has proven to be a serious challenge to those who support the idea of [[Biblical inerrancy]].{{sfn|Ehrman|2016|page=28}}{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} This problem was one of the points leading [[C. S. Lewis]], for example, to reject the view "that every statement in Scripture must be historical truth".<ref>Letter to Clyde S. Kilby, 7 May 1959, quoted in Michael J. Christensen, ''C. S. Lewis on Scripture'', Abingdon, 1979, Appendix A.</ref> Nonetheless, various attempts at [[Gospel harmony|harmonization]] have been suggested.{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} Generally they have followed literal interpretations such as that of [[Augustine of Hippo]], which suggest that these simply describe different aspects of the same event—that Judas hanged himself in the field, and the rope eventually snapped and the fall burst his body open,<ref name="Arie W. Zwiep page 109">{{harvnb|Zwiep|2004|page=109}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christnotes.org/dictionary.php?dict=ebd&q=Judas |title=Easton's Bible Dictionary: Judas |publisher=christnotes.org |access-date=2007-06-26 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001538/http://www.christnotes.org/dictionary.php?dict=ebd&q=Judas |archive-date=2007-09-27}}</ref> or that the accounts of Acts and Matthew refer to two different transactions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.levendwater.org/companion/append161.html |title=The purchase of "the potter's field," Appendix 161 of the Companion Bible |access-date=2008-02-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429193049/http://www.levendwater.org/companion/append161.html |archive-date=2008-04-29}}</ref> Some have taken the descriptions as figurative: that the "falling prostrate" was Judas in anguish,{{efn|''The Monthly Christian Spectator'' 1851–1859 p. 459 "while some writers regard the account of Judas's death as simply figurative ..seized with preternatural anguish for his crime and its consequences his bowels gushed out."}} and the "bursting out of the bowels" is pouring out emotion.{{efn|Clarence Jordan ''The Substance of Faith: and Other Cotton Patch Sermons'' p. 148 "Greeks thought of the bowels as being the seat of the emotions, the home of the soul. It's like saying that all of Judas's motions burst out, burst asunder."}}

Modern scholars reject these approaches.<ref>Raymond E. Brown, ''An Introduction to the New Testament'', p. 114.</ref><ref>Charles Talbert, ''Reading Acts: A Literary and Theological Commentary'', Smyth & Helwys (2005) p. 15.</ref><ref>Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary, Eerdmans (2004), p. 703.</ref> Arie W. Zwiep states "neither story was meant to be read in light of the other"{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} and "the integrity of both stories as complete narratives in themselves is seriously disrespected when the two separate stories are being conflated into a third, harmonized version."{{sfn|Zwiep|2004|page=17}} David A. Reed argues that the Matthew account is a [[midrash]]ic exposition that allows the author to present the event as a fulfillment of prophetic passages from the Old Testament. They argue that the author adds imaginative details such as the thirty pieces of silver, and the fact that Judas hangs himself, to an earlier tradition about Judas's death.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://academic.shu.edu/btb/vol35/06Reed.pdf |title='Saving Judas': A Social Scientific Approach to Judas' Suicide in Matthew 27:3–10 |author=Reed, David A. |journal=Biblical Theology Bulletin |volume=35 |issue=2 |pages=51–59 |year=2005 |access-date=2007-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629151614/http://academic.shu.edu/btb/vol35/06Reed.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=2007-06-29 |doi=10.1177/01461079050350020301 |s2cid=144391749}}</ref>

