MYSTERIES ABOUT THE DEATH OF JUDAS ISCARIOT

 
Judas Iscariot has been vilified and hated by the Christians and cursed for allegedly being the close friend and disciple of Jesus who handed him over to the Jews for arrest which led to his crucifixion. Judas betrayed Jesus for money and the Bible says he hanged himself in despair and having caused Jesus' cruel death on the cross while another account says he fell on a field he bought and died after bursting open.

Unbelievably many clerics lie that we cannot say anybody is in Hell when Jesus declared that Judas was the son of perdition and lostness in John 17:12.  Jesus calls him a devil in John 6 but he also called Peter Satan in the other gospels.  But these are not the same.  John is careful to tell us that devil in his gospel means very bad and probably destined for Hell.  We cannot read other gospels into his style.  Plus nothing shows Judas had any decent qualities. Calling him devil was as near-literal as you can get.  Peter was different for he was temporarily a Satan and meant well.  Jesus refused to be pleased by how Peter pleaded for him not to die on a cross.  It is just not the same thing.  Judas had remorse for what he had done to Jesus but it is not said he repented.  In fact he probably felt he should not ask for mercy.  The story is he succumbed to despair and took his own life.  The word for repenting unto God is not used of him.  The gospel of John is clear that Jesus cannot lose anyone given to him so the implication is that Judas never really gave himself to Jesus.

WAS JUDAS MURDERED?

If Judas really believed that Jesus was God’s sinless Son or God he would not have been killed by despair. And even less so when he was only following Jesus’ orders for John says Jesus told Judas to betray him. Jesus said that he would rise again and if he had been a miracle-worker Judas would not have died of a broken heart. Jesus should have told him not to despair for he would have noticed that Judas could get suicidal. Jesus as good as murdered Judas if the gospels are true. Christianity would never have taken off if Jesus had murdered but it seems in the gospels that he did – the crafty way.
 
Did the apostles hang Judas and make it look like he murdered himself? The body was found mutilated and a daft explanation for that appears in Acts. Matthew says the field of blood got its name from being bought with blood money and Acts says it was because Judas was found bleeding there after his belly exploded. It is hard to believe that a field would get that name just because Judas was ripped open. He was not that important and the Jews wanted to forget him. Matthew’s would be more believable only for the fact that the Jews would not have given the field that name to bring shame on themselves. Could it have been that the body found in the field was the stolen body of Jesus from the tomb? Perhaps the apostles or somebody else then sent Judas packing and framed him for betraying Jesus and pretended that Judas killed himself and fell and was supernaturally mutilated and that the body was his. Somebody was at it with a knife to destroy any indication that it was the body of Jesus. Perhaps Judas had taken Jesus’ place on the cross and this was a body planted to work as an alibi.
 
OR DID JUDAS REALLY DIE?

Paul stated that Jesus manifested to the TWELVE following his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:5). Judas was one of the twelve (Mark 14:20). Some scholars are adamant that the original said eleven and it was later altered to twelve. There is no evidence for that so Paul wrote twelve. Why would anybody change it? The scriptures say that the term the Eleven came into use even before the resurrection following the death of Judas. Paul would have said Eleven if he meant eleven for he was scared of confusing the zany and bewildered souls he was writing to. He was using the apostles as witnesses and to call them the twelve when there were only eleven would have been dishonest in that context for it was making an extra witness who was not there.

Others say that the twelfth man meant was Matthias who was the replacement of Judas making twelve apostles (page 103, In Defence of the Faith). But the gospels themselves do not use the term the twelve after Judas left. And Matthias was not ordained to take the place of Judas until Pentecost which meant there was only eleven for fifty days after the death of Jesus. And when Paul says Jesus appeared to the twelve after he appeared to Peter he must mean the first appearance. But the gospels say there were only eleven apostles present.
 
Jesus promised Judas one of the twelve thrones in Heaven to judge Israel (Matthew 19:28). Some Christians say that this does not disprove the betrayal for Judas could have repented and got to Heaven after the rope tightened. Or maybe he was insane. Jesus did not pick the best of men for the job of apostle but it is hardly likely that he would choose anybody crazy. Judas was a real apostle or witness despite what he did and he had to be sane for that.
 
Matthias was chosen to replace Judas but he was never intimate with Jesus like he was. He was not qualified. And he was chosen by a vote and not for his intimacy. This is an admission that Jesus had failed for he chose twelve men to be his witnesses in a unique way and one of them failed and had to be replaced to keep the number of twelve. Jesus should have had a spare apostle who was to take no role in the Church if he was not needed if it had to be strictly twelve. The Church will reply that Matthias must have been intimate with Jesus but not as an apostle and could have been closer than any of them. But why were we not assured of that? The fact that a vote was cast tells against Matthias having great intimacy for the person who could verify it the best and who had a good reputation would have been the best candidate and would not have needed to be voted in.
 
The New Testament claims that Jesus even chose a new apostle, Paul – sometimes called the thirteenth apostle, another admission of failure for he chose twelve for there were twelve tribes in Israel! Jesus’ promise to the twelve tells us that Judas would die a true apostle and that there would be no replacement for him and no betrayal.

The author of Matthew was not very close to the apostles when he didn’t know about the status of Matthias or Paul.
 
WHO ROSE?
 
What if the body of Jesus was taken from the tomb and in its messed state was passed off as the body of Judas? The story of a body found in the field reads like a cover-up.
 
There is zero evidence that Jesus rose bodily from the dead because there is no evidence that he was put in the tomb and there is no evidence that the reason he was not in it because he rose. You may as well say Judas rose and was mistaken for Jesus!