Meditations

Matthew 27

⁵ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.  -kjv

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.  -kjv

Observation and comments:

1. Acts was written by Luke and has a different account of how Judas Iscariot died as written by Matthew.
2. The passages can be easily harmonized by the event in Matthew 27:5 occurring first, followed by Acts 1, meaning Judas hanged himself first (that was how he died) and then probably the branch of the tree broke and he fell headlong and his bowels gushed out.
3. Matthew was writing to the Jews. To the Jewish person, cursed is the one who is hanged on the tree. This showed to the Jews that Judas was cursed. Luke was writing to the Greco-Roman world. To them, suicide was not a curse but defacing the body (the Greco-Roman people elevated the body) showed it to them that Judas was under a curse. Each author had a purpose for the way they presented it to help their audience see that Judas was under a curse.

Learned this from openline, moody radio, on October 17, 2015