Matthew 27:7
in Matthew 27After conferring together, they used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
KJV
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
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This verse in Matthew 27
Commentary
18 notes on this verse(Vers. 7, 8.) However, with a plan devised, they bought a field from that potter, for the burial of strangers, therefore that field was called Acheldemach, which means the field of blood, to this day. Indeed, they acted with a different intention, that they might leave a lasting monument of their impiety from the purchase of the land. But we, who were strangers to the Law and the prophets, have embraced their corrupt practices for salvation: and we find rest in the price of his blood. But the field is called 'figulus' because our potter is Christ.
This site's exposition
It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury
on Matthew 27:6-8
The chief priests refuse to return the silver to the temple treasury on a scruple of ceremonial law, since it is the price of blood, even while the greater blood price they arranged troubles them not at all, and the bench reads the irony as Matthew's own, deliberate and unremarked. With money they cannot keep clean they buy the potter's field as a burial ground for strangers, and the field earns a second name, Aceldama in Acts 1:19's Aramaic, the field of blood, a name Matthew says stood unto this day, meaning still at the time he wrote. Judas's silver, refused by the temple, ends up purchasing a grave for the very Gentiles the temple would not have inside its own courts.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
(App. Serm. 80. 1.) It was brought about, I conceive, by God's providence, that the Saviour's price should not minister means of excess to sinners, but repose to foreigners, that thence Christ might both redeem the living by the shedding of His blood, and harbour the dead by the price of His passion. Therefore with the price of the Lord's blood the potter's field is purchased. We read in Scripture that the salvation of the whole human race has been purchased by the Saviour's blood. This field then is the whole world. The potter who is the Lord of the soil, is He who has formed of clay the vessels of our bodies. This potter's field then was purchased by Christ's blood, and to strangers who without country or home wander over the whole world, repose is provided by Christ's blood. These foreigners are the more devout Christians, who have renounced the world, and have no possession in it, and so repose in Christ's blood; for the burial of Christ is nothing but the repose of a Christian; for as the Apostle says, We are buried with him by baptism into death. (Rom. 6:4.) We are in this life then as foreigners.
Because the quality of resting places for the dead varies (for many are buried in their ancestral tombs which were secured by a pledge, but those who suffer misfortune are often buried in the graves of the homeless), those who received payment in exchange for the blood of Jesus used it to acquire a potter's field for the purpose of having a place in which to bury those foreigners who could not supply a pledge to secure a proper tomb. If it is suitable to interpret these foreigners typologically, we can consider those persons to be foreigners who remained strangers to God until the end and alien to his covenants. Vagabonds such as these meet their end buried in a potter's field acquired with blood money. The righteous are able to say, "We are buried with Christ in a new tomb cut from the rock in which no dead body had yet been laid," but those foreigners who remain finally estranged from Christ and alien to God will have to say, "We are buried with strangers in the field which is called the 'Field of Blood.' "
They thought it meet to spend upon the dead that money which was the price of blood. But as there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus' blood in the purchase of some potter's field, where foreigners might be buried, not as they desired in the sepulchres of their fathers. Or, the foreigners are they who to the end are aliens from God, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out in the rock. But they who are aliens from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter, a worker in clay, which being bought by the price of blood, is called the field of blood.
Because the quality of resting places for the dead varies (for many are buried in their ancestral tombs which were secured by a pledge, but those who suffer misfortune are often buried in the graves of the homeless), those who received payment in exchange for the blood of Jesus used it to acquire a potter's field for the purpose of having a place in which to bury those foreigners who could not supply a pledge to secure a proper tomb. If it is suitable to interpret these foreigners typologically, we can consider those persons to be foreigners who remained strangers to God until the end and alien to his covenants. Vagabonds such as these meet their end buried in a potter's field acquired with blood money. The righteous are able to say, "We are buried with Christ in a new tomb cut from the rock in which no dead body had yet been laid," but those foreigners who remain finally estranged from Christ and alien to God will have to say, "We are buried with strangers in the field which is called the 'Field of Blood.' "
They thought it meet to spend upon the dead that money which was the price of blood. But as there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus' blood in the purchase of some potter's field, where foreigners might be buried, not as they desired in the sepulchres of their fathers. Or, the foreigners are they who to the end are aliens from God, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out in the rock. But they who are aliens from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter, a worker in clay, which being bought by the price of blood, is called the field of blood.
11 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers2 voices
Also we, who were strangers to the Law and the Prophets, have profited by the perverse temper of the Jews to obtain salvation for ourselves.
A commentator
John ChrysostomHomily on the Gospel of Matthew 85 · Written in the 5th century.
proposed
What then did that man? When he saw that he was laboring to no profit, and that they would not consent to receive the pieces of silver, "he cast them down in the temple, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, it is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, the field of blood, unto this day. 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, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me." Seest thou them again self-condemned by their conscience? For because they knew that they had been buying the murder, they put them not into the treasury, but bought a field to bury strangers in. And this also became a witness against them, and a proof of their treason. For the name of the place more clearly than a trumpet proclaimed their blood-guiltiness. Neither did they it at random, but having taking counsel, and in every case in like manner, so that no one should be clear of the deed, but all guilty. But these things the prophecy foretold from of old. Seest thou not the apostles only, but the prophets also declaring exactly those things which were matters of reproach, and every way proclaiming the passion, and indicating it beforehand? This was the case with the Jews without their being conscious of it. For if they had cast it into the treasury, the thing would not have been so clearly discovered; but now having bought a piece of ground, they made it all manifest even to subsequent generations. Hear ye as many as think to do good works out of murders, and take a reward for the lives of men. These almsgiving are Judaical, or rather they are Satanical. […]
The Medieval Church2 voices
And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful to put them into the corban, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field …
Then he narrates what was done with it. And first he states the deed; secondly, what came of it. He says: "and after they had consulted together etc." Why did they do this? It must be said that God so arranged it, that this deed …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
And they took counsel,....