Matthew's description of the death as fulfilment of a prophecy "spoken through Jeremiah the prophet" has caused difficulties, since it does not clearly correspond to any known version of the [[Book of Jeremiah]] but does appear to refer to a story from the [[Book of Zechariah]]<ref>{{Bibleref2|Zechariah|11:12–13|NASB|Zechariah 11:12–13}}</ref> which describes the return of a payment of thirty pieces of silver.<ref>Vincent P. Branick, ''Understanding the New Testament and Its Message'', (Paulist Press, 1998), pp. 126–28.</ref> Even writers such as [[Jerome]] and [[John Calvin]] conclude that this was obviously an error.{{efn|Frederick Dale Bruner, ''Matthew: A Commentary'' (Eerdmans, 2004), p. 710; Jerome, ''Epistolae'' 57.7: "This passage is not found in Jeremiah but in Zechariah, in quite different words and a different order" {{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LVII.html |title=NPNF2-06. Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |access-date=2008-09-05 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081008040849/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.LVII.html |archive-date=2008-10-08}}; John Calvin, ''Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke'', 3:177: "The passage itself plainly shows that the name of Jeremiah has been put down by mistake, instead of Zechariah, for in Jeremiah we find nothing of this sort, nor any thing that even approaches to it." {{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom33.ii.xxxvi.html |title=Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke – Volume 3 – Christian Classics Ethereal Library |access-date=2010-03-15 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091125155331/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom33.ii.xxxvi.html |archive-date=2009-11-25}}.}} Evangelical theologian James R. White has suggested the misattribution arises from a supposed Jewish practice of using the name of a [[major prophet]] to refer to the whole content of the scroll group, including books written by minor prophets placed in the same grouping.<ref>James R. White, ''The King James Only Controversy'', Bethany House Publishers (2009) pp. 213–15, 316.</ref>

Some scholars have suggested that the writer may also have had a passage from Jeremiah in mind,<ref>Donald Senior, ''The Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew'' (Liturgical Press, 1985), pp. 107–08; Anthony Cane, ''The Place of Judas Iscariot in Christology'' (Ashgate Publishing, 2005), p. 50.</ref> such as chapters {{bibleref2|Jeremiah|18:1–4|NASB|18:1–4}} and {{bibleref2|Jeremiah|19:1–13|NASB|19:1–13}} which refer to a potter's jar and a burial place, and chapter {{bibleref2|Jeremiah|32:6–15|NASB|32:6–15}} which refers to a burial place and an earthenware jar.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Maarten JJ |last=Menken |url=http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl83/Comm10.html |title=The Old Testament Quotation in Matthew 27,9–10' |journal=[[Biblica (journal)|Biblica]] |issue=83 |date=2002 |pages=9–10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220115126/http://www.bsw.org/project/biblica/bibl83/Comm10.html |archive-date=20 December 2008}}</ref> [[Raymond E. Brown|Raymond Brown]] suggests "the most plausible [explanation] is that Matthew 27:9–10 is presenting a mixed citation with words taken both from Zechariah and Jeremiah, and ... he refers to that combination by one name. Jeremiah 18–9 concerns a potter (18:2–; 19:1), a purchase (19:1), the Valley of Hinnom (where the Field of Blood is traditionally located, 19:2), 'innocent blood' (19:4), and the renaming of a place for burial (19:6, 11); and Jer 32:6–5 tells of the purchase of a field with silver."<ref name="Brown, The Death of the Messiah">{{cite book |first=Raymond |last=Brown |title=The Death of the Messiah, From Gethsemane to the Grave, Volume 1: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |location=New Haven, Connecticut |year=1998 |isbn=978-0300140095 |page=912}}</ref>

Classicist [[Glenn W. Most]] suggests that Judas's death in Acts can be interpreted figuratively, writing that πρηνὴς γενόμενος should be translated as saying his body went prone, rather than falling headlong, and the spilling of the entrails is meant to invoke the imagery of dead snakes and their burst-open bellies. Hence Luke was stating that Judas took the body posture of a snake and died like one.<ref>{{cite book |author=Most, Glenn W. |year=2008 |contribution=The Judas of the Gospels and the ''Gospel of Judas'' |editor=Scopello, Madeleine |editor-link=Madeleine Scopello |title=The Gospel of Judas in Context: Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas |publisher=Brill |pages=75–77 |isbn=978-9004167216}}</ref> However, the Catholic biblical scholar [[John L. McKenzie]] states "This passage probably echoes the fate of the wicked in..." the [[Deuterocanonical books|Deuterocanonical book]] ''Wisdom of Solomon'' 4:19:<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKenzie |first1=John |title=Dictionary of the Bible |date=1966 |publisher=Macmillan Publishing Co. |page=463}}</ref>  "... [the Lord] will dash them speechless to the ground, and shake them from the foundations; they will be left utterly dry and barren, and they will suffer anguish, and the memory of them will perish."<ref>{{cite book |title=The Apochrypha of the Old Testament |date=1977 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=106}}</ref>