(whether it be good) in the same manner that I was assayed by them. And I took the thirty silver pieces, and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the melting furnace. The Evangelist re gards the scope of the matter, and adds a paraphrase. — rqv TI/ATJV ro\j nnfuffumt) ov sn^ffavTo, the value of Him that was valued, whom they valued} The force of the words is great. — 6 nr/wptvog — "ip'n, precious, although in the Hebrew Bible it is "ip^n, a price ; see Louis de Dieu. — a^ viuv ' Itpafa, from the children of Israel, or of the children of Israel) cf. Zech. xi. 13 — DfTpyo, of them. The preposition anb, from, may be construed either with '&a- Bov, they received — or rather with sri/x^gavro, they valued. The Chief Priests, as much as in them lay, alienated Christ from the children of Israel.
10. "Eftuxav, they gave) In Zechariah it is f&uxa, I gave ; and some1 have introduced it from the Prophet into the Evangelist, and Gebhardi clearly approves it on Zech. xi. 13. In this passage, however, it is written tBuxav ; and the force of Uuxa, and therefore the whole difference of the words of St Matthew from those of Zechariah, is supplied by the clause, " As the Lord enjoined me."2 The LXX. have the same formula in Exod. ix. 12 — xada evi/eT<x,£e Kup/os ru> Muvffy, as the Lord enjoined Moses.3 — ewsra%e, enjoined) sc. to write or to say.
11. 'ofiasiXevf TUV 'loudaiuv, the King of the Jews) Jesus before Caiaphas confesses Himself to be Christ, before Pilate, King. — <r;) 7-i-yng, thou sayest) An open and holy confession.4 Jesus shows that His subsequent silence would not be from want of freedom of speech, and immediately answers Pilate, after having previously informed the Jews when adjured by Caiaphas. St Mark and St Luke also record the expression, " Thou sayest;"
1 In his Apparatus Criticus, Bengel says, " ''i^ux,a,y) 'i'baxu, Aug. 4, duobus locis, Syr. Ex Zacharia. Probat Amama Antibarb., p. 573, et versu 9 con- struit, l'x«/3oj» diro, X..T.K. Sic quoque lo. Kaiserus et alii, quos notat Rus. T. 3, Harm. Ev., p. 1073, accepi a filiis Israel. e/SaXox L. Ambigue. Vid. Gnom"—(I. B.)
Tisch. says that 3 MSS. and both Syr. Versions read e^u*.*. But the mass of authority is for i ~&ax,a,y. — ED.
2 E. V. « As the Lord commanded me."— (I. B.)
* This is the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus : the Vatican MS. omits the two last words. — (I. B.)
* Cf. 1 Tim. iv. 13.-E. B.