Welcome to the Death and Cowbells episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast! One of the most difficult dilemmas in the entire Bible has to do with how Judas Iscariot actually died. According to Matthew’s Gospel, Judas hanged himself, and priests purchased the field where he died for thirty pieces of silver. But, according to the book of Acts, Judas fell headfirst in a field that he had acquired and his intestines burst out. So which is it? And what does this mean for how we read the New Testament? Today, in the Three Chords segment of the program, Dr. Robert Plummer joins Timothy and Garrick to discuss the fate of Judas Iscariot. In the Truth segment, your intrepid cohosts discuss a Christian theology of death by examining “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” by the Blue Öyster Cult--which ends up leading to discussions about the Milford Oyster Festival and whether Eddie Money is still alive. This week’s question from the Infinity Gauntlet places the two greatest comic-book movie trilogies ever—DC’s Dark Knight trilogy and MCU’s Captain America trilogy—in the ring to face each other in a battle to the death. Subscribe to Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast: Apple / Android / RSS.
In this Episode
Robert Plummer, Ph.D., is professor of New Testament interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and host of the Daily Dose of Greek screencast. He is the author or editor of several books, including Going Deeper with New Testament Greek (B&H, 2016) and 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible (Kregel, 2010). Follow Dr. Plummer on Twitter at @dailygreek.
Questions to Discuss
1. According to Matthew 27, Judas hanged himself; according to Acts 1, he fell headfirst and his intestines burst out. How did Judas actually die, by falling or by hanging?
2. According to Matthew, it was the priests who bought the field where Judas bought the farm; according to Acts, Judas bought it himself. Who actually purchased the Field of Blood?
3. There is another account of the death of Judas that comes from an individual named Papias, who was a leader in the second-century. According to his account, Judas was cut down after trying to hang himself, and he was later run over by a wagon. Should these words from Papias have any impact on the way we approach this apparent discrepancy?
Links to Click
If you want to dig deeper into the historical integrity of the New Testament, one great place to start is In Defense of the Bible, edited by Terry Wilder and Steven Cowan. To download a sample chapter, visit http://www.bhacademic.com
40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible: book by Robert Plummer
Daily Dose of Greek: resource by Robert Plummer
Remember Death: book by Matthew McCullough
The Pornography of Death: article by Matthew McCullough
Swimming in a Sea of Death: book by David Rieff
The Myth of Sisyphus: novel by Albert Camus
Unanswered Prayers and the Love of God: article by Eduardo Echeverria
(Don't Fear) The Reaper: song by Blue Öyster Cult
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: song by Gordon Lightfoot
Black Sabbath: song by Black Sabbath
I Wanna Go Back: song by Eddie Money
Milford Oyster Festival: community event in Milford, Connecticut
If you are interested in earning a master’s degree online or on campus that will equip you with the most comprehensive apologetics training available anywhere, go to http://www.sbts.edu/bgs/degree-programs/mdiv/apologetics/
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The Closing Credits
Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by the band Vegan Friendly—even though neither Garrick nor Timothy has ever been vegan friendly. Brief excerpts of music played in the second half of each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. "The fair use of a copyrighted work ... for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, ... scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright" (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).
Robert Plummer: How Did Judas Iscariot Really Die? + "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Blue Öyster Cult)