From: ds0007@medtronic.COM (Dale Skiba)
Subject: Re: Biblical Errors
Organization: Medtronic, Inc.
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 01:20:18 GMT

Peter White (pwhite@ems.cdc.com) wrote:
: Dale,
: 
: Thank you for something intelligent. I will go study, but maybe you
: can help, how do we know that both are the same guy i.e. what shows that
: it isn't two different kings with the same name?

Thanks for the reply, Now let's test it to see if you have successfuly
answered the questions... For review, the 5 Judas death questions are:

 (1) What did he do with the 30 silver pieces?

 (2) Who bought the field?

 (3) How did he die?

 (4) Where did he die?

 (5) Why is it named the field of blood?

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Acts 1:18-19:  
 
  With the reward he got for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he
  fell headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines spilled out.
  Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their
  language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Matthew 27:3-8

  When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was
  seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests 
  and elders.  'I have sinned,' he said, 'for I have betrayed innocent blood.'
 
  'What's that to us?' they replied.  'That's your responsibility.'
 
  So Judas threw the money in the temple and left.  Then he went away and
  hanged himself.
 
  The chief priests picked up the coins and said, 'It is against the law to
  put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.'  So they decided to
  use the money to buy a potter's field for foreigners.  That is why it has
  been called the Field of Blood to this day.
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------

: Judas problem, I think is solved by a little analysis. 
: If we assume that Judas hanged himself we could say that someone
: came along and cut him down and that he then fell headlong and his
: intestines spilled out.

This must be in response to question #3 and #4.  Death by hanging
oneself is quite different than death by "falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." AKJV.  It seems
to me that the Bible is specfying CAUSE of death here.  Having the
rope break or having someone cut the corpse down doesn't seem to fit
with the context of Acts 1:18-19.

: As far as the purchasing of the field goes, we know from other passages
: that Judas was a bit in love with money, so we have two ways to go there.
: One is that he kept back some of the money and threw the rest in at the
: priests. The other is that he through it all at them and the priests 
: went and bought the field in Judas' name since it was his money and they
: didn't want to be associated with it. Something on the order of the
: legal record showing that it belonged to Judas.

This must be in response to question #1 and #2.  Acts says he did in
fact purchase it.  "Now this man purchased a field with the reward of
iniquity" AKJV.  So the answer that the priests bought the field in
Judas' name is not in agreement with Acts.  The answer that he kept
some of the 30 pieces for himself, while throwing some of it at the
priests at first looks better.  This mirrors Acts 5: 1-11 where Annanias
pretended to give all of the price of a plot of land.  However, Mathew
clearly states that he returned the thirty pieces of silver.  To make
certain that the total was indeed 30 pieces of silver, just read Mathew
26:14-15.   I believe these 30 silver pieces were also prophesized in
the Old Testament.

Mathew 26:14-15
"Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief
priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver
him unto you?  And they covented with him for thirty pieces of silver" 

I will give you a grade report on how I think you answered the questions:

1 FAIL;   2 FAIL;   3 D+;   4 C-;   5 FAIL.

: Have you any others?

Wait a minute, you have not answered ALL of the questions.  You seem
to have difficulties finding all the contradicions, so I will list
the contradictory answers I see impossible to SIMULTANEOUSLY resolve.

Q1:  Mathew 26:14-15, 27:3-8 clearly says Judas returned ALL
     the money to the priests.

     Acts 1:18 clearly says that he bought some land with
     (at least some) of the money.

Q2:  Mathew 27:7 clearly says the priests bought it.

     Acts 1:18 clearly says that Judas bought it.  

Q3:  Mathew 27:5 clearly says he hung himself.

     Acts 1:18 says he fell and his abdomen burst open.  

Q4:  Acts 1:19 clearly says the potters field.  That is why
     it is named the field of blood. 

     Mathew does not give a location, but it probaly wasn't the
     potters field, becasue it is called that because the land
     was bought with tainted money.  (This is the weakest of the
     contradictions, alone it really doesn't matter very much.)

Q5:  Acts 1:19 cleary says because Judas dies there. 

     Mathew 27:6-8 clearly says because the priests used tainted
     money to purchase the plot.

The only answer I can give to it is that Acts 1:18-19 is reporting
the local gossip, and thus is not completely factual.  That seems
to be the best answer for this.
     
--
Dale Skiba