Posted by blue on July 15, 1998 at 02:09:21:
In Reply to: minor question posted by David Stephens on July 15, 1998 at 01:01:00:
: Blue, as long as you're back on the "bible is inerrant" trip again, I'm curious as to the apologist explaination of how Judas died... what's the the story on that one?
Yes, I'm always on the "Bible is inerrant trip."
You are referring to the accounts in Matthew 27 and Acts 1.
The salient facts are these:
From Matthew:
Judas cast the money in the temple, left, and hanged himself. You run into problems if you assume the action of hanging took place immediately after the casting of the money. Note that the scripture does not give any reference to time of the hanging.
The chief priests bought the potter's field with Judas' money.
From Acts:
Judas bought the field. The details in Matthew show he bought the field indirectly, but as it was his money that bought the field, to simply say "Judas bought a field" is not a stretch, merely an abbreviation.
But how did he die? The most likely answer is that he hanged himself and that, in due time, the body fell or was cut down and, having decayed, it burst asunder.
Conversely, the word "apancho" that we translate as "hanged" in Mattew may also mean "impaled." It was common to "hang" somebody by impaling them on a stake as opposed to hanging them by the neck. The word appears no where else in scripture, so we can't derive the meaning from context.
If Thor is reading this, I would have to concede that the passage is subject to interpretation. But either method of death would fit the text without contradiction.
Clearly Judas died in a field bought with his money and his body burst asunder at some point.