He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.
Parallel Translations
-
He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself.
-
And he cast doune the sylver plattes in the temple and departed and went and hounge him sylfe.
-
And when hee had cast downe the siluer pieces in the Temple, hee departed, and went, and hanged himselfe.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (3)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Matthew 27:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 1:18-19 Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out. It became known to everyone who lived in Jerusalem that in their language that field was called ‘Akeldama,’ that is, ‘The field of blood.’
- 2 Samuel 17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.
- 1 Samuel 31:4-5 Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it. When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.
- 1 Kings 16:18 When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the fortified part of the king’s house, and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and died,
- Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Renounce God, and die.”
- Job 7:15 so that my soul chooses strangling, death rather than my bones.
- Psalms 55:23 But you, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in you.
- Luke 1:9 according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
- Luke 1:21 The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they marveled that he delayed in the temple.
- Judges 9:54 Then he called hastily to the young man, his armor bearer, and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, that men not say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ His young man thrust him through, and he died.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Out of men’s sights.
Out of men’s sights.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver…
5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Ver. 5. And he cast down the pieces of silver] That wage of wickedness burnt in his purse, in his conscience; neither could it secure him in the day of wrath. See Zep 1:18; Eze 7:19; Oba 1:4 Jas 4:1-2. Omnia fui, et nihil mihi profitit, I had everything and it profited my nothing, said Severus the emperor, when he lay dying. Most of the emperors got nothing by their advancement to the empire, whereof they were so ambitious, but this, Ut citius interficerentur, that they were slain the sooner. All, or most of them, till Constantine, died unnatural deaths. Achan’s wedge of gold served but to cleave asunder his soul from his body; and the Babylonish garment but for a shroud.
Read full note →
And went and hanged himself] If you confess yourself to a priest, and not to God, said that martyr, you shall have the reward that Judas had. For he confessed himself to a priest, and yet went and hanged himself by-and-by. So did Porter, townclerk of London in Henry VIII’s time, who had before sworn a great oath, that if the king’s highness would set forth the Scripture in English, and let it be read of the people by his authority, rather than he would so long live, he would cut his own throat. But he brake promise: for shortly after he hanged himself. And about the same time, Foxford, chancellor to the bishop of London, a cruel persecutor and butcher of the saints, died suddenly in his chair, his belly being burst, and his guts falling out before him; as likewise Judas’ did, Cum quodam singulari crepitus fragore, as the word ελακησε imports, Act 1:18. Selneccerus makes mention of a covetous bishop of Misna in Germany, who had the devil for his death’s man. And Dr Morton, late bishop of Durham, reports a story of his own knowledge, of one Sir Booth, a Bachelor of Arts in St John’s College in Cambridge, who, being popishly affected, took the consecrated bread at the time of the communion; and forbearing to eat it, conveyed and kept it closely for a time, and afterwards threw it over the college wall. But a short time after, not enduring the torment of his guilty conscience, he threw himself headlong over the battlements of the chapel, and some few hours after ended his life. "The spirit of a man may sustain his infirmity:" some shift or other a man may make to suffer whatsoever other calamities, "but a wounded spirit who can bear?" Pro 18:14: there is no fighting with a mighty fire, no bearing up sail against a storm. Job, when once wet to the skin, curseth the day of his birth, and thinketh it better to be strangled or hanged than longer to endure it, Job 7:15. And yet God was but in jest, as it were, with Job, in comparison of Judas.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he cast down the pieces of silver in…
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple,.... Upon the ground, in that part of the temple where they were sitting; in their council chamber, , "the paved chamber", where the sanhedrim used to meet (m): for it seems they would not take the money of him; and he was determined not to carry it back with him, and therefore threw it down before them, left it,
