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Matthew27:3–10

Judas Hangs Himself

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Matthew 27:3–10 — Judas Hangs Himself. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

3

When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was filled with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Tote Ioudas ho paradidous auton idōn hoti katekrithē metamelētheis estrepsen ta triakonta argyria tois archiereusin kai presbyterois

Word by word17 · parsed
ΤότεToteWhenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
tote: then, at that time A loose connective, not a clock. Poole warns against pressing it: Judas cannot have done this while Christ was being carried to Pilate, so the word marks sequence of subject, not of hour.
ἸούδαςIoudasJudasG2455
√ Ἰούδας — Judas (iNounNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhowhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
παραδιδοὺςparadidoushad betrayed HimG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
paradidōmi: to hand over, surrender The same verb that will govern the whole Passion narrative, and the same one the Verifier finds back at Matthew 26:15 where the bargain was struck. In the present tense it refuses to let Judas out of the participle: he is still, at the moment of remorse, the one handing Jesus over.
αὐτὸνauton. . .G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
ἰδὼνidōnsawG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ὅτιhotithatG3754
√ ὅτι — demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant)Conjunction
κατεκρίθηkatekrithē[Jesus] was condemnedG2632
√ κατακρίνω — to judge against, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
katakrinō: to judge against, condemn Aorist passive: the sentence has already fallen. JFB and Barnes both read Judas's shock here as evidence that he had expected a rescue, some miracle or escape such as he had seen before. The brief lets that stand as a guess: Ellicott says plainly, “Here, too, as in the case of Peter, we have to guess at motives.”
μεταμεληθεὶςmetamelētheishe was filled with remorseG3338
√ μεταμέλλομαι — to care afterwards, iVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Masculine Singular
metamellomai: to care afterwards, regret The pivot of the whole unit. The lexicon gloss is bare (“to care afterwards”), and every commentator in the brief builds on that bareness: Ellicott calls it “regret, a simple change of feeling,” Cambridge says it “implies no change of heart or life,” Gill says it made Judas worse rather than wiser, Pulpit quotes Chrysostom on its timing (remorse arrives only once the sin is complete). The passive form is worth holding: the feeling seizes him, it is not a thing he does.
ἔστρεψενestrepsen[and] returnedG4762
√ στρέφω — to twist, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
strephō: to twist, turn The coins go back; the man does not. JFB reads the gesture as a measure of conscience, not of grace: the bribe that once outweighed love now cannot be spent or even kept.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
triakonta: thirty A relatively uncommon number in the Greek canon (11 verses), and its rarity is the point: it is the sum of Zechariah 11:12, and Barnes notes it was the standing price of a slave. Matthew does not say so here; he waits until verse 9.
ἀργύριαargyriapieces of silverG694
√ ἀργύριον — silvery, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
argyrion: silvery, a piece of silver Neuter plural, the coins as objects. The word runs like a thread through Matthew's money scenes (26:15, 28:12, 28:15): the same metal hires the betrayal, buys the grave, and later buys the lie about the empty tomb.
τοῖςtoisto theG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεῦσινarchiereusinchief priestsG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounDative Masculine Plural
archiereus: chief priest Named with the elders, the same pairing as at the arrest. They are the ones who can receive money and the ones who will refuse it.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
πρεσβυτέροιςpresbyteroiseldersG4245
√ πρεσβύτερος — olderAdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
4

“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Hēmarton paradous athōon haima legōn Ti pros hēmas de Hoi eipan sy opsē

