Why are there 2 different stories about Judas?

[Galnextdoor]

In Matthew 27: 3-5, the bible states that Judas Iscariot took the thirty pieces of silver back to the temple and hung himself. In the Acts 1 : 16-20, it said he bought land with it. One bible says he hung himself and his guts splattered out another says he fell and his gut was split open.

Why is there this apparent discrepancy?

 

[Pons]

Matthew only says Judas hanged himself. Luke says he was disemboweled after a fall. But don’t you drop someone to hang them?

Ask an Apologist: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=65734

There are two possible ways to reconcile the verses:

Luke’s purpose in Acts may have been simply to report what Peter said at a point in time when the apostles’ information on Judas’s death may well have been sketchy. After some of the Temple priests converted (cf. Acts 6:7), they may have given further details on Judas’s death that were later incorporated into the Gospel accounts.

It is also possible that after Judas hanged himself the rope broke and he fell onto rocks that disemboweled him postmortem. Matthew’s emphasis then would have been Judas’s actions in taking his own life, while Peter’s emphasis was on what happened to him after his suicide.

 

[Pons]

About the issue of who bought the field, Luke doesn’t say Judas bought it by his own hands. His money was used to buy the land, and it wouldn’t have been bought without his actions.

 

[Ron_Conte]

It is also possible that after Judas hanged himself the rope broke and he fell onto rocks that disemboweled him postmortem. Matthew’s emphasis then would have been Judas’s actions in taking his own life, while Peter’s emphasis was on what happened to him after his suicide.

We don’t need to suppose that the rope broke.

Judas hanged himself at the beginning of Passover. If any Jew had taken his body down, he would have been ritually unclean and unable to celebrate the Passover. So his body hung there for the length of at least several days. The body began to decompose, give off gasses, lose its integrity, and then burst open. And so his internal organs poured out.

[Matthew]
{27:5} And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed. And going out, he hanged himself with a snare.
{27:6} But the leaders of the priests, having taken up the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple offerings, because it is the price of blood.”
{27:7} Then, having taken counsel, they bought the potter’s field with it, as a burying place for sojourners.
{27:8} For this reason, that field is called Haceldama, that is, ‘The Field of Blood,’ even to this very day.

[Acts]
{1:16} “Noble brothers, the Scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit predicted by the mouth of David about Judas, who was the leader of those who apprehended Jesus.
{1:17} He had been numbered among us, and he was chosen by lot for this ministry.
{1:18} And this man certainly possessed an estate from the wages of iniquity, and so, having been hanged, he burst open in the middle and all his internal organs poured out.
{1:19} And this became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that this field was called in their language, Akeldama, that is, ‘Field of Blood.’

 

[Ignatius]

[Matthew]
{27:5} And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed. And going out, he hanged himself with a snare.
{27:6} But the leaders of the priests, having taken up the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple offerings, because it is the price of blood.”
{27:7} Then, having taken counsel, they bought the potter’s field with it, as a burying place for sojourners.
{27:8} For this reason, that field is called Haceldama, that is, ‘The Field of Blood,’ even to this very day.

[Acts]
{1:16} “Noble brothers, the Scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit predicted by the mouth of David about Judas, who was the leader of those who apprehended Jesus.
{1:17} He had been numbered among us, and he was chosen by lot for this ministry.
{1:18} And this man certainly possessed an estate from the wages of iniquity, and so, having been hanged, he burst open in the middle and all his internal organs poured out.
{1:19} And this became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that this field was called in their language, Akeldama, that is, ‘Field of Blood.’

Ok, I’m not seeing the conflict. What am I missing?

 

[simspt]

In Matthew 27: 3-5, the bible states that Judas Iscariot took the thirty pieces of silver back to the temple and hung himself. In the Acts 1 : 16-20, it said he bought land with it. One bible says he hung himself and his guts splattered out another says he fell and his gut was split open.

Why is there this apparent discrepancy?

Rather than trying to harmonize these stories, maybe they (Evangelist who wrote Matt and Paul)received two different stories from preexisting oral traditions that were slightly different or maybe one story used the OT to support the writers theological insight that was reflected on after the resurrection. Wasnt the name of the apostle that replaced Judas also confused later on in different manuscripts. Maybe these other Apostles werent remembered as well as Peter, James, Mattew.) If the the Gospels werent written by eyewitness but were compiled by oral tradition it is possible there could be small variation. The problem is that some would argue a slippery slope with this type of explanation. Also different theories of inspiration and inerrancy can complicate things.

 

[grace_singh]

Rather than trying to harmonize these stories, maybe they (Evangelist who wrote Matt and Paul)received two different stories from preexisting oral traditions that were slightly different or maybe one story used the OT to support the writers theological insight that was reflected on after the resurrection. Wasnt the name of the apostle that replaced Judas also confused later on. Maybe these other Apostles werent remembered as well as Peter, James, Mattew.) If the the Gospels werent written by eyewitness but were compiled by oral tradition it is possible there could be small variation. The problem is that some would argue a slippery slope with this type of explanation. Also different theories of inspiration and inerrancy can complicate things.

there’s good textual and documented evidence that John was indeed written by John, and Luke by Luke, using the eye-witness accounts of Mary, female disciples, and male disciples, including Peter.

these Gospels would have been circulating fairly early in Christian history, with at least some of those eye-witnesses still alive. had there been such a discrepency, it would have been caught, if not by first-generation witnesses, by their disciples.

more likely is that Judas was indeed hanged, and that his intestines were later spilled from his body as his decomposed corpse rotted in the hot late-spring sun for days.