Standard abbreviation: excerpted from Papias, Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (from quotations incorporated into catenae on Matthew)
Other titles: none
Clavis numbers: ECCA 653
Related literature: Gospel of Judas, Life of Judas
Category: Patristic Anecdotes
Compiled by Tony Burke, York University ([email protected]) and Geoffrey S. Smith, University of Texas at Austin ([email protected])
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony and Geoffrey S. Smith. “Death of Judas according to Papias.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/egerton-gospel/.
Created January 2019. Current as of April 2023.
1. SUMMARY
The fourth book of Papias’s lost Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord contains a tradition about the death of Judas that is different from what we find in both Matt 27:3–10 and Acts 1:18–20. This tradition, preserved in a long version and a short version in Greek catenae (collections of extracts from biblical commentators), states that Judas was punished for his betrayal of Jesus by becoming “inflamed in the flesh”—so large that he could not through narrow streets, his eyes swollen shut, his genitals enlarged and filled with pus and worms. Death came to him “in his own land” and no one can pass through there without holding their nose.
Named historical figures and characters: Judas Iscariot.
Geographical locations: none.
2. RESOURCES
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
Cramer’s edition uses Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Coislin gr. 23 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auctarium T.I.4 for the catenae to Matthew, and Oxford, New College, 58 for Acts.
Cramer, John Anthony. Catenae Graecorum Patrum in Novum Testamentum. 8 vols. Oxford: Academic Press, 1840–1844 (short version, vol. 1, p. 231; long version, vol. 3, pp. 12–13).
Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999 (long version pp. 582–85).
Lake, Kirsopp. “The Death of Judas.” Pages 22–30 in vol. 5 of The Beginnings of Christianity, Part 1: The Acts of the Apostles. Edited by Kirsopp Lake and Henry J. Cadbury. 5 vols. London: Macmillan, 1920–1933 (includes Cramer’s Greek texts, pp. 23–24).
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 English
Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. Rev. ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999 (long version pp. 582–85).
Smith, Geoffrey. “The Death of Judas According to Papias.” Pages 309–13 in vol. 1 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Edited by Tony Burke and Brent Landau. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.
3.3 General Works
Bartlett, J. Vernon. “Papias’ ‘Exposition’: Its Date and Contents.” Pages 15–44 in Amicitiae Corolla. A Volume of Essays Presented to J. R. Harris. Edited by Herbert G. Wood. London: University of London, 1933.
Beyschlag, Karlmann. “Herkunft und Eigenart der Papiasfragmente.” Pages 268–80 in Studia Patristica 4: Papers Presented to the 3rd International Conference on Patristic Studies at Christ Church, Oxford, 21–26 September 1959. Edited by Frank L. Cross. TU 79. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1961.
Harris, J. Rendel. “Did Judas Really Commit Suicide?” AJT 4.3 (1900): 490–513.
Herber, J. “La mort de Judas.” RHR 129 (1945): 47–56.
Klauck, Hans-Josef. “Judas der ‘Verräter’? Eine exegetische und wirkungsgeschichtliche Studie.” ANRW II.26.1 (1992): 717–40.
Lake, Kirsopp. “The Death of Judas.” Pages 22–30 in vol. 5 of The Beginnings of Christianity, Part 1: The Acts of the Apostles. Edited by Kirsopp Lake and Henry J. Cadbury. 5 vols. London: Macmillan, 1920–1933 (includes Cramer’s Greek texts, pp. 23–24).
MacDonald, Dennis R. Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The Logoi of Jesus and Papias’s Exposition of Logia about the Lord. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.
__________. “Luke’s Use of Papias for Narrating the Death of Judas.” Pages 43–62 in Reading Acts Today. Edited by Steve Walton et al. London: T&T Clark, 2011.
Moss, Candida R. “A Note on the Death of Judas in Papias.” NTS 65 (2019): 388–97.
Robertson, Jesse E. The Death of Judas: The Characterization of Judas Iscariot in Three Early Christian Accounts of his Death. New Testament Monographs. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix, 2012.
Schoedel, William R. “Papias.” ANRW II.27.1 (1993): 235–70.
Schweizer, Eduard. “Zu Apg. 1:16–22.” TZ 14 (1958): 46.
Zeichmann, Christopher B. “Papias as Rhetorician: Ekphrasis in the Bishop’s Account of Judas’ Death.” NTS 56 (2010): 427–29.