Word by word13 · parsed
ἭμαρτονHēmartonI have sinnedG264
√ ἁμαρτάνω — properly, to miss the mark (and so not share in the prize), iVerbAorist Indicative Active1st Person Singular
hamartanō: to miss the mark Aorist, first person singular. Barnes weighs what this confession is worth as evidence: Judas had been with Jesus three years and in a position to know anything discreditable, and what he produces instead is a declaration of innocence.
παραδοὺςparadousby betrayingG3860
√ παραδίδωμι — to surrender, iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
ἀθῷονathōoninnocentG121
√ ἄθωος — not guiltyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Singular
athōos: not guilty A rare word. The Verifier finds it in only two verses, this one and Matthew 27:24, where Pilate says “I am innocent of this blood.” The traitor and the governor reach for the identical adjective within twenty verses, one to accuse himself and one to excuse himself.
αἷμαhaimabloodG129
√ αἷμα — blood, literally (of men or animals), figuratively (the juice of grapes) or specially (the atoning blood of Christ)NounAccusative Neuter Singular
haima: blood Blood standing for the life and so for the man, as Barnes notes. The word will govern the rest of the unit: price of blood (v. 6), Field of Blood (v. 8). Pulpit observes that by saying “blood” Judas shows he knew the killing was certain, and records the variant reading αἷμα δίκαιον, righteous blood, in some manuscripts.
λέγωνlegōnhe saidG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
legō: to say A participle carrying the speech; light.
ΤίTiWhat [is that]G5101
√ τίς — an interrogative pronoun, who, which or what (in direct or indirect questions)Interrogative / Indefinite PronounNominative Neuter Singular
πρὸςprostoG4314
√ πρός — a preposition of directionPreposition
ἡμᾶςhēmasusG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative 1st Person Plural
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
εἶπανeipanthey repliedG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
epō: to speak, say Aorist plural. The reply is one sentence long and is the whole of their pastoral care.
σὺsyYouG4771
√ σύ — thouPersonal / Possessive PronounNominative 2nd Person Singular
sy: thou The pronoun is expressed where Greek could leave it in the verb, and so it is emphatic: you see to it. The emphasis is the shove.
ὄψῃopsēbear the responsibilityG3708
√ ὁράω — by extension, to attend toVerbFuture Indicative Middle2nd Person Singular
horaō: to see, to attend to Future middle, an idiom of disavowal. Pilate will use the same construction to the crowd at verse 24 (σὺ ὄψει there becomes ὑμεῖς ὄψεσθε), so the sentence Judas hears from the priests is the sentence the priests will hear from Rome.
5

So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

Kai rhipsas ta argyria eis ton naon anechōrēsen apelthōn kai apēnxato

Word by word11 · parsed
ΚαὶKaiSoG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ῥίψαςrhipsas[Judas] threwG4496
√ ῥίπτω — to fling (properly, with a quick toss, thus differing from G906 (βάλλω), which denotes a deliberate hurlVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
rhiptō: to fling with a quick toss The lexicon itself contrasts this verb with βάλλω. The contrast is live in this unit: Judas flings (ῥίψας, v. 5), the priests will not deliberately put (βαλεῖν, v. 6). Pulpit pictures the act against the stone partition, the shekels hurled over the wall of division into the inner place.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀργύριαargyriasilverG694
√ ἀργύριον — silvery, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
ναὸνnaontempleG3485
√ ναός — a fane, shrine, templeNounAccusative Masculine Singular
naos: shrine, sanctuary The priests' room, not the outer courts. Ellicott, Cambridge and JFB agree on the word and on the difficulty it makes (JFB: “How is this to be explained? Perhaps he flung the money in after them”). Pulpit records the manuscript variation between ἐν τῷ ναῷ, in the sanctuary, and εἰς τὸν ναόν, into the sanctuary; the interlinear here has εἰς.
ἀνεχώρησενanechōrēsenand leftG402
√ ἀναχωρέω — to retireVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
anachōreō: to retire, withdraw Light, but it sets up the doubled exit: he withdraws, then he goes away.
ἀπελθὼνapelthōnThen he went awayG565
√ ἀπέρχομαι — to go off (iVerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Singular
aperchomai: to go off A second departure verb, piled on the first. Matthew spends three verbs on the leaving and one on the dying.
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἀπήγξατοapēnxatohanged himselfG519
√ ἀπάγχομαι — akin to the base of G43 (ἀγκάλη))VerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Singular
apagchomai: to strangle oneself Aorist middle, and the only occurrence in the New Testament. Ellicott records that the Greek version of 2 Samuel 17:23 uses this same word of Ahithophel, David's counsellor who hanged himself after his advice was rejected, and Pulpit draws the line explicitly: Judas “is the Ahithophel of the New Testament.” Matthew states the act and nothing about its meaning; the interpretation belongs to the reader and is marked as such below.
6

