The Mystery of 30 Pieces of silver and a field ~ Cross reference of Matthew 27:6 to [Jeremiah 32:6, Jeremiah 19:1 & Zechariah 27:6]
This is one of the torturous cross reference Matthew makes. Matthew[Church fathers] really went all out to stitch three cross reference from Tanakh to ensure that the betrayal money Judas took was put to good use.
Incidentally the way Judas life ended is mentioned only in Matthew & Acts. In Matthew the priests bought the field and in Acts Judas bought the field. In Matthew Judas Hangs himself and in Acts he falls down and turns inside out.
It was hilarious to watch a Christian pastor reconcile these differences by saying that both Matthew and Luke[Acts] are correct, in Acts Judas fell and his stomach got cut but he walked to the nearest tree & hung himself. This still does not reconcile the difference of who bought the field.
Matthew 27:5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
Acts 1:18 (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. 19 Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)
All Images are links to Google Images. Copyright violations not intended.
All Greek Text references are from NIV and Tanakh references are from Chabad.
My encouragement to you is that you read the whole chapter of Tanakh that the Greek text quotes so you get the context and understand what G-d actually said.
G-d Bless and Seek THE Truth.
Matthew 27:6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. 8 That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”[a]
Zechariah 11:12 And I said to them: "If it pleases you, give [Me] My hire, and if not, forbear." And they weighed out My hire: thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the keeper of the treasury, to the stronghold of glory-of which I stripped them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and I cast it into the house of the Lord, to the keeper of the treasury.
Jeremiah 19:1 So said the Lord: Go and buy a potter's earthen jug, and [take] along some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 And you shall go out to the Ben- Hinnom Valley which is at the entrance of the Harsith Gate, and you shall call there the words that I will speak to you. 3 And you shall say; Hearken to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; so said the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel; Behold I am bringing evil upon this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle. 4 Because they forsook Me and they estranged this place and burnt incense therein to other gods, which they had not known, they, their forefathers, and the kings of Judah, and they filled this place with the blood of innocent people. 5 And they built the high places of Baal to burn their children with fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command, neither did I speak nor did it enter My mind.
Jeremiah 32:6 And Jeremiah said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 7 Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum your uncle, is coming to you, saying: Buy for yourself my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it. 8 Then Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me in the prison yard, according to the word of the Lord, and said to me; Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, that is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours, and you have the right of redemption; buy it for yourself." And I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9 So I bought the field from Hanamel, my uncle's son, which was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seven shekels and ten pieces of silver.
- Matthew had to use 3 passages from Tanakh to prove that Tanakh prophesied that Judas would betray Jesus and he will take the betrayal money and throw it at the feet of the "Evil Jews" and they will take the money and buy a field to burry the gentiles.
- I will call out what each of the chapters in Tanakh are about about.
- Zechariah was a prophet in Judah when the Israelites had returned after the 70 year exile in Babylon.
- If you read verses 1-6, G-d is talking about how the nations where Israel was exiled exploited Israel and did them harm.
- Verse 11 and 12 are about G-d telling Zechariah to ask for his wages from the elders of Judah and what he must do with the wages. Zechariah asks for his wages so he can continue to bring the word of G-d to them not for betraying anyone.
- Matthew uses this verse to map to Judas taking money for betraying Jesus.
- Jeremiah lived 100+ years before Zechariah, he was a prophet for Judah during the reign of Josiah, Jehoiakim, Zedekiah until the exile of Jerusalem to Babylon.
- This means that Jeremiah first prophesied which field to buy and 100 years later Zechariah prophesied how much to pay for it. Do you see how preposterous this is. Anyway let us continue.
- In Jeremiah 19:1 G-d tells Jeremiah to go and buy a potter's earthen jug not a field. He is also told to go to a specific place outside Jerusalem called "Ben- Hinnom Valley which is at the entrance of the Harsith Gate" and prophesy. This chapter has no mention of any field being bought or sold.
- Did Judas buy his field here?
- If you see the timelines between Jeremiah 19 and 32 at least a decade would have passed. Chapter 32 prophecy came during the last king Zedekiah just before the exile to Babylon. [Verse 2]
- G-d asks Jeremiah to buy the field from Hanamel who was the son of his uncle and Jeramiah buys the field following the procedure laid out for redemption of land that comes from the "right of inheritance".
- You might wonder why G-d is asking Jeramiah to buy a piece of land when Babylonians were at the gate to take them into captivity. Jeremiah asks exactly the same question in Jeremiah 32:25
- Jeremiah 32:25 And You said to me, O Lord God, 'Buy yourself the field for money and appoint witnesses!' Yet the city is given into the hand[s] of the Chaldeans!"
- G-d answers Jeremiah in verses 36-44 where G-d tells Jeremiah, how he will bring them back and they will buy fields and plant and be prosperous.
- Jeremiah 32:43 And the field shall be bought in this land, which you say, "It is desolate without man or beast; it has been given into the hand[s] of the Chaldeans." 44 Men shall buy fields for money and inscribe deeds and sign [them] and appoint witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the environs of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the mountain and in the cities of the lowland and in the cities of the southland, for I will restore their captivity, says the Lord.After reading these three cross reference in context do you still think that they prophesied that after 700 years Judas will betray Jesus and the "evil Jews" will take the coins Judas returned to buy a field makes sense?
After reading these passages that Matthew cross referenced, do you think what Matthew tried to say is correct?
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