Acts 1:18

ACTS—NOTE ON Acts 1:18 this man acquired a field. As Matthew 27:3 records, Judas brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders. The chief priests then purchased the potter’s field with Judas’s money. This was considered the same as if Judas had made the purchase. he burst open. The two accounts of Judas’s death should be seen as complementary. The main difference is that Matthew 27:5 speaks of Judas hanging himself, while Acts 1:1 speaks of his body falling headlong and bursting open. One possible explanation is that the field overlooked a cliff; as Judas hanged himself, the rope (or the branch) may have broken so that his body fell over the edge of the cliff onto jagged rocks below. Others have suggested that Judas’s body may have remained hanging for some time decaying (“swelling up,” esv footnote), eventually falling to the ground and bursting open.