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; (Matthew 27:9)
Critics of the Bible constantly look for opportunities to find errors in Scripture. However, whenever they find an error in Scripture, eventually, Scripture proves true and the critics are proven wrong.
Recently, I was reading Matthew’s account of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, and I encountered what appeared to be an error by Matthew. In his Gospel, Matthew takes great care to point out all the Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by Jesus, and he usually names the specific prophet.
Matthew’s account of Judas’ betrayal begins with the day on which Passover was to start.[1] “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him” (Matthew 26:14-16, emphasis mine). For some reason, known only to Matthew, he made no mention of the prophecy fulfilled here. The prophet Zechariah predicted this more than four hundred years earlier. “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver” (Zechariah 11:12, emphasis mine).
Judas regretted his actions as soon as he discovered what the religious leaders planned for Jesus. “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he [Jesus] was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:3-5, emphasis mine).
The religious leaders were troubled as to what to do with the money that Judas returned. “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. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day” (Matthew 27:6-8, emphasis mine).
Luke adds a detail that was not revealed until after Christ’s ascension and shortly before the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At that time, the Apostles were one short, Judas having committed suicide, and his spot needed to be filled. Luke records, “And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood” (Acts 1:15-19, emphasis mine). Granted, Judas did not purchase the field himself, but it was purchased with his ill-gotten money.
Matthew reports that Judas hanged himself, while Peter, as recorded by Luke, said he fell “headlong” and “burst asunder, and all his bowels gushed out.” I will deal with that apparent discrepancy later.
Returning to Matthew’s Gospel, at this point in his narrative, Matthew points to fulfilled prophecy in this act of Judas. “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy [i.e., Jeremiah] 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 potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me” (Matthew 27:9-10, emphasis mine). The problem is that Jeremiah never said such a thing. Bible scholars have struggled with this apparent discrepancy over the years without a satisfactory resolution. In fact, my King James Bible gives a cross-reference to Zechariah 11:12, “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” However, even though he mentions the thirty pieces of silver, Matthew’s focus is on the field that was purchased with the money. The subsequent verse in Zechariah continues, “And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD” (Zechariah 11:13, emphasis mine). This was Matthew’s focus, but there is one glaring problem. Jeremiah did not prophesy these words.
One of the reference books in my library wrestles with this problem and comes to a resolution, but not to my satisfaction. Their explanation, in part, follows:
The quotation is not entirely a quotation of Zechariah. The majority of the quotation does come from Zechariah 11:13 … there is no field mentioned in Zechariah … Matthew clearly is not quoting Zechariah about the location … Zechariah does not include the phrase “as the Lord commanded me.” Second, Jeremiah is also involved with potters (Jer 17:1-11; 19:1-13 – in this second passage he purchases something from a potter).
When it came to interpreting the Old Testament, it was common to bring passages together based on words they had in common … In this case, it is clear that Jeremiah and Zechariah have several words in common, especially potter and shekel. Probably potter is the key term … the quotation in Matthew is really Zechariah mixed with several phrases taken from Jeremiah.
What we have, then, is Matthew pulling together at least two texts in Jeremiah with one text in Zechariah to show that there was a type of biblically prefiguring of Judas’s [SIC] actions, down to the amount of blood money and the fact that it was given to a potter and was used for the purchase of a field … it was normal for Matthew to cite the more important prophet, Jeremiah, despite the fact that most of his material came from Zechariah.[2]
Their assessment is not altogether unreasonable, and certainly, the authors possess a greater knowledge of these things than I. However, I am not fully convinced that Matthew purposefully lumped two prophecies together and attributed the words to one prophet rather than the other. Personally, I often wonder why Zechariah is numbered among the Minor Prophets. His prophecy is equal to that of Daniel in length (12 chapters). Perhaps it is merely because of its placement in the canon. That aside, his importance, in my estimation, is no greater or lesser than that of Jeremiah. I might even argue that Zechariah contains more Messianic and end-times prophecy than Jeremiah, so, I do not see why Matthew would name Jeremiah rather than Zechariah if indeed he was citing the latter.
I have already established that in these verses, Matthew 27:3-10, Matthew’s focus was on the property purchased with the thirty pieces of silver, and not on the money itself. That had already been established in Matthew 26:14-16. The authors of the book I cited above referred to Jeremiah 19:1-13 where God instructs the Prophet to purchase a clay pot from the potter. God instructs him to go to the Valley of Hinnom by the entry of the east gate of the Temple – the Golden Gate that faces the Mount of Olives. The Temple Mount is surrounded by three valleys: Kidron to the east, Tyropoean to the west, and Hinnom to the south and west. The three valleys come together just to the south of the Temple Mount at a place called Tophet. The Hinnom Valley was of ill-repute due to the child sacrifices as well as other atrocities that took place there in the worship of pagan gods, particularly in the area of Tophet.
Through Jeremiah, God pronounces judgment on the people of Judah for their idolatry, particularly their worship of Baal. “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter” (Jeremiah 19:6). The “valley of slaughter” could also be interpreted “The Field of Blood.” God decrees a great slaughter in that place and the desolation of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury. Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet: And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods. Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house; and said to all the people, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words. (Jeremiah 19:10-15, emphasis mine).
“Tophet” means a “place of fire.” This prophecy had a two-fold fulfillment: first when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, and the second when it was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. This is the place to which Matthew referred that was bought with the thirty pieces of silver and its complete fulfillment had not yet taken place. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the slaughter of Jews was so great that the Romans could not bury them all, so they tossed them into the Field of Blood that was bought with Judas’ blood money. It is possible that in quoting Jeremiah, Matthew looked ahead at the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy.
I recently watched a YouTube video on “Israel MyChannel” that provided some insight into the seeming contradictions between Matthew and Luke (in Acts). According to Timothy, the owner of “Israel MyChannel,”[3] who is a Messianic Jew and well-studied in Jewish history, Judas hanged himself as recorded by Matthew, prior to the crucifixion and the Passover sacrifice. According to Jewish practice, the Passover sacrifice could not be performed with a dead body within the walls of the city. So, they took Judas’ corpse and tossed it over the city wall. The impact of the fall burst his body so that “his bowels gushed out.” So, the records of both Matthew and Luke are correct, and Matthew’s citing Jeremiah fits well, even though he did not quote Jeremiah (or Zechariah) verbatim. I encourage you to watch the video; I have provided the link below. Timothy goes into greater detail than I can provide here.
Reader, do you know the Lord Jesus? If not, please read my page on “Securing Eternal Life.” He is coming soon and you need to be ready. You can read more about that on my “Revelation” page.
Notes:
[1] Passover started at 6 PM in the evening and continued to 6 PM on the following day. Prior to the start of Passover at 6 PM, Judas had already agreed to betray Jesus. The Passover sacrifice was performed at 3 PM on Passover day, at the precise time that Jesus died on the Cross. Jesus was arrested on Passover evening, some time around midnight and was tried throughout the night and into the morning by Caiaphas (the High Priest), Pilate, Herod Antipas, and again by Pilate. Jesus was crucified at 9 AM the morning of Passover. Judas had sufficient time between the time Jesus was arrested and the time He was put on the cross to commit suicide. Tophet was south of the Temple mount. The walls of the city extended south around the City of David, and Tophet was just on the other side of the southern wall of the city.
[2] Walter C Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F.F. Bruce, Manfred T. Brauch, Hard Sayings of the Bible, (Inter Varsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1996), pp. 339-400.
[3] “Scary Discovery in the Hinnom Valley” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpuLMHV0_ds For the description of this particular topic, start the video at minute 49:09 to minute 59:39/
Ernie's Musings 