and departed; from the sanhedrim: and went; out of the temple; not to God, nor to the throne of his grace, nor to his master, to ask pardon of him, but to some secret solitary place, to cherish his grief and black despair,
Read full note →
and hanged himself. The kind and manner of his death, as recorded by Luke in Act 1:18 is, that "falling headlong, he burst asunder the midst, and all his bowels gushed out"; which account may be reconciled with this, by supposing the rope, with which he hanged himself, to break, when falling; it may be, from a very high place, upon a stone, or stump of a tree; when his belly burst, and his guts came out: or it may be rendered, as it is in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, "he was strangled"; and that either by the devil, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks; who, having been in him for the space of two or three days, caught him up into the air, and threw him down headlong; and dashing him on the ground, he burst in the midst, and his bowels gushed out, and the devil made his exit that way: or by a disease called the squinancy, or quinsy, a suffocation brought upon him by excessive grief, deep melancholy, and utter despair; when being choked by it, he fell flat upon his face, and the rim of his belly burst, and his entrails came out. This disease the Jews call "Iscara"; and if it was what he was subject to from his infancy, his parents might call him Iscariot from hence; and might be designed in providence to be what should bring him to his wretched end: and what is said of this suffocating disorder, seems to agree very well with the death of Judas. They say (n), that
"it is a disease that begins in the bowels, and ends in the throat:''
they call death by it, , "an evil death" (o); and say (p), that
"there are nine hundred and three kinds of deaths in the world, but that , "the hardest of them all is Iscara"; which the Gloss calls "strangulament", and says, is in the midst of the body:''
they also reckon it, , "a violent death" (q); and say (r), that the spies which brought a bad report of the good land, died of it. Moreover, they affirm (s), that
"whoever tastes anything before he separates (i.e. lights up the lamp on the eve of the sabbath, to distinguish the night from the day), shall die by "Iscara", or suffocation.''
Upon which the Gloss says, this is
"measure for measure: he that satisfies his throat, or appetite, shall be choked: as it is said (t) he that is condemned to be strangled, either he shall be drowned in a river, or he shall die of a quinsy, this is "Iscara".''
(m) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 88. 2. (n) Gloss. in T. Bab. Sabbat, fol 33. 1. (o) T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 62. 9. (p) Beracot, fol. 3. 1. (q) Gloss. in T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 19. 2. (r) T. Bab. Sota, fol. 35. 1. (s) T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 105. 1. (t) T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 30. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain In that part of the temple where the sanhedrim…
In that part of the temple where the sanhedrim met.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. In the temple] ναος signifies, properly, the…
Verse 5. In the temple] ναος signifies, properly, the temple itself, into which none but the priests were permitted to enter; therefore εν τω ναω must signify, near the temple, by the temple door, where the boxes stood to receive the free-will offerings of the people, for the support and repairs of the sacred edifice. See this amply proved by Kypke.
Hanged himself] Or was strangled - απηγξατο. Some eminent critics believe that he was only suffocated by excessive grief, and thus they think the account here given will agree with that in Ac 1:18. Mr. Wakefield supports this meaning of the word with great learning and ingenuity. I have my doubts - the old method of reconciling the two accounts appears to me quite plausible - he went and strangled himself, and the rope breaking, he fell down, and by the violence of the fall his body was bursted, and his bowels gushed out. I have thought proper, on a matter of such difficulty, to use the word strangled, as possessing a middle meaning between choking or suffocation by excessive grief, and hanging, as an act of suicide. See Clarke on Mt 10:4. Dr. Lightfoot is of opinion that the devil caught him up into the air, strangled him, and threw him down on the ground with violence, so that his body was burst, and his guts shed out! This was an ancient tradition.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And he cast down ... - This was an…
And he cast down ... - This was an evidence of his remorse of conscience for his crime. His ill-gotten gain now did him no good. It would not produce relief to his agonized mind. He “attempted,” therefore, to obtain relief by throwing back the price of treason; but he attempted it in vain. The consciousness of guilt was fastened to his soul; and Judas found, as all will find, that to cast away or abandon ill-gotten wealth will not alleviate a guilty conscience.
