Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
6. into the treasury ] “Into the Corban” in the original. For the prohibition cp. Deu 23:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is not lawful … – It was forbidden Deu 23:18 to take what was esteemed as an abomination and to offer it to God. The price of blood – that is, of the life of a man – they justly considered as an improper and unlawful offering.
The treasury – The treasury was kept in the court of the women. See plan of the temple, Mat 21:12. It was composed of a number of small chests placed in different parts of the courts to receive the voluntary offerings of the people, as well as the half shekel required of every Jew. The original word rendered here as treasury contains the notion of an offering to God. What was given there was considered as an offering made to him.
The price of blood – The life is in the blood. See the notes at Rom 3:25. The word blood here means the same as life. The price of blood means the price by which the life of a man has been purchased. This was an acknowledgment that in their view Jesus was innocent. They had bought him, not condemned him justly. It is remarkable that they were so scrupulous now about so small a matter, comparatively, as putting this money in the treasury, when they had no remorse about murdering an innocent man, and crucifying him who had given full evidence that he was the Messiah. People are often very scrupulous in small matters, who stick not at great crimes.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. The treasury] – the place whither the people brought their free-will offerings for the service of the temple, so called from the Hebrew korban, AN OFFERING, from karab, he drew nigh, because the person who brought the gift came nigh to that place where God manifested his glory between the cherubim, over the mercy-seat in the most holy place. It is from this idea that the phrase to draw nigh to God is taken, which is so frequently used in the sacred writings.
Because it is the price of blood.] “What hypocrites, as one justly exclaims, to adjudge an innocent man to death, and break the eternal laws of justice and mercy without scruple, and to be, at the same time, so very nice in their attention to a ceremonial direction of the law of Moses! Thus it is that the devil often deludes many, even among the priests, by a false and superstitious tenderness or conscience in things indifferent, while calumny, envy, oppression of the innocent, and a conformity to the world, give them no manner of trouble or disturbance.” See Quesnel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God, Deu 23:18, had forbidden to bring the price of a whore, or a dog, into the temple; this they had interpreted of all filthy gain: upon which they thus determine, that it was not lawful for them to put the money they had given Judas, for so sordid a service as that of betraying his Master, into the chest, or place which they had, where they kept the monies given for the repairs of the temple; and in this they were right enough, perhaps, but in this they showed themselves stupidly blind hypocrites, that they saw not it was much less lawful for them, who had hired him to this sordid action, to be employed in the service of the temple, for, Isa 52:11, those that bear the vessels of the Lord ought to be holy. Thus, to justify our Saviours words, they strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. And the chief priests took thesilver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into thetreasury“the Corban,” or chest containing themoney dedicated to sacred purposes (see on Mt15:5).
because it is the price ofbloodHow scrupulous now! But those punctilious scruples madethem unconsciously fulfil the Scripture.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the chief priests took the silver pieces,…. Off of the ground, after Judas was gone, no other daring to meddle with them; for in any other it would have been deemed sacrilege; and they being the proper persons to take care and dispose of money brought into the temple: and if not, their covetous disposition would have moved them to take up the money:
and said, one to another, it is not lawful to put them into the treasury, or “Corban”; as the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions leave the word untranslated: and which is the place where the offerings for the repair and service of the temple were put, and is the same into which Christ beheld the people casting their money,
Mr 12:41. Josephus u observes, that
“there was, with the Jews, an holy treasure, which is called “Corbonas”;”
and this is the , “the chamber of the Korban”, of which the Jews make mention w: the reason the high priests give why it was not lawful to put this money into the treasury, or into any of the chests in the “Corban” chamber, was,
because it is the price of blood. Thus they strained at a gnat, and swallowed a camel. It is highly probable, that they took this selfsame money out of the treasury to buy this blood with, and yet scruple to put it in, having bought it: and besides, they made no hesitation about seeking for, and shedding this innocent blood, and yet boggle at putting this money into the “Corban”, because it was the price of it; proceeding upon the same reason as the law in
De 23:18 does, pretending much religion, and great veneration for holy pieces and things, when they made no conscience of committing the most flagitious crimes.
