I'm pretty sure he hanged himself. At least, that's what I think. I'm no expert.

This is one of the classic contradictions of the Bible. Two different accounts of the how Judas died. Most Christians resolve this conflict by saying that Judas tried to hang himself with a rope that was too weak for the job. As a result, the rope broke and fell down the slope and had his bowels burst out. So, it is possible that Matthew and Luke were each trying to simplify the account of Judas' death in the interest of brevity and wound up telling different aspect of his suicide. Matthew told how Judas attempted to do it and Luke, being a physician, gave the actual cause of death. If you read a bit further in Matthew, you will see that it says that the priests used the same money to buy a field in which to bury strangers. Either way the money is used to buy land for a burial ground that was known as "The field of blood". So, once again, we have a case where one of the gospel writers may have just been simplifying the story by leaving out details that he did not think were necessary to his account.

. One of the 12 apostles, also called Thaddaeus and “Judas the son of James.” In the listings of the apostles in Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus are linked together. In the listings at Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13 Thaddaeus is not included; instead we find “Judas the son of James,” leading to the conclusion that Thaddaeus is another name for the apostle Judas. The possibility of confusing two apostles named Judas might be a reason why the name Thaddaeus is sometimes used. Some translators render Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13, “Judas the brother of James,” since the Greek does not give the exact relationship. But the Syriac Peshitta does supply the word “son.” Consequently, numerous modern translations read “Judas the son of James.” (RS, AT, NW, La) The only Biblical reference to Judas alone is at John 14:22. This verse refers to him as “Judas, not Iscariot,” thus providing a means of distinguishing which Judas spoke. In the King James Version at Matthew 10:3 “Lebbaeus, whose surname was” is inserted before “Thaddaeus.” This is based on the Received Text, but the Westcott and Hort text omits this, for it is not in manuscripts such as the Sinaitic.

We read the Bible through our Western glasses and we have to remember that the Bible is wrapped up in a culture. Our Western culture says "hanging = rope around the neck." The Middle Eastern culture is quite different. If someone were to be "hanged" or "hang themself" they would stand on something (i.e. rock, stool, etc.) and leap onto a sharpened steak or spear so the body was quite literally HANGING from the pole. That is why Luke says that Judas' guts were poured out on the field and thats why Matthew says Judas hanged himself. They are saying the same thing. We just don't understand that as readers because we fail to unwrap the culture that the Bible comes in. What we need to steer away from is the "Old West" or "Western" backdrop for Judas' suicide. Hope this helps! God bless!

We read the Bible through our Western glasses and we have to remember that the Bible is wrapped up in a culture. Our Western culture says "hanging = rope around the neck." The Middle Eastern culture is quite different. If someone were to be "hanged" or "hang themself" they would stand on something (i.e. rock, stool, etc.) and leap onto a sharpened steak or spear so the body was quite literally HANGING from the pole. That is why Luke says that Judas' guts were poured out on the field and thats why Matthew says Judas hanged himself. They are saying the same thing. We just don't understand that as readers because we fail to unwrap the culture that the Bible comes in. What we need to steer away from is the "Old West" or "Western" backdrop for Judas' suicide. Hope this helps! God bless!

Yes.

Acts 1:25 also indicates that Judas didn't literally fall to the ground, but fell from grace.

judas's gospel says that he was going to hang himself, as instructed by jesus before the last supper

Hello people.........wake up and smell the coffee! I'm stunned by the ignorance of supposedly educated people who still believe as actual fact, a book of fiction.......the bible.......written by no one knows who or by how many!!!!! Religions of all beliefs have done nothing but cause suffering and misery since mankind invented them milleniums ago, and continue to do so today.

It's not a contradiction. The Jews of the time were not allowed to touch a hanged body. So after Judas hanged himself, he basically rotted there until his body fell and burst upon the ground. I suspect the priests bought that field BECAUSE Judas was hanging there. A body does not 'burst open' after hanging for only a few minutes. It takes awhile for it to decompose to the point that just falling down would rip it open. Probably weeks.