In the temple - It is not quite certain what part of the temple is here meant. Some have thought that it was the place where the Sanhedrin were accustomed to sit; others, the treasury; others, the part where the priests offered sacrifice. It is probable that Judas cared little or thought little to what particular part of the temple he went. In his deep remorse he hurried to the temple, and probably cast the money down in the most convenient spot, and fled to some place where he might take his life.
Read full note →
And went and hanged himself - The word used in the original, here, has given rise to much discussion, whether it means that he was suffocated or strangled by his great grief, or whether he took his life by suspending himself. It is acknowledged on all hands, however, that the latter is its most usual meaning, and it is certainly the most obvious meaning. Peter says, in giving an account of the death of Jesus Act 1:18, that Judas, “falling headlong, burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” There has been supposed to be some difficulty in reconciling these two accounts, but there is really no necessary difference. Both accounts are true. Matthew records the mode in which Judas attempted his death by hanging. Peter speaks of the result. Judas probably passed out of the temple in great haste and perturbation of mind. He sought a place where he might perpetrate this crime.
He would not, probably, be very careful about the fitness or the means he used. In his anguish, his haste, his desire to die, he seized upon a rope and suspended himself; and it is not at all remarkable, or indeed unusual, that the rope might prove too weak and break. Falling headlong - that is, on his face - he burst asunder, and in awful horrors died - a double death, with double pains and double horrors - the reward of his aggravated guilt. The explanation here suggested will be rendered more probable if it be supposed that he hung himself near some precipitous valley. “Interpreters have suggested,” says Professor Hackett (Illustrations of Scripture, pp. 275, 276), “that Judas may have hung himself on a tree near a precipice over the valley of Hinnom, and that, the limb or rope breaking, he fell to the bottom, and was dashed to pieces by the fall. For myself, I felt, as I stood in this valley and looked up to the rocky terraces which hang over it, that the proposed explanation was a perfectly natural one. I was more than ever satisfied with it. I measured the precipitous, almost perpendicular walls in different places, and found the height to be, variously, 40, 36, 33, 30, and 25 feet. Trees still grow quite near the edge of these rocks, and, no doubt, in former times were still more numerous in the same place. A rocky pavement exists, also, at the bottom of the ledges, and hence on that account, too, a person who should fall from above would be liable to be crushed and mangled as well as killed. The traitor may have struck, in his fall, upon some pointed rock, which entered the body and caused ‘his bowels to gush out.’”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Hanged himself,[1] and did not die of the quinsy,…
Hanged himself,[1] and did not die of the quinsy, (a tumid inflammation in the throat) as some of late expound it. It is true the Greek word may sometimes signify a suffocation with grief; but it signifies also to be strangled with a rope, as Erasmus translated it. So it is in the ancient Syriac version; and the same Greek word is made use of in 2 Kings xvii, as to Achitophel’s death. (Witham) --- to his first repentance succeeded fell despair, which the devil pursued to his eternal destruction. If the unhappy man had sought true repentance, and observed due moderation in it, (by avoiding both extremes, presumption and despair) he might have heard a forgiving Master speaking to him these consoling words: I will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may be converted and still live. (Origen)
===============================
Read full note →
[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Laqueo se suspendit, Greek: apegxato. See Mr. Leigh, Crit. Sacra, Greek: apagchomai, strangular, suffocor.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain And he cast down the pieces of silver--The sarcastic,…
And he cast down the pieces of silver--The sarcastic, diabolical reply which he had got, in place of the sympathy which perhaps he expected, would deepen his remorse into an agony.
in the temple--the temple proper, commonly called "the sanctuary," or "the holy place," into which only the priests might enter. How is this to be explained? Perhaps he flung the money in after them. But thus were fulfilled the words of the prophet--"I cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord" (Zac 11:13).
