Acts 1:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"He was numbered with us and obtained the lot of this ministry, but acquired a field with the reward of unrighteousness." He depicts Judas's character and discreetly reveals his guilt as worthy of punishment.

He does not say, "the Jews acquired it," but, "he acquired a field with the reward of unrighteousness." Since people of weak soul look not so much to the future as to the present, he recounts the punishment that overtook him in this life.

"And falling headlong." He acted well by not stopping his speech at Judas's crime, but at the punishment that overtook him.

"His belly burst open, and all his entrails spilled out." This served as consolation for them.

He speaks of the punishment that Judas suffered in the present life, not of his future punishment. Weak souls do not attend to the future as much as to the present.

Observe that he does not dwell on the transgression, but on the punishment for it. Judas did not die in the noose, but lived afterward, since he was cut down before he strangled.

Papias, the disciple of John, speaks of this more clearly in the fourth book of his Explanation of the Sayings of the Lord. He says:

"Judas presented a great example of impiety in this world. His body swelled to such a degree that he could not pass where a wagon could pass, and not only his body, but even his head alone could not pass.

The mad traitor received a just punishment when the throat from which the words of betrayal had issued was destroyed by the very noose.

He found death in a fitting manner. He had delivered the Lord of men and angels to death, and was hateful to heaven and earth.

As if joined only to the spirits of the air, he perished in midair, like Ahithophel and Absalom, who persecuted King David; see 2 Sam 17:23 and 2 Sam 19:9.

Death itself approached him, who especially deserved destruction, in such a way that the entrails which contained the cunning of betrayal burst open, spilled out, and were turned into the empty air.

Compare the difference between Luke's and Matthew's descriptions of Judas's death (Mt 27:3-10), and the way Luke speaks about the deaths of others who departed from God's will (Acts 5:1-11; Acts 12:20-23).

Then the apostle first recalls the sorrowful history of Judas. He describes this sad past in vivid language, and therefore somewhat figuratively.

For this reason, if verse 18 is understood literally, it seems to say that the Field of Blood, bought with the thirty pieces of silver at which the Savior was valued, was acquired by Judas himself before his death.

It would also seem to say that Judas committed suicide by falling from some height, after which his belly burst open and his entrails spilled out.

Yet the Evangelist Matthew says that Judas hanged himself, and that the Field of Blood was bought after his death by the chief priests (Mt 27:5-8).

Grieved by the reproach of the priests, the poor betrayer truly turned his whole gaze upon himself. Yet it was the gaze of despair, before which death appears so quickly and seems so pleasing. In the turmoil of his feelings, he threw the silver pieces he had received into the temple, hurried to a lonely place, and there on a tree strangled his bodily life, having long since strangled the spiritual life. But this terrible picture, begun by the hand of despair, seems deliberately continued by the finger of chastising Providence. The hanging body falls headlong from the tree. His belly bursts open from the fall, and his entrails spill out (Acts 1:18).

During the ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost, one of the apostles' first concerns was to fill the place left in their company by Judas's departure. This was done at the first gathering of the faithful in Jerusalem.

Because many of the five hundred to whom Christ had appeared in Galilee were absent, those assembled numbered one hundred and twenty. The fearful circumstances of the traitor's suicide, about which various dreadful accounts were told, left in their hearts a profound belief in God's immediate retribution upon the guilty man.

"Acquired a field with the wages of unrighteousness": this is a special turn of phrase. It means that with the money for which Judas unrighteously sold Christ, and which he later returned to the chief priests, they bought a plot of land. Cf. the note on Mt 27:7-8. "Falling headlong," and so on: see the note on Mt 27:5.

The apostle's report about Judas's death is very characteristic. He does not speak of Judas's well-known hanging (see Mt 27:5), but reports that he fell headlong from the tree on which he had hanged himself.

At this, while he was still alive, his belly burst open and his entrails spilled out. This mortal horror, of course, must have struck the hearers with dread, even though many of them already knew it.

Then, turning attention to Judas's greed, the apostle ascribes to Judas himself the purchase of the field with the thirty pieces of silver, about forty-five rubles, received for the betrayal.

He calls the price the reward of unrighteousness, because one sells what belongs to him by right. Here, however, a slave sold the Master, and a deceitful disciple sold the divine Teacher.

When it is said that Judas acquired a field for the burial of strangers with the reward of unrighteousness he had received, that is, with the thirty pieces of silver, this must not be understood to mean that he did this personally.

Rather, it means that others, from whom he had received the money, used it on his behalf to purchase the field.

A similar turn of speech is often found in Scripture. For example, it is said of Pilate that he scourged Jesus (Jn 19:1). This does not mean that he scourged Him personally, but that the soldiers did it at his command.

Having repented that he had betrayed innocent blood, Judas fell into despair and perished by suicide. He hanged himself on a tree (Mt 27:5).