Hi Joseph, I love your posts!!! That's because they deal with scripture and I love scriptural debates.
But your problem is that you take what the scriptures say, add some inaccuracies and then imagine there is a contradiction, when there is none, or there is a logical alternative.
In this case, you simply don't understand the Jewish tradition of not overstating anything, but by insinuating more than one fact by two, seemingly opposing statements. That is, one gospel gives you one detail and another another detail leaving you to find the TRUTH between the two. That is the "gospel style".
This is the same in this case. One gospel tell us that Judas hanged himself, and another tells us he threw himself over a cliff.
Now why is it that you haven't read between the lines and realize that the way Judas hanged himself was by throwing himself over a cliff?
You know?
In other words, one way to hang yourself is to tie a rope around your neck and then jump off a cliff, so that when the rope jerked it would break your neck. Simple. Only in this case, the roped snaped back and jerked him against some jagged rocks that caused his guts to spill out! It's as simple as that. One account simply gives us some facts that helps us understand more details of what happened.
Now what annoys me further, is that you misread scripture. If you read Matthew, for instance, you can see that after Judas turned in the money to the priests that it was the priests who purchased the "field of blood". It was called the "field of blood" not because Judas killed himself there, but because it purchased the murder of Jesus.
Furthermore, according to Matthew, if he went out right there and hung himself, the field wasn't even purchased yet, but was purchased later. So Judas didn't hang himself in his own field.
To harmonize Acts, though, which says Judas purchased a field, what the priests must have done was used the money to purchase a field in Judas' name and then used it as a donation for burying the poor. So in that sense, the money he gave back to the priests purchased this field and so he is said to have purchased it. But it was purchased in his name post his death.
So again, we find you anxiously trying to find errors with words and terms that may be indecently translated into English, pretending there is some error or contradiction between the gospels, when there is none.
But a lot of this has to do with not understanding Jewish style of writing and gospel tehcnique specifically, which seems to focus on giving partial details that have to be harmonized to understand understated or unstated detail.
Now here is a WONDROUS EXAMPLE of that:
"Mary", "Joseph", "Peter" and several other names were very common names among the Jews. Mary was just as common among the Jews as is Mary is among Spanish people. Do you realize how many Marys there are in the Bible during Jesus' time alone?
Well you can add two more that are not so obvious. Those two are two additional women who had the title of "Mary Magdalene". That's right, apparently "Mary Magdalene" was a title given to Mary's who were hired as personal companions or housekeepers in the Jewish household, and because "Marion" was such a common name, there were at least three Marys who were "Magdalenes" (maids) in the immediate company of the women who were around Jesus.
So in gospel style, to cut down on confusion, since each Mary Magdalene came to visit the tomb at a different time after Jesus death, each gospel relates when each one arrived and a few details of their experience so that you can then combine all three references to complete the entire story. What you should gather though, by comparing the stories, is that there were three Mary Magdalenes that remains unstated, but should be apparent by the specific details given. But the gospels do that. They give you one half a detail here and another half there and it leaves it up to you to figure out the combined truth.
Thus one gospel tells us one Mary Magdalene appeared alone at night to the grave and saw Jesus and went and told the disciples. This was Mary Magdalene who was employed in the household of Peter and John apparently and whom Jesus expelled seven demons.
Shortly thereafter, the Mary Magdalene who was employed by "the Other Mary" came to the grave just to view it. She had no spices, but the ran into the two angels who told them Jesus had just left and on the road they ran into Jesus and kissed his feet. That was a different Mary Magdalene. This occurred just before sunrise.
Then the third Mary Magdalene worked for Jesus' mother, Mary, and was with her and her relatives who had the responsibility to bring spices to the grave. They didn't get to the grave until after sunrise. By now Jesus was long gone but they did see the angels who told them to report Jesus had risen to the disciples, but they were all too afraid to do so and so did not report back.
Now some Biblical errantists will say: "Hey, look, what a contradiction!" When really, they just don't understand Jewish writing style which doesn't like to give or repeat details but only give partial details leaving the rest for you to figure out. In this case, what was left out is that there were three Mary Magdalenes and each gospel had to cover what each did so that there was no confusion as to which one arrived at the tomb at which time.
But because people don't understand this Jewish writing style of the gospels, they imagine there is an "error" and get all excited, when really, they are just not that astute as far as gospel writing style.
There many other interesting examples, but that's usually the case, and that's the case here with Judas.
Thus the ONLY THING YOU NEED TO CONCERN YOURSELF WITH is whether or not throwing yourself over a cliff with a rope around your neck qualifies as a "hanging", which it does! Some people hang themselves by getting up on a chair and pushing it away or whatever. Judas was just a bit more creative and threw himself over a cliff, which is very creative.
Of course, the true underlying message of this information is to prove that the Jews invented bungie jumping!!!
So Joseph, keep trying, but do try to use a bit more imagination when it comes to these "errors", you need to get the facts straight first before claiming there is an error.
I still enjoy your attempts though. At least you're thinking!
LG