Read full note →
and departed, and went and hanged himself--For the details, see on Act 1:18.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Hanged himself — There is no discrepancy between…
5. Hanged himself — There is no discrepancy between this account and the narrative given in Act_1:18. Judas hung himself near one of the precipices with which the environs of Jerusalem abound, and the rope breaking, perhaps intentionally on his part, he was precipitated down and dashed to pieces. On this point Prof. Hackett says: “I measured the precipitous, almost perpendicular walls in different places, and found the height to be, variously, forty, thirty-six, thirty-three, thirty, and twenty-five feet. Olive trees still grow quite near the edge of these rocks, and, no doubt, in former times they were still more numerous in the same place. A rocky pavement exists also at the bottom of the precipices; and hence, on that account, a person who should fall from above would be liable to be crushed and mangled as well as killed. The traitor may have struck in his fall upon some pointed rock and caused ‘his bowels to gush out.’“
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. in the temple] Properly, “in the holy place,”…
5. in the temple] Properly, “in the holy place,” which only the priests could enter.
went and hanged himself] A different account of the end of Judas is given Act_1:18; either by St Peter, or by St Luke in a parenthetical insertion. It is there stated (1) that Judas, not the Priests, bought the field: (2) that “falling headlong he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out;” (3) that the field was called Aceldama for that reason, not for the reason stated in this passage. The two accounts are not actually inconsistent, but the key to their concordance is lost. No entirely satisfactory solution of the discrepancy has been given.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) He cast down the pieces of silver in…
(5) He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple.—The Greek word for “Temple” is that which specially denotes (as in Mat_23:16; Mat_26:61; Joh_2:19), not the whole building, but the “sanctuary,” which only the priests could enter. They had stood, it would seem, talking with Judas before the veil or curtain which screened it from the outer court, and he hurled or flung it into the Holy Place.
Hanged himself.—The word is the same as that used of Ahithophel, in the Greek version of 2Sa_17:23, and is a perfectly accurate rendering. Some difficulties present themselves on comparing this brief record with Act_1:18, which will be best examined in the Notes on that passage. Briefly, it may be said here that the horrors there recorded may have been caused by the self-murderer’s want of skill, or the trembling agony that could not tie the noose firm enough.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain He cast down the pieces of silver in the…
He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple (en ta naw , in the sanctuary, or, as good manuscripts read, eiv ton , into the sanctuary). The priests were in the priests" court (which would be included in the term naov), separated by a stone partition from the court of the Gentiles. Into the latter area Judas had pressed; and, hurrying to the wall of division, he flung the cursed shekels with all his force into the inner place, as if to rescind the iniquitous contract and to cast away its pollution. He departed. He rushed away from the temple and the city into solitude, down into and across the valley of Hinnom, up the steep sides of the overhanging mountain anywhere to escape human eyes, and, if it might be, to flee from himself. Vain endeavour! The memory of his useless crime haunts him; he has no hope in earth or heaven; life under this burden is no longer supportable. Went and hanged himself (aphgxato , he strangled himself; laqueo se suspendit, Vulgate). He mounted some precipitous rock, and unwinding the girdle (for it was unnecessary to find and take a rope with him) which he wore, and in which he had doubtless carried the pieces of silver, fastened it round his neck, and securing it to some tree or projecting stone, flung himself from the height. The horrible result is told by St. Peter in his first address to the disciples, (Act_1:4-8) "Falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out." This may have resulted from the breaking of the girdle. A fragment of Papias gives another explanation, recounting that he was crushed and disembowelled by a passing waggon. Thus Judas, the only man concerning whom the terrible expression is used, went "to his own place". (Act_1:25) he is the Ahithophel of the New Testament. (2Sa_17:23 Psa_41:9 Psa_55:12-14)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 5. Cast down the pieces of silver in the…
5. Cast down the pieces of silver in the temple. Where he had this interview with the Sanhedrim. Went and hanged himself. So have done, since, thousands of criminals when the blackness of their crime had revealed itself to them. How often a man after the committal of a murder shoots himself!
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 27:5 hanged himself: Judas’s suicide resulted from a guilt-stricken,…
27:5 hanged himself: Judas’s suicide resulted from a guilt-stricken, unrepentant conscience. His death satisfied Old Testament law regarding the punishment of a false witness (see Deut 19:16-21).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.