Like the man said, both sides are merely two facets of the same story. It reminds me of the two accounts of creation of man in Genesis, and while both are true, they do appear as if they contradict, even though they don't in actually contradict. However, this profound misunderstanding of the two accounts in Genesis has led many pseudo scholars to arrive on the conclusion that God created one wife in the first story, Lillith, adam's first wife, and then eve, his second wife, though that is all BUNK. The story gets even more convoluted when Lillith is said to have a special prayer that allows her to fly around the heavens and become a demon that haunts adam's children, and perverts them in their sleep. YEAH. Going off on a misbegotten tangent is what those guys do!

The first thing to remember when it comes too apparent contradictions is “that there are no contradictions in the Bible”.Errors in transmission, deliberate forgeries, mistranslation, or misunderstanding are all causes for what appears, as apparent contradictions. Matthew 27:5 seems to indicate that Judas hanged himself before the crucifixion. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. Because of the verse in Matthew we have always thought that Judas immediately went out and hanged himself, but the verse in I Corinthians 15:5 and the records in both Luke 24:33-36 and John 20:19-24 show Judas being present after the resurrection, which is a notable or apparent contradiction. Because God is perfect, so also is His word in its original form. So when we run across something that doesn’t fit or appears to contradict itself, we must look in one of the above four categories; in this case it is “misunderstanding” of the words “hanged himself” in Matthew 27:5 The word translated hanged himself in the King James version is apanchomai from the Greek word apanchô it is used only once in the New Testament. In classic literature it means to “strangle” or “to choke” and is used figuratively to mean “to choke with anger” or “grief” (1.)The Expositor’s Greek Testament suggests that apanchô points to death by grief rather than literal choking. (2.) This is correct only to the extent that Judas did not die immediately in Matthew 27, but he was extremely grieved over the betrayal This figurative usage is also verified in the classical writings Aristophanes (3.) (1.) Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott. A Greek – English Lexicon, rev. by Henry S. Jones {1843; 9th ed., Oxford Press} 1940 p.174 (2.) W. Robertson Nicoll , The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 6 vols. {London Hodder and Stoughton, 1897} 1: 323. (3.) Aristophanes Vespae 686. This seems to be what this word “hanged himself” suggest, and would fit with the emotional torment and grief that Judas would be going through. We can, from a purely human aspect, understand just how one might feel after betraying not just a friend, but also someone who you now realize was the redeemer for Israel. But there is a greater depth to his betrayal culturally that we must understand in order to fully grasps the agonizing grief that was taking hold of Judas; and that is “the covenant of salt.” In short: the salt covenant is an oriental custom still in practice today. It means that when you partook in the covenant, be it from salted food, drink, or exchanged a pinch of salt at the marriage ceremony, your words were your bond, you would never …..even at the cost of death, betray that person you had a covenant with. There is no reference I could give you, at least in American culture that would equal that of the covenant of salt. It is so honored that you could leave a known thief with all your worldly possessions and money, and not worry about a thing, if you had a covenant of salt with that person. The honorable thing to do if you broke the covenant of salt was to commit suicide, and if you did not, someone else would be oblige to do it for you. Many references of salted words and salt covenant are found throughout the old and new Testament; Judas, as did the rest of the Apostles had a salt covenant with Jesus. But if Judas is alive after the resurrection ………..when and how did he die? Acts 1:1-11 Acts 1:1 The former treaties {scrolls of Luke} [color:blue] have I made O theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach. 2. Until the day in which He was taken up after that He through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles {Luke 6:13-16} whom he had chosen: 3. To whom he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them {the 12 apostles whom he had chosen} forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. 4. And being assembled together with them commanded them {the 12} that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he, ye have heard of me. {Matthew 3:11} 5. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 6. When they {the 12} therefore were come together they {the 12} asked of Him, saying, “Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom if Israel?” 7. And He said unto them, {the 12} it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power. 8. But ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Judaea, and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. 9. And when He had spoken these things, while they {the 12} beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10. And while they {the 12} looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel. 11. Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Sometime between verse 10 and verse 11 Judas Iscariot left to commit suicide. We know this by following the pronouns from verse three to verse 10, speaking of “the apostles whom Jesus had chosen” in verse two. In verse eleven it changes from “them” to “ye men of Galilee,” Judas Iscariot was the only non-Galilean, he was from Kerioth, a town in Judea. We do not know how much time took place between verse 10 and 11 but it was sufficient time for Judas to take a hike. Two things to keep in mind here………First: I didn’t write the book… I understand this is contrary to what most of us have been taught about the death of Judas, but God is the author, and clearly the author shows Judas being alive after the resurrection …. Secondly: words mean thing! God has a purpose for everything he says, where he say it, why he says it, when he says it, how he says it, and to whom ……….if that is what the Word says, that is what it means ….we just read and believe …………end of story …..well not quite the end …… what happened to Judas is explained in Acts 1:18 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. Even after seeing Jesus at least three times, and having been forgiven by the Lord, it must have been too much for him to cope with. Through his agonizing grief opened himself up to being possessed with the spirit of suicide, impaling himself on a sharp instrument, possibly sword, or a sharp stake. Some food for thought …. If Judas did kill himself before the ascension …………wouldn’t Jesus be the likely candidate to select a new apostle? And if Judas did kill himself immediately after the betrayal and Jesus did not find it necessary to replace him …………why would the apostles feel it necessary to do so

