Matt, xxvii. 9, 10. Theii was fulfilled that which was spoken hy
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 ; and gave them for the potters
field, as the Lord appointed me.
THE more we consider the number and minuteness of the prophecies, the more we must be convinced that Jesus was the person whom God had fore-ordained to be the Saviour of the world. One can scarcely imagine it possible, that an uninspired person should venture to predict such remarkable circumstances, as the precise sum that should be paid for the Saviour's blood, and the ultimate disposal of that money in the purchase of a potter's field ; or that such predictions should be fulfilled by chance. St. Matthew was more careful than any of the other Evangelists in adducing these proofs of Christ's Messiahship. But the passage cited by him as from Jeremiah, is to be found only in the prophecies of Zechariah. To account for this, many ingenious conjectures have been offered by learned men : but the most probable of them seems to be, either that the name, being abbreviated, was mistaken by some early transcriber, and from thence copied by others'* ; or that, no name being mentioned by the Evangelist, an early transcriber inserted erro- neously the name of Jeremiah in the margin, from whence it was afterwards incorporated with the text^. Whatever way we take of solving the difficulty, the fact remains the same, that the peculiar circumstances in the text were foretold many hundred years before their accomplishment.
The words of the prophet, according to their literal import, record a transaction that took place between
^ This might easily be, as the mistake would be only of one letter, \piov for ZpLov. In some copies the name is so abbreviated.
^ Some Versions insert no name at all, but read the passage thus ; " Spoken by the Prophet."