Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Matthew: Chapter 27].
their own guilt in the matter. The use of \su ops•i\ as a
volitive future, an equivalent of the imperative, is commoner in
Latin (_tu videris_) than in Greek, though the _Koin•_ shows it
also. The sentiment is that of Cain (Grotius, Bruce).
27:5 {Hanged himself} (\ap•gxato\). Direct middle. His act was
sudden after he hurled the money into the sanctuary (\eis ton
naon\), the sacred enclosure where the priests were. The motives
of Judas in the betrayal were mixed as is usually the case with
criminals. The money cut a small figure with him save as an
expression of contempt as the current price of a slave.
27:6 {Into the treasury} (\eis ton korban•n\). Josephus (_War_
II. 9,4) uses this very word for the sacred treasury. _Korban_ is
Aramaic for _gift_ (\d•ron\) as is plain in Mr 7:11. The price
of blood (blood-money) was pollution to the treasury (De
23:18f.). So they took the money out and used it for a secular
purpose. The rabbis knew how to split hairs about _Korban_ (Mr
7:1-23; Mt 15:1-20), but they balk at this blood-money.
27:7 {The potter's field} (\tou agrou tou kerame•s\). Grotius
suggests that it was a small field where potter's clay was
obtained, like a brickyard (Broadus). Otherwise we do not know
why the name exists. In Ac 1:18 we have another account of the
death of Judas by bursting open (possibly falling after hanging
himself) after he obtained the field by the wages of iniquity.
But it is possible that \ekt•sato\ there refers to the rabbinical
use of _Korban_, that the money was still that of Judas though he
was dead and so he really "acquired" the field by his
blood-money.
27:8 {The field of blood} (\agros haimatos\). This name was
attached to it because it was the price of blood and that is not
inconsistent with Ac 1:18f. Today potter's field carries the
idea here started of burial place for strangers who have no where
else to lie (\eis taph•n tois xenois\), probably at first Jews
from elsewhere dying in Jerusalem. In Ac 1:19 it is called
{Aceldama} or {place of blood} (\ch•rion haimatos\) for the
reason that Judas' blood was shed there, here because it was
purchased by blood money. Both reasons could be true.
27:9 {By Jeremiah the prophet} (\dia Ieremiou\). This quotation
comes mainly from Zec 11:13 though not in exact language. In
Jer 18:18 the prophet tells of a visit to a potter's house and
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