Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 27:7
And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
7. the potter’s field ] Tradition places Aceldama in the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem.
strangers ] i. e. Jews of the dispersion, Hellenists and proselytes.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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. It is not of necessity implied that Judas actually made the contract and paid down the money to buy a field to bury strangers in – a thing which would be in itself very improbable, but that it was by his means that the field was purchased. It is very frequent in the Scriptures, as well as in other writings, to represent a man as doing that which he is only the cause or occasion of anothers doing. See Act 2:23; Joh 19:1; Mat 27:59-60.
The potters field – Probably this was some field well known by that name, which was used for the purpose of making earthen vessels. The price paid for a field so near Jerusalem may appear to be very small; but it is not improbable that it had been worked until the clay was exhausted, and was neither suitable for that business nor for tillage, and was therefore considered as of little value.
To bury strangers in – Jews, who came up from other parts of the world to attend the great feasts at Jerusalem. The high priests, who regarded the Gentiles as abominable, would not be inclined to provide a burial-place for them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. To bury strangers in.] , 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They at last resolve what to do with the money, which was no great sum, for, as we noted before, it exceeded not three pounds fifteen shillings. They would not turn it to their own private use, for (probably) it was before taken out of the treasury; neither would they again return it into the treasury, because it had been made use of as the hire of blood. They therefore agree to buy with it a piece of ground ordinarily known by the name, of
the potters field, probably because some potter had digged earth, and thrown the waste of his pot kilns there, so as it was of no great value. This field the vulgar, upon this purchase of it by the priests, called many years after, The field of blood. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet. The evangelists use this term fulfilled, as I have before noted, in very different senses.
1. Sometimes to express the accomplishment of a prophecy.
2. Sometimes to express the fulfilling of a type, or answering it by the antitype.
3. Sometimes to express an allusion to some other scripture, mentioning some matter of fact of a like nature.
For the text here quoted, we have no such text in the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, which are upon sacred record. Jeremiah indeed did buy a field by order from God, Jer 32:9, to declare his faith in Gods promises for the return of the Jews out of captivity, but he bought it of his uncle Hanameel, and for seventeen pieces of silver; and that he was a potter, or that the field was called by that name, we do not read. The nearest place in the prophets to this text is Zec 11:12,13, And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. It is a very hard text as it lies in the prophet to give a just account of. The prophet was one of them who prophesied after the captivity of Babylon, yet, Zec 11:6, he plainly prophesieth after Gods destruction of the Jews and of Jerusalem. Which destruction being after that of the Chaldeans, to what it should refer, but to the last destruction of the Jews by the Romans, I cannot understand. Zec 11:7, he saith, I will feed the flock of the slaughter, that is, the flock designed for the slaughter, or drawing near to the slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. Christ came in person to feed the church of the Jews, but they also abhorred him, so that he abhorred them, and resolved to cast them quite off; Zec 11:8,9. So he broke first his staff called Beauty, took away all the glory and beauty of that church. Then, as it were in indignation, he saith, If ye think good, give me my price. What requital will you give me for my labour amongst you? So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. Their selling of Christ to a traitor for so much, signified their high contempt of him. And the Lord said, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. The evangelist indeed doth not quote the very words of the prophet, but the substance of them. And for my part I think, that the evangelist here by fulfilling meaneth the accomplishment of the prophecy in Zechariah. For I know not what other tolerable sense to make of the prophecy, if we do not say the prophet spake in the person of Christ, foretelling his own coming amongst them, their rejection and contempt of him, and his utter rejection of them; and prophesying, as a piece of their contempt and rejection of him, their selling him to Judas for thirty pieces of silver, (a most contemptible price), and God so ordering it by his providence, that this money should again be brought them, and this potters field should be bought with it. So as I think that text was fulfilled here more than by allusion, or as it was typical to this act, and that this act was the very thing which there is prophesied, and here fulfilled. But how Matthew saith this was
spoken by Jeremy the prophet is a harder knot. It is observable that Zechariah hath many things found in Jeremiah, and it is not improbable that the very same thing was prophesied by Jeremiah, though afterward repeated by Zechariah, and only in the writings of Zechariah left upon sacred record. Matthew having now given us an account of the fate of Judas, returneth to our Saviour, carried (as we heard) before Pilate.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And they took counsel,…. With one another, considered of the matter, and deliberated about it a while; and at last came to a resolution,
and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in: a field of no great value, or it could not have been bought so near Jerusalem for so small a sum as thirty pieces of silver. Grotius’s conjecture seems to be a good one, that it was a field the potter had dug up for his use, and had made the most of it; so that it was good for nothing, but for the purpose for which these men bought it, “to bury strangers in”: either such as were not of their own nation, as the Roman soldiers, many of which were among them, and who they did not suffer to be buried among them; or proselytes, or such as came from distant parts, at their three festivals, many of whom may be supposed to die at such times: now by this act of humanity in providing for the interment of strangers, they designed, and hoped to have covered their wickedness in bargaining with Judas to betray innocent blood, for this sure of money; but it was so ordered by divine providence, that this became a public and lasting memorial of their sin and infamy: for it follows,
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The potter’s field ( ). Grotius suggests that it was a small field where potter’s clay was obtained, like a brickyard (Broadus). Otherwise we do not know why the name exists. In Ac 1:18 we have another account of the death of Judas by bursting open (possibly falling after hanging himself) after he obtained the field by the wages of iniquity. But it is possible that there refers to the rabbinical use of Korban, that the money was still that of Judas though he was dead and so he really “acquired” the field by his blood-money.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
(7) And they took counsel.As before, they held a council.