Thus in times of ignorance people were made to believe that building churches and endowing monasteries would make amends for immoralities. Secondly, To signify the favour intended by the blood of Christ to strangers, and sinners of the Gentiles. Through the price of his blood, a resting place is provided for them after death.
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
And they took counsel ... - They consulted among themselves about the proper way to dispose of this money. And bought with them - In Act 1:18, it is said of Judas that “he purchased a field with the reward of his iniquity.” By the passage in the Acts is meant no more than that he “furnished the means” or “was the occasion” of purchasing the field.
The opening of this chapter describes the delivery of our Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of the Gentiles. The chief priests and elders of the Jews led him away to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. We may see in this incident the finger of God: it was ordered by his providence that Gentiles as well as Jews should be concerned in the murder of Christ; it was ordered by his providence that the priests should publicly confess that the “scepter had departed from Judah.”
The opening of this chapter describes the delivery of our Lord Jesus Christ into the hands of the Gentiles. The chief priests and elders of the Jews led him away to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. We may see in this incident the finger of God: it was ordered by his providence that Gentiles as well as Jews should be concerned in the murder of Christ; it was ordered by his providence that the priests should publicly confess that the “scepter had departed from Judah.” They were unable to put anyone to death without going to the Romans: the words of Jacob were therefore fulfilled. The Messiah, Shiloh had indeed come ( Genesis 49:10 ). The subject that principally occupies the verses we have read is the melancholy end of the false apostle, Judas Iscariot. It is a subject full of instruction: let us mark well what it contains. We see in the end of Judas a plain proof of our Lord’s innocence of every charge laid against him. If there was any living witness who could give evidence against our Lord Jesus Christ, Judas Iscariot was the man. A chosen apostle of Jesus, a constant companion in all his journeyings, a hearer of all his teaching, both in public and private—he must have known well if our Lord had done any wrong, either in word or deed. A deserter from our Lord’s company, a betrayer of him into the hands of his enemies, it was his interest for his own character’s sake, to prove Jesus guilty. It would extenuate and excuse his own conduct if he could make out that his former Master was an offender and an impostor. Why then did not Judas Iscariot not come forward? Why did he not stand forth before the Jewish council and specify his charges, if he had any to make? Why did he not venture to accompany the chief priests to Pilate, and prove to the Romans that Jesus was a malefactor? There is but one answer to these questions.
To bury strangers in - Τοις ξενοις, the strangers, probably meaning, as some learned men conjecture, the Jewish strangers who might have come to Jerusalem, either to worship, or on some other business, and died there during their stay. See here, the very money for which the blessed Jesus was sold becomes subservient to the purpose of mercy and kindness! The bodies of strangers have a place of rest in the field purchased by the price at which his life was valued, and the souls of strangers and foreigners have a place of rest and refuge in his blood which was shed as a ransom price for the salvation of the whole world.
Modern Voices1 voice
In my daily paper this morning I read the following interesting paragraphs, which take my mind back to an England which I do not remember and which, therefore (perhaps), I admire. "Nearly sixty years ago--on 4 September, 1850--the Austrian General Haynau, who had gained an …
The words behind it
14 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Συμβούλιον | sumboulion | Counsel | G4824 → | 8 times |
| δὲ | de | then | G1161 → | 2765 times |
| λαβόντες | labontes | having taken | G2983 → | 257 times |
| ἠγόρασαν | egorasan | they bought | G59 → | 30 times |
| ἐξ | ex | with | G1537 → | 911 times |
| αὐτῶν | auton | them | G846 → | 5565 times |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἀγρὸν | agron | field | G68 → | 35 times |
| τοῦ | tou | of the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| κεραμέως | kerameos | potter | G2763 → | |
| εἰς | eis | for | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| ταφὴν | taphen | a burial place | G5027 → | |
| τοῖς | tois | for the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ξένοις. | xenois | strangers. | G3581 → | 14 times |
ΣυμβούλιονCounsel
sumboulionG4824 →8 times
δὲthen
deG1161 →2765 times
λαβόντεςhaving taken
labontesG2983 →257 times
ἠγόρασανthey bought
egorasanG59 →30 times
ἐξwith
exG1537 →911 times
αὐτῶνthem
autonG846 →5565 times
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
ἀγρὸνfield
agronG68 →35 times
τοῦof the
touG3588 →19766 times
κεραμέωςpotter
kerameosG2763 →
εἰςfor
eisG1519 →1755 times
ταφὴνa burial place
taphenG5027 →
τοῖςfor the
toisG3588 →19766 times
ξένοις.strangers.
xenoisG3581 →14 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
About Matthew
This page draws on 16 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; GK Chesterton, Alarms and Discursions, The Field of Blood (1910); J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Matthew; Jerome, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; John Chrysostom, Homily on the Gospel of Matthew 85; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Lightfoot, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae on Matthew; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 117; Origen of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Matthew and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Matthew.