The Passion 5

Judas’ Death

            Judas took 30 pieces of silver as payment for betraying an innocent man. The leading religious leaders felt no guilt giving the money to Judas; however, in the gospel of Matthew 27:3-10, those same leaders refused to accept those same 30 coins back when Judas realized they were going to KILL Jesus. His admission of sinning was blown off by the leaders saying, essentially that his sin was his problem, and they disassociated themselves from the entire situation. 

            Judas’ severe guilt wouldn’t allow him to keep the coins, so he went back to give the coins back to the religious leaders. When they refused to take them back Judas threw them on the floor of the Temple. Once he left the religious leaders revealed their hypocrisy by stating the following (vv.6-8), “The leading priests picked up the coins. ‘It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,’ they said, ‘since it was payment for murder.’ * After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. That is why the field is still called the ‘Field of Blood’”.

            This whole incident is prophesied in Zechariah 11:12-13, where it says, “I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, do not.’ So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my wages. Then the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter [as if to the dogs]—that magnificent sum at which I am valued by them!’ So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.” **

The other three gospel accounts do not mention Judas after his betrayal; however, Luke, the author of the book of Acts, writes the following in Acts 1:18: “Now Judas Iscariot indirectly acquired a piece of land with the money paid him as a reward for his treachery, and falling headlong, his body burst open in the middle and all his intestines poured out.” This appears to be in direct contrast to what Matthew has to say regarding this event. Scholars reason that, “the apparent discrepancy is that the rope or line that Judas was using broke, and the body fell in such a way as to be disemboweled.”  Frankly, it can’t be proven either way. This is the type of discrepancy that a non-believer would use to discredit the validity and infallibility of scripture. The event had no witnesses so we don’t know exactly what happened, but we know Judas died for surely someone must have found his dead body. I suppose the only way to harmonize Matthew’s account with the verses in Acts is to assume that Judas hung himself and the rope snapped causing him to fall to the ground.  The next installment of The Passion will go on a tangent as we see an experts reasoning of why the account in Matthew is in no way a contradiction to the verses in Acts. Until then, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

RL Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

*In Greek v. 6 reads “since it is the price for blood.”      

** Zechariah 11:12 - Since the type of coin is not stated, shekels can be assumed. The shekel was the standard wage for a day of labor, and the payment was weighed because the shekel was actually a unit of weight.

Zechariah 11:13 - At this point the pre-incarnate Christ intervenes and prophetically refers to the payment given by the religious leaders to Judas for his betrayal (Matt 26:15).