DID JUDAS KILL JESUS? (MATTHEW 26:48-50; JOHN 18:3-12)

This absurd “contradiction” appears as #47 in the list of “101 Contradictions in the Bible” found several places on the internet. The author of this one states the following:

    Did Judas kiss Jesus? (a) Yes (Matt 26:48-50) (b) No, Judas could not get close enough to Jesus to kiss him. (John 18:3-12).

For answer (a), the other Synoptic Gospels could have just as easily quoted since they all three agree. And either I am not at all comprehending what the proposed difficulty is, or the author of this contradiction is way off base. As a matter of fact, not one of the many commentators I consulted on this matter even gave a hint that there was any sort of contradiction.

Since the proposed “problem” seems to lie with John's account, that is the one on which we need to concentrate. Borchert notes that the exact number of soldiers dispatched to go with Judas to the scene is uncertain. While the Greek word speiran in John 18:3 can refer to a cohort of 600 soldiers, it can also denote a much smaller band. Thus, Donald Guthrie states, “John clearly intends only a detachment of troops sent to maintain order.”

The exact number of soldiers is not really critical to this issue although it perhaps brings up the possibility that there were more than a few people at the scene who could have hypothetically stood between Judas and Jesus to prevent the kiss from taking place, either soldiers or the other apostles.

The next germane point concerns where Judas was positioned in relation to the soldiers: in back of them, in their midst, or at their head. We learn from John 18:3 that Judas “brought with him” (NRSV) the soldiers. The NIV says he “guided” them to the scene of the arrest. It is more than ridiculous to suppose that a guide would do his leading from behind. And the larger the group of soldiers, the more ridiculous that scene becomes. The three Synoptic accounts make it even clearer that Judas was at the head of the attachment.

So perhaps the people supposedly standing between Judas and Jesus were the other apostles instead? That explanation doesn't wash either since John states in 18:4 that Jesus stepped forward away from the apostles to greet Judas. And to make it even clearer, it also says in that verse that when Jesus spoke, the soldiers drew back. That would have left absolutely no one between Jesus and Judas to prevent the kiss.

So all we are left of this “contradiction” is that John didn't actually mention Judas' kiss, unlike the Synoptics.

If this sort of omission constitutes a contradiction, then I could help our internet critic out by pointing to literally hundreds of other places in the Gospels where there is a departure from a word-for-word agreement between the four. Keep in mind that if all accounts reported the same events down to the letter, there would be absolutely no need to have four Gospels when just one would suffice. Instead, by the varied emphases each Evangelist utilized, we are given a much fuller perspective of the events as viewed by four different eyes and utilizing various eyewitness sources.

With that in mind, we might still ask at this point, “Why did John choose to leave out the detail of the kiss?” We may never know for a certainty the answer to that one, but at least two commentaries I read gave the same response:

    Leon Morris: “John omits any reference to the kiss of Judas (Matt. 26:49; Mark 14:45; Luke 22:47), which would have taken place at this juncture. He is not concerned to tell us everything that happened, but rather to show Jesus' complete control of the situation.”

    David J. Ellis: “The Synoptists tell us of the deadly kiss. Here, however, we have a picture of the Savior taking the initiative at every stage.”