The chief priests picked up the pieces of silver and said, “It is unlawful to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de Hoi archiereis labontes ta argyria eipan Ouk exestin balein auta eis ton korbanan epei estin haimatos timē

Word by word18 · parsed
δὲdeG1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
ΟἱHoiTheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Plural
ἀρχιερεῖςarchiereischief priestsG749
√ ἀρχιερεύς — the high-priest (literally, of the Jews, typically, Christ)NounNominative Masculine Plural
λαβόντεςlabontespicked upG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
lambanō: to take, seize They pick up from the floor what they refused from his hand. Gill notes the oddity: no one else dared touch it, and the same men who would not receive it stoop for it.
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
ἀργύριαargyriapieces of silverG694
√ ἀργύριον — silvery, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
εἶπανeipan[and] saidG2036
√ ἔπω — to speak or say (by word or writing)VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
ΟὐκOukvvvG3756
√ οὐ — the absolute negative (compare G3361 (μή)) adverbAdverb
ἔξεστινexestinIt is unlawfulG1832
√ ἔξεστι — so also neuter present participle of the same (with or without some form of G1510 (εἰμί) expressed)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
exesti: it is permitted, lawful The whole of their theology in one impersonal verb. Poole and Gill both trace the ruling to Deuteronomy 23:18, which barred the hire of a harlot and the price of a dog from the house of the LORD; Ellicott adds that no foreign coin was admitted to the Corban either.
βαλεῖνbaleinto putG906
√ βάλλω — to throw (in various applications, more or less violent or intense)VerbAorist Infinitive Active
αὐτὰautathisG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
εἰςeisintoG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
κορβανᾶνkorbanantreasuryG2878
√ κορβᾶν — a votive offering and the offeringNounAccusative Masculine Singular
korban: a votive offering, and the offering chest A rare word: the Verifier finds it in only two verses in the Greek New Testament, here and Mark 7:11, where Jesus attacks a vow of “Corban” used to evade the duty of honouring parents. The same chest, in Matthew's Gospel and Mark's, is where scruple goes when mercy has already been abandoned. Pulpit adds the sharpest probability: the silver they now cannot replace was most likely drawn from this very treasury to pay for the betrayal.
ἐπεὶepeisinceG1893
√ ἐπεί — thereupon, iConjunction
ἐστινestinit isG1510
√ εἰμί — I exist (used only when emphatic)VerbPresent Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
αἵματόςhaimatosbloodG129
√ αἷμα — blood, literally (of men or animals), figuratively (the juice of grapes) or specially (the atoning blood of Christ)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
haima: blood Genitive: blood is what the money is made of now. The word has migrated from Judas's confession (v. 4) into the priests' accounting.
τιμὴtimēmoneyG5092
√ τιμή — a value, iNounNominative Feminine Singular
timē: a value, price, honour The noun spans price and honour in Greek, and Matthew will exploit exactly that span three verses on, where the same word names what “the sons of Israel” reckoned Jesus to be worth. Here it is the trade sense only: what the blood cost to buy.
7

After conferring together, they used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

de labontes symboulion ex autōn ēgorasan ton tou kerameōs agron eis taphēn tois xenois