u De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 3. w Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect, 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Into the treasury ( ). Josephus (War II. 9,4) uses this very word for the sacred treasury. Korban is Aramaic for gift () as is plain in Mr 7:11. The price of blood (blood-money) was pollution to the treasury (De 23:18f.). So they took the money out and used it for a secular purpose. The rabbis knew how to split hairs about Korban (Mark 7:1-23; Matt 15:1-20), but they balk at this blood-money.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
It is not lawful. In such cases the Jewish law provided that the money was to be restored to the donor; and if he insisted on giving it, that he should be induced to spend it for something for the public weal. This explains the apparent discrepancy between Matthew’s account and that in the book of Acts (i. 18). By a fiction of the law the money was still considered to be Judas ‘, and to have been applied by him to the purchase of the potter ‘s field.
Scarlet [] . From kokkov, cochineal, which grew in several parts of Greece. Garments of this color would seem to have been rare among the orientals. Herodotus relates that the admiration of Darius, then an officer in the army, was excited by the scarlet cloak of a Samian exile, who, on his offering to purchase it, presented it to him, and was afterward richly rewarded when Darius came to the throne (iii. 139).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
6. It is not lawful for us to throw it into the treasury. Hence it plainly appears that hypocrites, by attending to nothing more than the outward appearance, are guilty of gross trifling with God. Provided that they do not violate their Corban, (Mar 7:11,) they imagine that in other matters they are pure, and give themselves no concern about the infamous bargain, by which they, not less than Judas, had provoked against themselves the vengeance of God. But if it was unlawful to put into the sacred treasury the price of blood, why was it lawful for them to take the money out of it? for all their wealth was derived from the offerings of the temple, and from no other source did they take what they now scruple to mingle again with it as being polluted. Now, whence came the pollution but from themselves?
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury.The Greek for the last word is the Corban, or sacred treasure-chest of the Temple, into which no foreign coins were admitted, and from which the Law (Deu. 23:18) excluded the unclean offerings of the price of shame, which entered largely into the ritual of many heathen nations. By parity of reasoning, the priests seem to have thought that the blood-money which was thus returned was excluded also.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. The price of blood The true confession that they had bought Jesus for death. The money made abominable by certain crimes, was by law excluded from the treasury of God. Deuteronomy xxiii, 18. Many retain a sort of ecclesiastical conscience while committing the grossest immoralities.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And the chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” ’
The Chief Priests, who had paid the price of blood out of the Temple treasury, now became awfully pious. It was one thing betraying and destroying an innocent man, but they felt that it would be a gross sin to break the Temple rules. Thus they had the pieces of silver gathered up, piously indicated that as blood money it could not go into the Treasury (the place of dedicated money – ‘korbanas’ – from which it had come), and set it apart for the good of Gentiles who were after all already unclean. It would not do for the Temple or the Jewish race to be tainted by blood money (initially paid out by their representatives for this purpose). It is all so typical of the hypocrisy of men and women through the ages, especially those in authority, that the truth of the matter cannot be doubted, and the matter of fact way in which the story is told confirms its accuracy. No lesson is drawn from what happened.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
