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Mat 27:8. Ἐκλήθη, κ.τ.λ., was called, etc.) A public testimony to the fact. The appellation of the field, though originating with the common people, was not fortuitous.-αἵματος, of blood) See Mat 27:6.-ἕως τῆς σήμερον, unto this day) St Matthew wrote some time after [the events which he recorded]; cf. ch. Mat 28:15.
Adrichonius says-” This soil (namely, that of the Field of Blood) possesseth a wonderful virtue, and one almost passing belief, viz., that within four and twenty hours it reduces the bodies of the dead to dust, which virtue, even when carried into other regions, it still preserves; for when, by command of the Empress Helena, as much earth, they say, as 270 vessels could hold, was taken from this field to Rome, and unloaded close by the Vatican Mount, on to that which the inhabitants call CAMPO SANTO, although it has changed its country, yet daily experience shows that it retains its power: for, rejecting Romans, it admits to sepulture only the bodies of strangers, the whole substance of whose flesh it here also entirely consumes within four and twenty hours, leaving only the bones.” This statement is partly confirmed, partly denied, by recent travellers.