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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Matthew 27:6 - 27:10
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The purchase of the field of blood:
v. 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.
v. 7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
v. 8. Wherefore that field was called The Field of Blood, unto this day.
v. 9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
v. 10. and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me
The evangelist here draws a picture of hypocrisy in its most repulsive form. The remorse of Judas over the betraying of innocent blood makes absolutely no impression upon them, but the possible infraction of a rule drawn from Deu_23:18 fills their hearts with consternation. In sanctimonious horror they hold up their hands to ward off a threatening calamity: It will never do to lay this blood-money (which they themselves had paid for that purpose) into the holy treasury. And so the pious frauds hold a solemn meeting and decide to invest the money in a cemetery for strangers, an old clay-pit being available for that purpose. Matthew refers to a prophecy which was here fulfilled in a most remarkable way, naming the more important prophet as his source, Jer_18:2-3; Jer_32:6-15; Zec_11:13. They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him who was valued at that sum, or the price of the inestimably Valuable One, whom they bought from the children of Israel, paying the money for the field of the potter, according to the command of the Lord. The two prophecies are here blended in a wonderful way, affording a further proof for the inspiration of both the gospel and the books of the prophets, since the Lord states His eternal truth according to His will. For many years after the events here recorded, the cemetery thus purchased was simply known as the Field of Blood, a fine monument to the chief priests and the betrayal of the Holy One of God.