People’s Open Bible

Fragments of Papias 15

Apollinarius Relates Judas' Fate

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1Apollinarius: “Judas did not die by hanging, but lived on, having been cut down before he was suffocated. And the Acts of the Apostles show this, that, falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. This fact is related more clearly by Papias, the disciple of John, in the fourth (book) of the Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord, as follows:—

2“Judas walked about in this world a terrible example of impiety; _ his flesh swollen to such an extent that, where a waggon [text unclear] pass with ease, he was not able to pass, no, not even the mass of his head merely. They say that his eyelids swelled to such an [lacuna] t that he could not see the light at all, while as for his eyes they were not visible even by a physician looking through an instrument, so far had they sunk from the surface....”

3Compiled from Cramer, Catena ad Acta SS. Apost. (1838), p. 12 sq., and other sources.

Composed from original Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Ge’ez manuscripts, rendered in multiple passes to stay as close to the originals as possible. About this project