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.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mat 27:6-8. The treasury, &c. : the place where the gifts set apart for the service of the temple, and for other pious uses, were deposited, 2Ki 12:10. Mar 12:41-42. Such an offering as this price of blood would have been as much an abomination to the Lord, as the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, Deu 23:18. The chief priests therefore determined to buy the potter’s field with it, for burying strangers in: that is to say, such persons, whether Jews or Gentiles, as, happening to die at Jerusalem, had no burying-place of their own. Because the deliberation of the priests concerning this matter, and their buying the potter’s field, had an immediate relation to Judas’s treachery, St. Matthew very properly takes notice of it here, though the purchase might not have been made for some days, perhaps weeks or months, after the unhappy death of Judas. Thirty pieces of silver may seem a very inconsiderable price for a field so near Jerusalem. But as Grotius well observes, the ground was probably much spoiled by digging it up for earth to make potter’s vessels, so that it was now unfit for tillage or pasture, and consequently of small value. This field was called Aceldama, or the field of blood, because it was bought with the money which Judas received for betraying his Master’s life. Divine Providence seems to have set this name upon the field, to perpetuate the memory of the transaction: in St. Peter’s speech it is intimated that Judas made an acquisition of this field; not as an estate, but as an eternal monument of infamy and disgrace; for the people of those times might be supposed to say, as they passed by, “This field was purchased with the money for which Judas sold his Master.” Some ancient authors have even supposed that this was the place where Judas hanged himself, and was buried. St. Jerome, who had been upon the spot, tells us, that they still shewed this field in his time; that it lay south of mount Sion, and that they buried there the meanest of their people. The historians mentioning the purchase of the potter’s field with the money for which Judas betrayed his Master, being an appeal to a very public transaction, serves to put the truth of this part of the history beyond all manner of exception.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Mat 27:6 ] “argumento ducto ex Deu 23:18 , Sanhedr . f. 112,” Wetstein.
] the price of blood , which is supposed to have been shed.
.] , , Josephus, Bell. ii. 9. 4.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Ver. 6. It is not lawful, &c. ] They would not suffer the price of blood to lie in a chest; but the blood itself they could well enough suffer to lie in their consciences. So our modern Pharisees (the Popish prelates) will not be present when the martyrs are condemned to death, but have a hypocritical form of interceding for them to the secular powers, whereas they themselves have delivered them up to the judges to be executed, Quos suis praeiudiciis damnarunt, as one speaketh, having first degraded, excommunicated, and adjudged them worthy of death.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
6. ] They said this probably by analogy from Deu 23:18 . . ., the price given for shedding of blood, the wages of a murderer.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 27:6 . , the treasury, referred to by this name by Joseph. (B. J. ii. 9, 4). : exclusion of blood money from the treasury, an extension of the law against the wages of harlotry (Deu 23:18 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
because = since.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
6.] They said this probably by analogy from Deu 23:18. . ., the price given for shedding of blood, the wages of a murderer.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
It is not: Mat 23:24, Luk 6:7-9, Joh 18:28
to put: Deu 23:18, Isa 61:8
because: The Jews considered it was strictly forbidden by the Divine law to bring any filthy or iniquitous gain into the temple. For this reason they now refused to allow this money to be placed in the chest in the temple, amongst the former contributions for its repairs. In this, they were right enough, but by the very act of refusing this money, they proved themselves to be gross perverters of the spirit of God’s requirements: they saw not that it was much less lawful for them, who had hired Judas to this sordid action, to be employed in the service of the temple. Those that “bear the vessels of the Lord,” ought to be holy. Thus our Lord’s words, “Ye blind guides! ye strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.
Reciprocal: Jos 6:19 – the treasury 2Ki 21:16 – Manasseh Mar 12:41 – sat Luk 21:1 – the treasury Joh 8:20 – in the treasury
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
27:6
The priests understood the purpose of Judas to be that the money was to be put into the treasury. They pretended to have great respect for the sacredness of the temple, notwithstanding they had treated the one who was “greater than the temple” (chapter 12:6) with the deepest disrespect.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 27:6. It is not lawful, etc. Based upon Deu 23:18. What was put in the treasury was deemed an offering to God.
