Saint Matthew - Chapter 27
[5] Et projectis argenteis in templo, recessit : et abiens laqueo se suspendit.And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed: and went and hanged himself with an halter.
And he cast down the pieces of silver in the Temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. He first took them to the house of Caiaphas, or certainly to that of Pilate, where the Chief Priests were prosecuting their case; and afterwards, on their refusing to take them, threw them down in the Temple for the Priests to pick up. Some of the Chief Priests were probably there, but anyhow by throwing them down in the Temple he devoted them, as the price of the Most Holy Blood, to sacred and pious uses, if the Priests refused to take them back.
And he went and hanged himself. The Greek writers are mistaken in thinking that he did not die in this way, but was afterwards crushed to death (see on Acts 1:18). Judas then added to his former sin the further sin of despair. It was not a more heinous sin, but one more fatal to himself, as thrusting him down to the very depths of hell. He might, on his repentance, have asked (and surely have obtained) pardon of Christ. But, like Cain, he despaired of forgiveness, and hung himself on the self-same day, just before the death of Christ. For he could not bear the heavy remorse of an accusing conscience. So S. Leo (Serm. de Pass. iii.; S. Augustine, Quæst. v., and N. Test. xciv.). David had prophesied respecting him, “Let a sudden destruction,” &c. (Ps. 35:8). Thus S. Leo, “O Judas, thou wast the most wicked and miserable of men, for repentance recalled thee not to the Lord, but despair drew thee on to thy ruin!” And again, “Why dost thou distrust the goodness of Him who repelled thee not from the communion of His Body and Blood, and refused thee not the kiss of peace when thou earnest to apprehend Him? But thou wast past conversion (a spirit that goeth and returneth not); and with Satan at thy right hand, thou followedst the mad desire of thy own heart, and madest the sin which thou hadst sinned against the King of Saints to recoil on thine own head; that thus, as thy crime was too great for ordinary punishment, thou mightest pronounce, and also execute, the sentence on thyself.”
Some say that Judas hung himself from a fig-tree, the forbidden tree of Hebrew tradition, and one of ill-omen. Hence Juvencus—
“Even as his own wild punishment he sought,
He hung with deadly noose on fig-tree’s height.”
Now it was avarice that drove Judas to this fate. “Hear ye this,” says S. Chrysostom; “hear it, I say, ye covetous. Ponder it in your mind what he suffered. For he both lost his money, and committed a crime, and lost his soul. Such was the hard tyranny of covetousness. He enjoyed not his money, nor this present life, nor that which is to come. He lost them all at once, and having forfeited the goodwill even of those to whom he betrayed Him, he ended by hanging himself.”
This confession of Judas, then (not in word, but in deed), was a clear proof of Christ’s innocence, and it assuredly ought to have kept the Jews from killing Him, if they had only had the smallest amount of shame. But their obstinate malice could not be restrained even by this strange portent.
Symbolically: Bede remarks (in Acts 1), “His punishment was a befitting one. The throat which had uttered the word of betrayal was throttled by the noose. He who had betrayed the Lord of men and angels hung in mid-air, abhorred by Heaven and earth, and the bowels which had conceived the crafty treachery burst asunder and fell out.” S. Bernard, too (Serm. viii. in Ps. xc. [xci.]), says, “Judas, that colleague of the powers of the air, burst asunder in the air, as though neither the Heaven would receive nor the earth endure the betrayer of Him who was true God and man, and who came to work salvation in the midst of the earth” (Ps. 83:12, Vulg.). Again, S. Augustine (Lib. Hom. l., Hom. xxvii.), “That which he wrought on his own body, this was also wrought on his soul. For as they who throttle themselves cause death, because the air passes not within them, so do they who despair of the forgiveness of God choke themselves by their very despair, that the Holy Spirit cannot reach them.”
Acts of the Apostles - Chapter 1
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| Judas hangs himself. J-J Tissot |
Men, brethren, the scripture must needs be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was the leader of them that apprehended Jesus:
[17] qui connumeratus erat in nobis, et sortitus est sortem ministerii hujus.
Who was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
[18] Et hic quidem possedit agrum de mercede iniquitatis, et suspensus crepuit medius : et diffusa sunt omnia viscera ejus.
And he indeed hath possessed a field of the reward of iniquity, and being hanged, burst asunder in the midst: and all his bowels gushed out.
[19] Et notum factum est omnibus habitantibus Jerusalem, ita ut appellaretur ager ille, lingua eorum, Haceldama, hoc est, ager sanguinis.
And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so that the same field was called in their tongue, Haceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.
From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)
Origen represents Judas as having hastened to kill himself so as to reach the Abode of the Departed before his Master, that he might beseech Him to have mercy upon him. Lightfoot, on the other hand, makes out that the traitor was seized by the devil, who strangled him in the air and then let his body fall to the ground. As a matter of fact, the death of the betrayer was a more simple matter, and it is enough to accept literally what Saint Peter says on the subject in the Acts of the Apostles "and being hanged, burst asunder in the midst: and all his bowels gushed out." According to tradition, this last crime was committed in a lonely corner of the Valley of Jehoshaphat near the village of Shiloh.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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