What did Judas do with the money he was given for betraying Jesus?
Matthew states that Judas threw down the silver coins that he was paid, in the temple before going off and hanging himself.
Matthew 27:3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
However Luke in the book of Acts states that he purchased a field with it
Acts 1:9 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
Obviously Judas cannot have thrown the money away in the Temple and purchased a field with it. This is clearly a contradiction.
Furthermore, Matthew also states that it was the priests that bought the field and not Judas.
Matthew 27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
So did Judas buy the field himself or did he throw down the money and the priests bought the field?
The money was unlawful money. Even though Judas had returned it, legally it remained his. Although Judas did not physically buy the field himself it was his money that was used to do so. Judas bought the field indirectly by way of it being paid for by money that legally was his.
There is no contradiction here.