Since it is the price of blood. They thus stigmatized the crime of their tool, but not their own. Too conscientious to defile the treasury, they were not afraid to defile their own hands. A characteristically Pharisaical scruple.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. The niceness and scrupulosity of these hypocrites; they made no scruple to give money to shed blood, but they scruple the putting that money into the treasury which was the price of blood. They are afraid to defile their treasury, but are not afraid to pollute their souls. Thus hypocrites strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel; scruple a ceremony, but make no conscience of murder and perjury.
Observe, 2. The use which they put this mount to, which Judas brought them; they bought with it a field to bury strangers in. Thus Christ, who was himself a stranger in a borrowed grave, by the price of his blood (being thirty pieces of silver) conferred graves on many strangers.
Observe, lastly, how the wisdom of God ordered it, that hereby a scrupture prophecy might be fulfilled, Zec 11:13. “They weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver, and I took and cast them unto the potter.”
Whence learn, that all the indignities and abasing suffering which the Lord Jesus under went, were not only fore-ordained by God, but also fore told by the holy prophets; his being scourged, buffeted, spit upon, and here his being sold for thirty pieces of silver.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mat 27:6-8. And the chief priests took the silver pieces They refused to receive them from Judas, for fear, perhaps, of taking thereby the whole guilt of the murder of Christ upon themselves, which they wished Judas to bear with them; but the money being thrown down in some place belonging to the temple, in the precincts of which it is probable they held their council, they took it up; but were at first at a loss to know what use to make of it. It is not lawful, said they, to put them (the pieces of silver) into the treasury: because it is the price of blood Yes, of innocent blood: and was it lawful to purchase that? We see these priests and rulers had a conscience too! but what kind of a conscience! A conscience that strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel! They scrupled deviating from a ceremonial direction of Moses, while they were knowingly and wilfully transgressing, in the most flagrant instance possible, the eternal and unchangeable laws of justice and mercy! were adjudging to an ignominious and painful death the Holy One of God! These arch hypocrites, says Baxter, make conscience of ceremony, and make no conscience of perjury, persecution, and murdering the innocent! Blood they thirst for, and will give money to procure it, but the price of blood must not be consecrated! They scruple not to give money to procure the shedding of blood, but scruple the putting that money into the treasury! they are afraid to defile the treasury, but not afraid to pollute their souls. The word , here rendered treasury, occurs in no other passage in the Scriptures. Josephus makes use of it, and interprets it, , the sacred treasure. It is formed from , originally Hebrew, which also occurs but once in the Greek form, namely, Mar 7:11, and signifies that which is given, or devoted to God. The unlawfulness of putting the thirty shekels into this repository arose from this single circumstance, that it contained the treasure consecrated to God; and the priests judged that such an offering, as this price of blood, would have been as much an abomination to the Lord, as the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, which were expressly forbidden to be brought into the house of God for any vow, or offering, Deu 23:18. They took counsel and bought the potters field Well known, it seems, by that name; to bury strangers in Foreigners, heathen, especially, of whom there then were great numbers at Jerusalem. To purchase this field with the money, they thought would be putting it to a pious use; so holy and charitable would they be! Perhaps they thought to atone for what they had done by this public good act of providing a burying-place for strangers, though not at their own charge! Thus, in the dark times of Popery, people were made to believe that building churches, and endowing monasteries, would make amends for immoralities. Thirty pieces of silver may seem but a small price for a field so near to Jerusalem as this was. Probably the potters, by digging earth out of it for their ware, had made it useless either for tillage or pasture. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood Because it was bought with the money Judas received for betraying his Masters life. Providence seems to have set this name upon the field to perpetuate the memory of the transaction. Jerome, who had been upon the spot, tells us that they still showed this field in his time: that it lay south of mount Zion, and that they buried there the poorest and meanest of the people. The historians mentioning the purchase of the potters field with the money for which Judas betrayed his Master, being an appeal to a very public transaction, puts the truth of this part of the history beyond all manner of exception.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
27:6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the {b} treasury, because it is the price {c} of blood.
(b) The treasury of the temple.
(c) Of life and death.