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Hi, Father, Regarding the death of Judas. Blessed Theophalact in his interpretation of the suicide of Judas in the book of Matthew, states that Judas's aim in committing suicide was to die before Christ in order to eventually hear Christ preaching in Hades and thereafter repent and be saved. Yet Theophalact maintains that Judas survived his suicide attempt and died later. I'm sure this view isn't shared by the Orthodox church. In any event the Orthodox church states it does not judge the soul of any man. Is it possible that Judas may have repented after hearing Christ preach in Hades and may have been saved?
Answer to Question 472 Which Blessed Theophalact? Judas certainly committed suicide and died and I very much doubt that his aim was to go to hell to hear Christ preach there. It would make no sense seeing that he was in close company with Christ for three and half years and heard all Christ had to say.
But there is a little confusion on how he died when comparing the Gospels and the account of his death in the Acts of the Apostles. We are told in the Acts that during the ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost, where the descent of the Holy Spirit would establish the Church, the apostles remained in Jerusalem. On one of these days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, (there were about 120 people present) and spoke to them of a prophecy by King David mentioned in the Psalms concerning the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. Peter tells them that Judas was one of them and had received part of their ministry. He then says that Judas purchased a field with the reward of iniquity and having fallen headlong his gut burst open and his bowels gushed out. The field that he bought was known to everyone in Jerusalem and was called the "Field of blood".
Now because of this text in Acts there are those that say the Bible contradicts itself because in Matthew we read that Judas threw the pieces of silver in the temple and then went and hanged himself. So they say "Either he didn't keep the silver or he kept the silver; either he hanged himself or he didn't hang himself and died by being disembowelled. So let's see about the money first. Judas threw the money in the temple, but if we carry on reading we will see that that the priests didn't accept it back because it was unlawful for them to accept blood money. What the priests did was to take the money that still belonged to Judas and purchased a field to be used as a cemetery to bury strangers in. Now if it was a sin to take blood money as a donation it was still a sin to take ownership of anything bought with that money so the priests didn't accept ownership of the money neither the field: ownership of the field went to Judas because it was his money.
Some may argue that Judas gave up his ownership of that money by throwing it down in the temple, but not physically holding something does not relinquish ownership, and not wanting something does not relinquish ownership either. Ownership is only transferred when first, someone gives up ownership, and second, someone else claims ownership of the object, and in this case no one accepted the money, so it still belonged to Judas.
As for how Judas died, indeed he hanged himself, but something happened after this which we are not told about in detail. It is possible that someone tried to cut him down and as he was holding his feet he toppled over head first and hit a large rock beneath which cut his stomach open. More probably the branch broke and his feet hit a log or rock underneath and forced his body to fall headlong causing his body to hit something that burst his belly open. So in fact there is no contradiction, but a case of not being given all the details.
Another member Interesting . my question is why would we not be given all the facts in the holy Bible. Is It possible that there is more detail in the dead sea scrolls? Also why have they not been made available for the public to read?
Reply We are not given all the details because the Bible is not a history book, it is about how God interacts with us humans and how our relationship should be with him. The New Testament is about our Salvation and how we can become one with Jesus Christ and that is all we need to know, for example we are not given details of what Christ did while growing up because that information is not necessary for our salvation. As for the Dead Sea scrolls all the religious scrolls found were only on the Old Testament and they are in complete agreement with the Septuagint version of the Bible which the Orthodox Church uses. As far as I know translations of the scrolls are available on the net.
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