Word by word14 · parsed
δὲde[After]G1161
√ δέ — but, and, etcConjunction
λαβόντεςlabontesconferring togetherG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Participle ActiveNominative Masculine Plural
lambanō: to take Paired with συμβούλιον as a set phrase; light on its own.
συμβούλιονsymboulion. . .G4824
√ συμβούλιον — advisementNounAccusative Neuter Singular
symboulion: advisement, counsel A council decision, formally taken. Pulpit suggests the deliberation may have happened after the crucifixion; Matthew narrates it here for the sake of the theme, not the clock.
ἐξex[they used]G1537
√ ἐκ — literal or figurativePreposition
αὐτῶνautōn[the money]G846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounGenitive Neuter 3rd Person Plural
ἠγόρασανēgorasanto buyG59
√ ἀγοράζω — properly, to go to market, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
agorazō: to go to market, to buy The transaction is deliberate and corporate. Barnes explains the tension with Acts 1:18 (“he purchased a field with the reward of his iniquity”) by the ordinary usage of representing a man as doing what he was the occasion of another's doing.
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
τοῦtouvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
κεραμέωςkerameōspotter’sG2763
√ κεραμεύς — a potterNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kerameus: a potter A rare noun: the Verifier finds it in only three verses of the Greek New Testament, two of them here (vv. 7 and 10) and the third at Romans 9:21, where Paul asks whether the potter has no right over the clay. Matthew does not make that link; the field is named for a trade, not for a doctrine.
ἀγρὸνagronfieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
agros: a field A worked-out plot, on the reading of Benson, Gill, Barnes and Pulpit alike: the clay exhausted, the ground good for nothing but graves, which is why thirty pieces could buy it so near Jerusalem.
εἰςeisasG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
ταφὴνtaphēna burial placeG5027
√ ταφή — burial (the act)NounAccusative Feminine Singular
taphē: burial, the act of burying The purpose of the purchase, stated with εἰς. The money that bought a death is spent on burials.
τοῖςtoisforG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleDative Masculine Plural
ξένοιςxenoisforeignersG3581
√ ξένος — foreign (literally, alien, or figuratively, novel)AdjectiveDative Masculine Plural
xenos: foreign, alien, strange The recipients of the charity are the people the buyers would not have in their own tombs. Ellicott's chain is worth weighing as his own inference and not as Matthew's: the place was accursed, the money was accursed, and the dead were reckoned accursed.
8

That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

dio ekeinos ho agros eklēthē Agros haimatos heōs tēs sēmeron

Word by word10 · parsed
διὸdioThat is whyG1352
√ διό — through which thing, iConjunction
dio: wherefore, through which thing The causal hinge. Matthew grounds the name in the purchase.
ἐκεῖνοςekeinosG1565
√ ἐκεῖνος — that one (or (neuter) thing)Demonstrative PronounNominative Masculine Singular
ὁhoG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Masculine Singular
ἀγρὸςagros[it]G68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounNominative Masculine Singular
ἐκλήθηeklēthēhas been calledG2564
√ καλέω — to "call" (properly, aloud, but used in a variety of applications, directly or otherwise)VerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
kaleō: to call, name aloud Passive, agentless. The naming is popular speech, not an official act; the city gave the field a name the council would not have chosen.
ἈγρὸςAgrosthe FieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounNominative Masculine Singular
agros: field Repeated from verse 7, now as a proper name rather than a parcel of land.
αἵματοςhaimatosof BloodG129
√ αἷμα — blood, literally (of men or animals), figuratively (the juice of grapes) or specially (the atoning blood of Christ)NounGenitive Neuter Singular
haima: blood The third appearance of the word in six verses: innocent blood (v. 4), price of blood (v. 6), Field of Blood (v. 8). Barnes records the Aramaic form Aceldama from Acts 1:19 and locates the site south of Mount Zion. Pulpit quotes Chrysostom taking the blood to be Christ's and the name a standing witness against the buyers; that is Chrysostom's reading, not Matthew's statement.
ἕωςheōstoG2193
√ ἕως — a conjunction, preposition and adverb of continuance, until (of time and place)Preposition
τῆςtēsG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Feminine Singular
σήμερονsēmeronthis dayG4594
√ σήμερον — on the (iAdverb
sēmeron: on this day, today Barnes dates the writing roughly thirty years after the purchase; Gill puts it about eight years after. The brief preserves both estimates and settles neither.
9

Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on Him by the people of Israel,

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

tote to rhēthen dia Ieremiou tou prophētou eplērōthē legontos Kai elabon ta triakonta argyria tēn timēn tou tetimēmenou hon etimēsanto apo huiōn Israēl

