judas iscariot's death

here's something cool i learned about recently. i had a question regarding exactly how judas iscariot (the dude who betrayed Jesus) died. in the book of matthew it says he hung himself, in acts it said his guts spilled out. so i took the question to my cousin who just graduated seminary. here is his answer:

Luke's account of Peter's speech in Acts should be seen as supplementary to Matthew's account and not contradictory. As you have noted, Matthew records that Judas returned the money to the chief priests and then went and hung himself. In Acts, Luke records Peter's message with Judas as the buyer of the field. Remember in Matthew that the chief priests would not accept the money and put it in the temple, so the money still belonged in Judas's name. They used Judas' money to buy the field, so indirectly Judas is the buyer of the field.

Luke leaves out the phrase that he hung himself and only mentions that he fell headlong and burst open in the middle and his intestines spilled out. We deduce from what we know in Matthew (that he hung himself) that the falling headlong was a result of being hung - either the rope broke from the weight of the hanging or someone cut it down. Also deduced is that Judas died on the field that the chief priests brought, and the people hearing about Judas gross death referred to it as field of blood (according to Luke's account). From Matthew's perspective, it was called field of blood because it was purchased with blood money.
Conclusion: Matthew's and Luke's account are not contradictory, but rather supplementary - we get a fuller picture when both are placed side by side.

cb


i thought that was a convincing answer. plus, hes a pretty smart guy.