The potters field.In Jer. 18:2 we read of the potters house as being outside the city, probably, from Jer. 19:2, in the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), on the south side of Jerusalem. It is probable that it had been worked out in course of time, and was now in the state of a disused quarry. It was necessary, now that Roman soldiers were often stationed in the city, and men of all nations came to it, to provide some burial-place for them; but no Jew would admit their bones into the sepulchre of his fathers. On the other hand, every devout Jew would shrink from the thought of burying his dead in the foul and hateful spot which had become the type of the unseen Gehenna. (See Notes on Mat. 5:22.) There was, therefore, a subtle fitness of association in the policy which the priests adopted. The place was itself accursed; it was bought with accursed money; it was to be used for the burial of the accursed strangers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Potter’s field Pottery, or the manufactory of earthenware, was a very ancient art. The remains of it are found among the relics of the most ancient nations. The clay being dug from the surface, for the purposes of pottery, rendered the soil unfit for tillage or other uses, so that it was sold for the small price here paid.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.’
So they then discussed the matter together, and finally came up with the idea of buying ‘the potter’s field’ which had come up for sale, and could be used for burying non-Jews in. The field may simply have been popularly named this, having at some stage been used by potters, or it may in fact have belonged to a well known potter. Alternatively it may have been the site of a one-time clay quarry in the Valley of Hinnom, now exhausted, from which the potters’ clay had once come, but only now useful as a burial ground for the not too particular.
In Acts we learn that Judas ‘bought the field’. But there is no genuine discrepancy. The Chief Priests would have agreed that it was bought courtesy of Judas. It was his money that bought the field.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 27:7 f. ] It is not said that they did so immediately; but the purchase took place shortly after, according to Act 1:18 .
.] the field of the potter , the field which had previously belonged to some well-known potter. Whether the latter had used the field for the purpose of digging clay, it is impossible to determine.
. ] as a burying-place for the strangers , namely, such foreign Jews (proselytes included) as happened to die when on a visit to Jerusalem; not Gentiles (Paulus), who, had they been intended, would have been indicated more specifically.
] because it had been bought with the above (Mat 27:6 ).
] , Act 1:18 , where, however, the name is traced to a different origin. On the place which in accordance with tradition is still pointed out as the field here referred to, see Robinson, II. p. 178 ff.; Tobler, Topogr.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
Ver. 7. To bury strangers in ] Romans and others, with whom they would have nothing common, no, not so much as a burial place, Isa 65:4-5 . God complains of a people that “remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments; which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou,” &c.; sick they were of a Noli me tangere, Do not touch me, strict in trifles, senseless of foul sins. There are those who tell us, that the nature of this potter’s field is such, as, if a stranger’s body be laid in it, it consumes it to the bone in twenty-four hours; which it doth not to the body of any Jew. This, if it be true, saith one, it seems God would have the earth thus marked to preserve the memory of the bloody money by which it was purchased; and therefore he gave it a virtue to consume strangers’ bodies ere they could corrupt, refusing the Jews; to show how they had lost their privilege to their own land, by crucifying their Lord, and strangers began to be possessed of it. Also, to teach us, that his hope is nearest incorruption, who is the greatest stranger from the sin of the Jews, that is, crucifying Christ.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
7. . . . ] the field of some well-known potter purchased at so small a price probably from having been rendered useless for tillage by excavations for clay: see note on Act 1:19 .
. ] not for Gentiles, but for stranger Jews who came up to the feasts.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:7 . . , the field of the potter. The smallness of the price has suggested to some (Grotius, e.g. ) that it was a field for potter’s clay got cheap because worked out. But in that case it would naturally be called the field of the potters. most take as referring to Jews from other lands dying at Jerusalem at passover time.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
bought = purchased with money in the market. In Act 1:18, the word is not agorazo, as here, but ktaomai = acquired as a possession by purchase. Act 1:18 refers to quite another transaction. See App-161. There is no “discrepancy” except that which is created by inattention to the Greek words used.
with = out of. Greek. ek. App-104.
field. Greek. agros, not chorion = a small holding, as in Act 1:18.
to bury strangers in = for (Greek. eis. App-104.) a burying ground (Greek. taphe. Occurs only here) for foreigners.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
7. . . .] the field of some well-known potter-purchased at so small a price probably from having been rendered useless for tillage by excavations for clay: see note on Act 1:19.
.] not for Gentiles, but for stranger Jews who came up to the feasts.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 27:7. , the Potters Field) The article denotes that it was well known as such. A potter may have used it to obtain clay from.- , to bury strangers in) Thus, even then already did strangers gain more of a footing in Jerusalem: thus also the first possession of Abraham had been a burying-place.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
27:7
Potter’s field. After all the clay suitable for the making of pottery has been taken from a field, the land is of little use and hence very cheap commercially. A plot of such land was bought with this money and devoted to the burying of strangers or persons unknown to the community. From this circumstance comes the name “potter’s field” today, a portion of cemetery grounds where poor people may bury their dead. free of charge for the ground.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 27:7. And they took counsel. Probably soon after the crucifixion.
The potters field. Some well known spot, of little value, because unfit for tillage.
To bury strangers in. Not heathen, but either foreign Jews, or, as is more likely, proselytes of the gate. The field of blood would be deemed good enough for this class, who could not be wholly overlooked. The charity was at all events a cheap one, and Pharisaism is true to itself in this. Compare the traders in the court of the Gentiles (chap. Mat 21:12). It is not expressly stated, but suggested by Act 1:18, that Judas was buried there. This first graveyard (instead of the usual isolated sepulchres) was not consecrated but desecrated by the burial of a suicide; the remains of such are usually refused a place in consecrated burial-grounds.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
27:7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury {d} strangers in.
(d) Strangers and guests, whom the Jews could not endure to be joined with even after they were dead.