Word by word23 · parsed
τότεtoteThenG5119
√ τότε — the when, iAdverb
τὸtowhatG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleNominative Neuter Singular
ῥηθὲνrhēthenwas spokenG2046
√ ἐρέω — an alternate for G2036 (ἔπω) in certain tensesVerbAorist Participle PassiveNominative Neuter Singular
ereō: to speak, say Aorist passive participle, “the thing spoken,” part of Matthew's standing citation formula. The agent behind the passive is God; the prophet is the channel, which is why the next word is διά and not ὑπό.
διὰdiathroughG1223
√ διά — through (in very wide applications, local, causal, or occasional)Preposition
dia: through Not “by” but “through.” The formula keeps the prophet instrumental and God the speaker, which is why the attribution question that follows is a question about the instrument, not about the voice.
ἸερεμίουIeremiouJeremiahG2408
√ Ἱερεμίας — Hieremias (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
Hieremias: Jeremiah A rare name in this Gospel and in the Greek canon: the Verifier finds it in only three verses, all in Matthew (2:17, 16:14, 27:9). The brief holds six proposals side by side and settles none: early transcription error (Benson, Geneva, Pulpit, Barnes, with the abbreviations Ιριου and Ζριου easily confused); Jeremiah standing at the head of the prophetic volume and lending it his name (JFB citing Lightfoot, Gill, Cambridge, Barnes); citation from memory drawing in Jeremiah's potter chapters (Ellicott, Cambridge); a lost or apocryphal Jeremiah source (Gill citing Jerome); Jeremiah as the original speaker later recorded by Zechariah (Benson citing Grotius); a deliberate composite of Jeremiah 18, 19 and 32 with Zechariah 11, attributed to the more famous prophet (Pulpit). The apparatus states the crux plainly rather than choosing.
τοῦtoutheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
προφήτουprophētouprophetG4396
√ προφήτης — a foreteller ("prophet")NounGenitive Masculine Singular
ἐπληρώθηeplērōthēwas fulfilledG4137
√ πληρόω — to make replete, iVerbAorist Indicative Passive3rd Person Singular
plēroō: to make replete, fill full The verb of Matthew's fulfilment formulae. Ellicott's account of how this evangelist uses it is the most exposed statement in the brief: “It was enough for him that the old words fitted into the facts, without asking, as we ask, whether they were originally meant to point to them.”
λέγοντοςlegontosG3004
√ λέγω — properly, to "lay" forth, iVerbPresent Participle ActiveGenitive Masculine Singular
ΚαὶKaiG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔλαβονelabonThey tookG2983
√ λαμβάνω — while G138 (αἱρέομαι) is more violent, to seize or remove))VerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
τὰtatheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Neuter Plural
τριάκονταtriakontathirtyG5144
√ τριάκοντα — thirtyAdjectiveAccusative Neuter Plural
triakonta: thirty The number is the joint between Matthew 26:15, this verse, and Zechariah 11:12. Barnes notes that thirty pieces of silver was the common price of a slave, and reads the whole transaction as a valuation set deliberately low.
ἀργύριαargyriapieces of silverG694
√ ἀργύριον — silvery, iNounAccusative Neuter Plural
τὴνtēntheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Feminine Singular
τιμὴνtimēnpriceG5092
√ τιμή — a value, iNounAccusative Feminine Singular
timē: a value, a price The same noun the priests used at verse 6 for what made the money unclean. Here it names what a person was reckoned to be worth. The unit has been pricing blood since verse 4, and only now does it say whose.
τοῦtouset on HimG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
τετιμημένουtetimēmenou. . .G5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbPerfect Participle Middle or PassiveGenitive Masculine Singular
timaō: to prize, to fix a value on Perfect participle, middle or passive: the one who has been priced, and stands priced. Barnes is exact that the verb is commercial appraisal, not esteem. The perfect tense leaves the valuation standing on the books.
ὃνhon. . .G3739
√ ὅς — the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun, who, which, what, thatPersonal / Relative PronounAccusative Masculine Singular
ἐτιμήσαντοetimēsanto. . .G5091
√ τιμάω — to prize, iVerbAorist Indicative Middle3rd Person Plural
ἀπὸapobyG575
√ ἀπό — "off," iPreposition
υἱῶνhuiōn[the] peopleG5207
√ υἱός — a "son" (sometimes of animals), used very widely of immediate, remote or figuratively, kinshipNounGenitive Masculine Plural
huios: son “From sons of Israel,” the covenant people named as the appraisers. Barnes reads this of their leaders acting in the nation's name; the Greek says only “sons of Israel,” and the Authorized Version had to supply an article Pulpit notes is absent.
ἸσραήλIsraēlof IsraelG2474
√ Ἰσραήλ — Israel (iNounGenitive Masculine Singular
10

and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord had commanded me.”

