The evidence, then, points to the following con- clusions. The field which was purchased with the wages of Judas was originally a 'potter's field,' or pit, in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It may have been (as Christian tradition liad it afterwards) the place in the Valley <>i Hiiiiium where the potter of Jereiiii.iirs, lav I'lusuid his er.ift (.ler 18- 19=) ; but of this llHTe i's no hiiil in the NT, for the reference to Jereiiuali in the le\l ,,f Mt l'7'' is an inadvertence, thepassiiL'e ipiuted hv the Mv.-ui'felist being Zee IV^. This 'i.utl.rV llelil ' was n-,e,| as a burial-ground for straH.uer:-, and M.^\as ealle.l s-r: riDi = cce meter ium. Withiu half a century llie name became corrupted to n=t bpn ' the Field of Blood,' the allusion being variously interpreted of the blood of Christ and the blood of Judas.
There is no good reason to doubt the identity of tlie modern H(tklc cd-Dmnw, on the south bank of the Valley of Hinnom, with th<! ' Akchlaniach' of Lk. and the dypbs ai>oros of i\lattliew. The early pilgrims, i-.g. Antmiinus (.'i7ii) and Arculf (685),
- .t ill. L..'!iU'iii ul ..ill , ■.■,.;. i_li, liiiiui,li inrollbisteut with Ac 1,
is r'ompatiljle with 1\U., a.-^ \yA^ lieeii pointed out above. Thus Antoninus places ' Akeldemac, hoc est, ager sanguinis, in quo onines peregrini ecpeliuntnr' (§ 2C), near Siloam ; but the fig- tree 'on which Judas hanged himself was shown him on the N,E. of the city (§ 17). Arculf seems to place the latter upon the Hill of Evil Counsel (§ IS), where it is shown at the present day; but the tradition has not been constant, the 'elder-tree' of Judas havintr been pointed out to Sir J. Maundeville (in lelh
■ Absalom's i
The best descript the buildings wine house, will befouml
if //'(/,/. ril-Dumm, and of main <il the old charnel Schick {PEFSt,
189'2, p. 283 ft'.). It is .luite possible, as he says that this was once the site of a potter's cave ; and clay used to be taken, up to quite recent times, from a jjlace a little higher up the Hill of Evil Counsel. This burial-place was much tised in Crusading times ; indeed, it came to be regarded as an honour to be buried in Akeldama, so completely were the old associations of horror forgotten or ignored. J. H. Bernard.
ALABASTER (dXd^atrr/io! or aXd/Sao-rpw ; in secular writers always dXajiaarpoi [more correctly dXdSao-Tos], though with a heterog. plur. dXa^aarpa ; in NT only in accus., and only once with art., which is found in dillereiit MSS'in all the genders -Tiiv,r6v, TO [Tisch., Treu., WH, Meyer, Alford prefer tt);']). — The word oeeurs four times in the Gospels: Mt26', IMk 14"'% Lk 7^'. The Oriental alabaster, so called from the locality in Egypt (the town of Alabastron, near Tell el-Amarna) * where it is found in greatest abundance, is a species of marble softer and more easily worked than the ordinary marble. It was so freqtiently used for holding precious ointment that dXd/iauT-pos came to be a synonym for an unguent box (Theocr. xv. 114 ; Herod, iii. 20). Horace {Od. iv. 12. 17) uses onyx in the same way.
In all three of the Gospel narratives empha-sis is laid on the costliness of the offering made to our Lord. The ointment was that with which monarchs were anointed. Judas valued it at three hundred pence. If we bear in mind that a denarius was a day's wage for ordinary labour, it would represent about four shillings of our money, and unguent and box would have a value of something like £60. Mary ' brake the box.' This is generally inter- preted as merely meaning ' unfastened the seal ' ; but is it not in accordance alike with a profound instinct of human nature and with Oriental ideas to interpret the words literally ? The bo.x which had been rendered sacred by holding the ointment with which Jesus was anointed \xould never be put to a lower use.
This incident is the gospel protest against phil- anthroph- utilil.'irianism. 'Man shall not live by bre.'ul ahine, hut hy every word that proceedeth out of (he month of ('iod.' We have here the warrant for the expindil me of money on everything that makes for the liigher life of man. Whatever tends to uplift the imaginatiun, to ennolile and purify the emotions, to rehne the taste, and thus to add to the spiritual value of life, is good, and is to be eiie<mra;je.l. .Icsus claims our best. He inspires ns lo l» .mil .lo o\u- liest, and the hrst-fruits of all tii(i liiuhei la.nllies of the soul are to be devoted Lo Uiiu. Sue, further, art. ANOINTING i. 2.
A. Miller.
* The reverse supposition is possible, that the town derived its name from the material (see Encyc. Bibl. i. 108).
ALEXANDER AND EUFUS
AOISGIYIXG
ALEXANDER AND RUFUS.— The Synoptists all record that the Saviour's cross was borne by one Simon of Cyrene. St. ^lark (15-') alone adds that he was ' the father of Alexander and Ruf us.' From this ve gather that, when the Second Gospel was Amtten, the sons of him who bore tlie cross were followers of the Crucified, and men of prominence and note in the Church. Tliis information as to the two sons of Simon beinj; Alexander and Rufus, is also found in the Gospel of Nicodemus (ch. 4). The name Alexander appears in Ac 4^ 19'^ 1 Ti P", 2 Ti 4'S but there is not the slightest ground for identifying any one of these with the Alexander of Mk 15='.