Is There a Biblical Contradiction in the Death of Judas?

[Proclaimer]

Some believe Matthew and Luke contradict each other in describing Judas’ death. Yet if the Bible is true and consistent, the two accounts may simply describe the same event from different perspectives.

Consider an eyewitness who says a pedestrian died after being hit by a car, while a coroner describes the resulting injuries. Both accounts are true but focus on different aspects of the same incident.

Matthew records that Judas died by hanging. Luke, being a doctor, explains what happened to the body afterward. The sequence fits logically: Judas first hanged himself; later, when the body fell, likely after the rope or branch gave way due to decomposition, it burst open from bloating and decay. In the heat of Jerusalem, gases produced by bacterial activity would have built up until the skin could no longer contain the pressure.

Matthew therefore describes Judas’ death, while Luke records what happened to his body later. There is no real contradiction, only two perspectives on the same tragic event.

Further evidence for this is that a body does not normally burst open from a fall, but the effects of decomposition would account for it.

Is There a Biblical Contradiction in the Death of Judas?

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