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Greek — tap a word ↓

kai edōkan auta eis ton tou kerameōs agron katha Kyrios synetaxen moi

Word by word12 · parsed
καὶkaiandG2532
√ καί — and, also, even, so then, too, etcConjunction
ἔδωκανedōkanthey gaveG1325
√ δίδωμι — to give (used in a very wide application, properly, or by implication, literally or figurativelyVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Plural
didōmi: to give Plural where Zechariah is singular. Gill's solution is to read the verb as first person and to credit the action to Christ, who, he says, overruled what Judas and the priests did; that is Gill's doctrine of providence applied to a grammatical seam, and it should be weighed as such.
αὐτὰautathemG846
√ αὐτός — the reflexive pronoun self, used (alone or in the comparative G1438 (ἑαυτοῦ)) of the third person , and (with the proper personal pronoun) of the other personsPersonal / Possessive PronounAccusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
εἰςeisforG1519
√ εἰς — to or into (indicating the point reached or entered), of place, time, or (figuratively) purpose (result, etcPreposition
τὸνtontheG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleAccusative Masculine Singular
τοῦtouvvvG3588
√ ὁ — the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom)ArticleGenitive Masculine Singular
κεραμέωςkerameōspotter’sG2763
√ κεραμεύς — a potterNounGenitive Masculine Singular
kerameus: a potter The second of the unit's two occurrences. Zechariah 11:13 has the money cast “to the potter,” not spent “for the potter's field.” Gill argues there is no contradiction, since the money was given to the potter as the consideration for his field; the wording is still Matthew's, not Zechariah's.
ἀγρὸνagronfieldG68
√ ἀγρός — a field (as a drive for cattle)NounAccusative Masculine Singular
καθὰkathaasG2505
√ καθά — according to which things, iAdverb
ΚύριοςKyrios[the] LordG2962
√ κύριος — supreme in authority, iNounNominative Masculine Singular
kyrios: supreme in authority, Lord Anarthrous, standing for the divine name in the underlying Hebrew line. The verse ends by putting the whole squalid transaction under an appointment of the LORD, which is the theological claim the unit actually makes and the one the sola reading below tries to hold without softening.
συνέταξένsynetaxenhad commandedG4929
√ συντάσσω — to arrange jointly, iVerbAorist Indicative Active3rd Person Singular
syntassō: to arrange jointly, to appoint Rare, and rare in a telling way: Matthew uses it at 21:6 and 26:19 of disciples doing exactly as Jesus appointed. Here the ones doing exactly as the Lord appointed are the chief priests, and they have no idea. JFB's comment on verse 6 states the same thing in plain words: their punctilious scruples made them unconsciously fulfil the Scripture.
μοιmoimeG1473
√ ἐγώ — I, mePersonal / Possessive PronounDative 1st Person Singular
egō: I, me The singular pronoun that makes the quotation a first-person word and leaves the referent unresolved: the prophet, or the Shepherd he stood for.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The regret that turns the coins and not the man — 27:3-5

Matthew chose his verb and then every commentator in this brief noticed it. Judas is μεταμεληθεὶς (metamelētheis, G3338), seized with after-care, not metanoeō. Ellicott: the word is “not that commonly used for ‘repentance,’ as involving a change of mind and heart, but is rather ‘regret,’ a simple change of feeling.” Cambridge says the same thing more briefly, that it “implies no change of heart or life.” Gill pushes it to its end, that this was a pain “by which he became worse,” and Pulpit adds Chrysostom on the timing: remorse arrives only when the sin is complete, because the devil hides the evil until it is too late to be undone. Against that, Barnes and JFB both note what the remorse proves about its object. Judas had watched Jesus privately for three years and his verdict, produced under no pressure and against his own interest, is αἷμα ἀθῷον, innocent blood. JFB: if he could have fastened on one questionable feature, no such speech would ever have escaped his lips. The priests answer in a single line, and Poole, who is usually dry, turns aphorist: “Tempters never make good comforters.” Then the grammar turns violent. Judas ῥίψας (rhipsas, G4496) flings the coins, the verb the lexicon itself distinguishes from the deliberate hurl, into the ναός, which Ellicott and Cambridge both insist is the sanctuary the priests alone could enter. He throws the money where he cannot go, and goes where the money cannot follow.

