There’s always the Jesus Christ: Superstar version, which also doesn’t explicitly contradict the Gospels. It alleges that Judas was worried that Jesus was too radical and would touch off another rebellion in which tens of thousands of Jews would die. Judas then turns Jesus in to the Sanhedrin, thinking that they’d arrested him and throw him out of the city (remember, the Sanhedrin can’t put people to death) but the Jewish elders hand Jesus over to the Romans as a revolutionary.
As I see it, the point can boil down to this: Was Judas a Sicarius, and angry that Jesus was not moving to claim his mantle as Messiah and overthrow the Romans? Or was Judas worried that Jesus was a Sicarius, and acted to ensure that Jesus would not set off a revolution that would kill thousands of Jews? In the former case, Judas might feel remorse for condemning his friend to death, even if he felt it was necessary. In the latter case, Judas might have underestimated the Sanhedrin’s reaction and never intended to kill his friend in the first place.
How about John 13:2 – “And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him” – which presumably means there’s no reason the devil wouldn’t remove his influence once Judas has betrayed Christ, at which point Judas would be so filled with regret as to commit suicide?
Two birds with one stone, y’know?
Maybe it was that thing they had in the book/movie Hannibal, where someone was dropped on a rope from high enough that their abdomen burst. That would fit both the hanging and burst asunder versions.
Let’s try to work this scenario out.
Judas finds a tall tree with a branch about 60ft to 80 ft high. He ties a 50 foot long rope around his neck, slits his belly open(I think that was how it was done in the movie), then jumps.
I believe that if that was the way it happened, some of those details might have made it into the Bible.
Perhaps he burst open post-mortem, from the intestinal gasses.
Think of it as a zombie fart.
Regards,
Shodan
Maybe the author was trying to evoke that type of bursting.
even when i was a christian i remember thinking they were just shoehorning the judas bit in to fill out the prophecy, like jesus was walking around a little corner of the world (this was actually before the palestinians were declared not to be a real people!) for 3 years gathering bigger and bigger crowds and nobody knew what he looked like? then there’s the whole thing with peter striking that soldier’s ear off with his sword, a sword peter needs? and all these apostles been given the power to work miracles and they can’ sit up with jesus a couple hours? then there’s the bear comes out and eats all the children…
That sounds like 1950’s Catholicism to me. I remember the nuns telling us how two of the worst possible sins were presumption and despair. Assuming you were headed for heaven, and assuming that you weren’t, were equally terrible crimes against blah blah blah.
.
.
Nitpick - that’s probably not true. His original Hebrew name was Yehuda Ish Krayot, or “Man of Kerioth”, Keriothbeing the name of a town in southern Judea.
The same reason God kills Pharaoh when he’s the one who hardened his heart. Just because something is necessary does not make it not evil.
Although there is no Pharaoh who drowned, that is mentioned in any of Egypt’s History. Ramses the second was not drowned, and went on to have 50 sons( if I remember right).
Simply put, he had a crisis of conscience.
Given that it is fiction, we have to presume that Judas was so bummed out by his buddy’s death that he offed himself.
That’s what I always assumed.
I didn’t even notice the disparate stories until I was 17 or so.
Religious indoctrination happens even when you are raised a Methodist.
“Bought the farm” is a euphemism for death.
I wonder if that phrase comes from the story of Judas buying the field called Haceldama with his dirty money after Jesus was crucified.
Considering its origin is WWII pilot-speak, I doubt it.
Simply put - because the story doesn’t play as well if he’s happy (and goes on to live a comfortable life) after he just helped ‘the messiah’ or even ‘his best friend’ get crucified.
It humanizes him, doesn’t it? The crisis of conscience.
Human or not, I think it more likely reflects a vindictive impulse in the authors. Maybe Judas did die, maybe he didn’t, but the authors reveled in the idea.
According to the NT,Judas threw the money on the floor and didn’t keep it!
It also seaks of his contrition, so it is hard to understand why the NT has Jesus saying"all but one are saved except the one who betrayed me(not exact quote) so the prophies could be fullfilled.