It’s one of those questions that crops up on a fairly regular basis, what happens to a man who betrays the Son of God? Let’s investigate.

SO who was Judas?

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles (Mt 10:2-4). Iscariot literally means ‘man of kerioth’ a town in Hebron and his father was Simon Iscariot (Jn 6:71). Amongst a group of Gallileans this meant Judas was probably the sole Judean. Judas was in charge of the disciples shared purse (Jn 12:6).

what else do we know about judas?

Unsurprisingly the Gospels don’t cast Judas in a very positive light and no-one else has since. John in particular reveals some unpleasant details about Judas. In Jn 12:5-6 Judas is shown to be someone who doesn’t care about the poor but about money, to which he helped himself. Some scholars put this down to sour grapes and a desire to, essentially, defame Judas – however, there are plenty of people who turned out to be something far different from their public persona. It’s not exactly out of keeping with human nature.

Let’s get to the betrayal. Why did he do it?

We don’t really know. What we do know is that at somepoint while Jesus & the disciples were staying in Bethany, Judas went to the chief priests and made a deal to hand Jesus over to them. His motives are unknown although Luke says ominously that at that moment ‘Satan entered Judas’ (Lk 22:3). The priests gave him 30 pieces of silver (Mt 26:14-16) for his trouble.

I’ve honestly no idea, Is that a lot?

Well, it was enough to buy a field with, so it was not a small amount of money. (Mt 27:7)

But he regretted it, didn’t he?

Yes, he did and it was this that seems to have been behind the theory that Judas thought to provoke Jesus into some kind of bold Messianic declaration. In Mt 27:3 Judas realizes the game is up for Jesus and filled with remorse he returns the money and goes out and hangs himself.

i thought he died another way, Is that right?

Ah yes. Luke spares us none of the gory details. In Acts 1:18-19 he says that Judas bought the field and then ‘fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.’

how come the two accounts are different?

Well they are and they aren’t. In both cases (Mt 27 and Acts 1) a field was bought, was called ‘the field of blood’, and Judas died an unpleasant and ignominious death. So the broad details are consistent with each other, however it is to read Acts as saying that, ‘with his reward a field was bought’ and then Matthew tells us who bought it (the priests). As to the manner of death, again it’s likely that they’re referring to the same thing just Luke being a bit more graphic in his description.

OK, spell it out for me

1. Judas returns the money (Mt 27:3)
2. The chief priests buy a field (Mt 27:7-8) and because it was associated with Judas’ betrayal which everyone knew (Acts 1:18) quickly got called the field of blood (Mt 27:8; Acts 1:19).
3. Judas having decided to kill himself doesn’t do it straight away (Matthew having just recorded the suicide to tie up that loose end) but decides to give the chief priests a nasty reminder of their guilt and hangs himself in the very same field.
4. Because of the festival and Judas’ disgrace his body is left hanging in the sun where putrefaction rapidly occurs, his dead body falls to the ground and bursts open. Gruesome but entirely plausible.

OK, but what happened to Judas. Was he forgiven?

Only God knows the answer to that but it would seem unlikely. Jesus himself says of his betrayer, “It would be better for him if he had not been born” (Mt 26:24) but Judas fails to heed that warning. Judas’ subsequent actions weren’t that of one repentant instead consumed with remorse, Judas sadly took his own life. Suicide was also thought to put your soul out of reach. There’s an interesting aside in Jn 8:21-22. Jesus says he is going someplace where others cannot follow. Misunderstanding him, his hearers wonder if he’s referring to committing suicide.

It was Judas’ own decision to betray Jesus encouraged by the devil (Jn 13:2), and God used the evil schemes of man and the devil to accomplish His own purposes.

Photo by The British Library