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What became of Judas?
Matthew: He “went and hanged himself” ([xxvii, 5]).
Peter: “Falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” ([Acts i, 18]).
Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, one of the chief Christian authorities of the second century, and who wrote before the books of Matthew and Acts were written, gives the following account of the fate of Judas:
“Judas walked about in the world a great example of impiety; for his body having swollen so that, on an occasion, when a wagon was moving on its way, he could not pass it, he was crushed by the chariot and his bowels gushed out.”
The German commentator, Dr. Hase, attempts to reconcile his suicide, as related by Matthew, with his death by accident, as related by Peter, by supposing that he attempted to hang himself, but that the rope broke, causing him to fall with such force as to disembowel himself. This harmonist apparently forgets to note that Peter says he fell “headlong,” which makes it necessary to suppose that he hung himself by the feet.