I believe Judas was murdered by the Jews who gave him the money to huss Judas up about the plot to kill Christ! When a person is hanged, thir neck is broken, but in Judas' case his bowls spilled out. It was made to look like Judas killed himself! So many thought! This was shown in the movie Hannibel. He made a reference o Judas. Hannibel asked the man he hanged outside the window, "What will it be bowls out or bowls in." Hannibel cut the man's belly and than threw the man out the window. His bowls spilled into the street! Evangelist/Teacher WP Dominick

Matthew 27:5-8 says, "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, ‘It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.’ So they decided to use the money to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day." Acts 1:18-19 says, "With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood." Which is correct? Did Judas hang himself or did he fall? Did Judas buy the field or did the priests buy the field? Judas hung himself in the potters field (Matthew 27:5) and then after his body decayed and bloated, evidently the rope broke and he burst into pieces on the land of the potters field (Acts 1:18-19). This passage presumes Judas' hanging, as a man falling down in a field does not result in his body bursting open. Only decomposition and a fall from a height could cause a body to burst open. When Judas threw the thirty pieces of silver down, the priests took the money and used it to buy the potter’s field (Matthew 27:7), not knowing that Judas was going to hang himself there. Judas may not have purchased the field himself, but it was the money Judas received for betraying Jesus that purchased the field. Resources from www.gotquestions.org

Neither. He took the money, went on a drunken orgy and had a car wreck on the way home, smashing himself into a tree on the side of the road. Oops! I guess that taught him not to drink and drive

Neither. According to early church bishop Papias, Judas was crushed by a chariot.

The person who answered this with the "western culture" idea has missed the 1500 year differance between the writing and, our understanding of what is really meant. The Bible is written as the word of God and he says what is the truth, and it is not for us to interpret his word. His story is straight. If this causes us to question his word then first ask yourself whom to question, God ....or the people who got his "writing's" wrong.

Much careful study reveals there is no contradiction between Matthew 27:5-8 and Acts 1:18,19. In summary, we first note that Judas was the treasurer for the apostles. The “reward of iniquity” was money he stole from the treasury and was not the same as “the pieces of silver” cast down in the temple. Despite both being called “the field of blood”, “the potter's field” bought with "the price of blood" by the chief priests "to bury strangers in" was distinctly different than the property purchased by Judas, “Aceldama” (where Judas spilled his own blood). When Judas hanged himself, archive.org/details/bibletellsmeso01wier/page/150 it was also described as "falling headlong" and was similar to a military man falling on his sword and did not involve a rope around his neck as in western culture. Judas took his own life by falling and suspending himself on a stake and the fact that “all his bowels gushed out” was because his abdomen was punctured by doing this. Matthew 27:5-8 “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.” Acts 1:18,19 “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. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.”