But we do know, according to Jesus' own words...
John 17:12 (NASB95)
12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
There is only one unforgivable sin and Judas did not commit that.
What he did was truly awful, regardless of his intentions, but not an unredeemable offence. And judging from the scripture he had no idea of what the Chief Priest and Pharisees had in mind.
While it is often stated that Judas hanged himself shortly after returning the 30 pcs of silver that presents a contradiction ….as scripture has Judas alive up until the time Jesus was taken up.
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 appear as apparent contradictions.
Matthew 27:5 seems to indicate that Judas hanged himself before the crucifixion but I believe 27:5 shows the realization from Judas and the tremendous grief he felt.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
It is because of this one verse in
Matthew we have always thought that Judas immediately went out and hanged himself, but the verse in
1Co 15:5-7 and the records (together) in both
Luk 24:33-36 and
Jhn 20:20-24 show Judas being present after the resurrection, which is a notable or apparent contradiction.
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, “then of the twelve”:
And↓
Luk 24:33-36 – both these accounts
Luke &
John are linked….to save space.
Jhn 20:20-24 You need to read both to make the connection and see who is missing.
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 has to be “
misunderstanding” of the words
“hanged himself” in
Mat 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.) Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott. A Greek – English Lexicon, rev. by Henry S. Jones {1843; 9th ed., Oxford Press} 1940 p.174
*The Expositor’s Greek Testament makes note of
Grotius, who suggests that
apanchô points to death by grief… rather than literal choking
(2.) W. Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 6 vols. {London Hodder and Stoughton, 1897} 1:323.
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.) 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 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. I don’t know about you…. but I have been there with grief so strong it totally incapacities you.
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.” This is something that we in Western Culture may not totally grasp, but the “
the covenant of salt.” Was a practiced commitment that was culturally ingrained into eastern culture.
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 western 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 obliged to do it for you.
Many references of salted words and salt covenant are found throughout the old and new Testaments; Judas, as did the rest of the Apostles had a salt covenant with Jesus.
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I did state that Judas was alive up until the time He was taken up. The following shows us when he committed suicide. You can look check it out on the following post….. but my main point was to show the agonizing grief that Judas went through after the devil spirit had left him.
