The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 577

hands. While they calmly outraged all a trumpet proclaimed their hlood•guiltiness." moral feeling, they punotiliously observed Unto thit day. Until the time when this certain ·outward ceremonial dccenoies. Gospel we.s publishe,I, the new appellation " They strain at e. gne.t, e.nd swallow a ohla.ined. It is ilnplied that e. considerable camel." The treallDl'Y (..-ov 1<opf3a.va.v). The intcrvnl had elapsc<I. Such chronological temple tre&sury, supplied by the offerings hints are oftc:, fonn,I in tile Old Testoment (eorbam) of tile pious for the expen$eS of (cf. Gen. xix. 37, 38; Josh. iv. 9, eto.). Divine worship. It is most probable that Ver. 9.-Spohen by Jeremy the p1·opliet. these scrupulons priests he.d ta.ken from The prophecy, which St. Matthew says wns this treasury the silver which they now fulfilled by the use made of Judns's pieces of deemed it sinful to replaoe. The prioe of silver, is found, not in Jeremiah, e.s we now blood. The we.gas of murder. It was in- possess his text, but, with some vnrintions, ferred from Dent. xxiii. 18 that no money in Zech. xi. 12, 13. It must be noted, how- unlawfully ge.ined,or derirnd from a.n impure ever, that, though the passage in Zechn1-inh source, might be used in purab.e.sing things has many remarkable affinities to tho q nota- for God's sernoe. Under Jewish Le.w such tion in our evangelist's history, it is not monev must be restored to the donor; if cir- identical with it. In the prophet's vision cumstances rendered this impossible, or the there is no mention or the field, and the offerer insisted on giving it, it was to be money is to be "cnst to the potter in the expended for some public object, the original house of the Lord." The Septuagint Version owner being considered, by e. legal fiction, gives a very different reading, •• Loy them to be iii! poseessor still, and that which was in the foundry [or,' furnn.ce '], o.nd I will see pa.id for by the money beiag deemed as his if it is approved, as I was opproved for their gill to the community (comp. Acts i 18, sakes." And the last part of our quotation "This man purchB.800 e. field with the re- is hardly a representation of the Hebrew; ward of iniquity"). "Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price Ver. 7.-They took counsel They de- that I was prised o.t of them." In the face liberat.ed how to dispose of this blood.- of these discrepancies, it is supposed by money. This delibern.tion may he.ve ta.ken many that St. Matthew had in his mind place after the Crucifixion. The potter's some utterance of Jeremiah not now extant; field. The spot was well known at the time. but if, as most expositors affirm, he was It is traditionally ea.id to have lain on the citing, more or less accurately, the words of south of Jerusalem-on the hillside across Zeohariah, we have to account for their the valley of Hinnom, on what i,i called the being attributed to a wrong author. Of this Hill of Evil CoUDBeL Here is found a tract difficulty, as it is considered, many solutions of clay, which is still used by the potters or are offered. Forinstance: (1) The evangelist the city. In the time of our Lord. the clay added no name to "the prophet ; " and e. probably was considered to bii exhausted, scribe, hazily remembering the transaction and the area, excavated in all directions, in Jer. xxxii 6, etc., interpolated the word and useless for agricultural purposes, was "Jeremiah." It ill true that the Syriao sold for a trifiing price. To bury strangers omils "Jeremiah," but all other versions, in. The " strangers" are probably not and nearly o.11 the Greek manuscripts, insert page.ns, but foreign J ewe and Gentile pro- it; so there can be no reasonable doubt that selytes, who came to Jerusalem to attend it existed in the original text. (2) The two the festival, and died there. Others think words written abbreviated th11S, Zp,ov, that foreigners (Greeks and Rome.DB, etc.) 1,,,ov, might be easily mistaken. (3) The exclusively are meant, the Jews regarding evangelist fell into error, by oversight or their very preeenoe in the holy city as de- Ispse of memory, as is supposed to be the filement, and a cemetery purchased by un- case in Mark ii. 26 and Acts vii. 4, 16. (4) clean money a fitting spot for their inter- The last chapters of Zechariah were really ment. The "field" was set e.pllrt in the the composition of Jeremiah. (5) Jeremiah, Crasaders' times as a burial-place for pil- being set at the head of the prophets in the grims, and to this da.y contains a charnel- Hebrew Scriptures, gavu bis name to all the houae wherein are deposited the poor and writings following, which were cited indis- unhonoured dead of Jerusalem. criminately as the utteranoes of Jeremiah. Ver. 8.-The field of blood. Aceldama (6) St. Matthew has made (as in eh. ii.23, and (Acta i 19), the Syria.c name. lt was so called so Marki 2, 3) o. ccnto of passages uerived (B,I,) from the circumstances attending its from J er. xviii 2, etc. ; xix. 1, 2; xxxii. 8- purchase, which gave it an evil notoriety, 14, combined with the prediction in Zecha- a.ad which the prieats m11St have divulged. riah, and o.ttribnted the po.ssage thue "This al110," says Chrysostom, ta.king the formed to the most oelebrated prophet. blood to be that of Jesus, "became a witness Plainly the evangelist has not confiaed him- against them, and a proof of their treason. self to the actual words of his author or Yor the Wl,lllt: of the place u1orc clearly than authors, but has written a Targwn thereon,  uu, xxv11. 1-66.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST, MATTHEW. r,p;J