ii. Scruple in the counting house — 27:6-8

The priests pick up off the floor what they would not take from his hand, and then discover a conscience. Οὐκ ἔξεστιν: it is not permitted. Ellicott identifies the chest as the Corban, from which the Law at Deuteronomy 23:18 excluded unclean money; Poole and Gill trace the same ruling; Benson lands the contrast without mercy, that “they are afraid to defile the treasury, but not afraid to pollute their souls.” Pulpit supplies the probability that makes it worse and marks it as probability: the silver they now cannot replace was most likely drawn from this treasury in the first place. Gill and Poole both reach for the Lord's own phrase from Matthew 23, straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. JFB puts the theological point in one sentence: “those punctilious scruples made them unconsciously fulfil the Scripture.” What they buy is a worked-out clay pit, worth thirty pieces only because the potters had already taken what was valuable out of it, and they buy it for the burial of ξένοις, strangers, whom Cambridge reads as diaspora Jews and proselytes and Geneva as people the Jews “could not endure to be joined with even after they were dead.” Then the city names it. The naming verb ἐκλήθη is passive and agentless, and Gill notices who is missing from it: not the priests who bought the ground, not the strangers buried in it, but the common people, who knew what had paid for it.

iii. The citation that names the wrong prophet — 27:9-10

Matthew now does what he does at 1:22, 2:15 and 2:17: he stops the narrative and says a word was filled full. The words he gives are Zechariah's; the name he gives is Jeremiah's. Not one commentator in this brief disputes the fact. Barnes: “The words quoted here are not to be found in the prophecy of Jeremiah.” Benson: they “are not in any copy of Jeremiah extant.” Cambridge: “The citation is from Zechariah 11:13, but neither the Hebrew nor the LXX. version is followed exactly.” What they dispute is the cause, and they dispute it six ways: a copyist's slip between the abbreviations Ζριου and Ιριου (Benson, Geneva, Barnes, Pulpit); Jeremiah standing first in the prophetic volume and so naming the whole of it (JFB citing Lightfoot, and Gill, Cambridge and Barnes); quotation from memory that drew in Jeremiah's own potter chapters 18 and 19 (Ellicott, Cambridge); a Jeremiah source now lost, which Gill says Jerome claimed to have been shown; an oracle first spoken by Jeremiah and later recorded by Zechariah (Benson citing Grotius); and a deliberate composite of Jeremiah 18, 19 and 32 with Zechariah 11, filed under the more famous name (Pulpit). Ellicott alone is willing to say the plain thing about Matthew's method, that “it was enough for him that the old words fitted into the facts.” Poole is the one who keeps the door open by refusing to fix the sense of ἐπληρώθη at all: the evangelists use “fulfilled” for a prediction accomplished, for a type answered, and for a mere allusion to a like matter of fact. And the unit ends with a rare verb, συνέταξέν, which Matthew otherwise uses only of disciples doing exactly as Jesus appointed. Here the ones doing exactly as the Lord appointed are the men who have just declared the money too dirty for God.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested, and the single line set apart below it is the tool's sentence and not Scripture. Read as one movement, the passage is about what money does when conscience arrives too late. Judas gets the noun right (αἷμα ἀθῷον, innocent blood) and the direction wrong: he carries a true confession to the men who profited from the lie, and Ellicott is right that a word of counsel might have turned him, and right again that Matthew records none. The priests then get the ritual right and the case wrong, and the text is savage about the order of their scruples: the chest may not be defiled, the man may be killed. What holds the two halves together is a single rare verb at the end. συνέταξέν (syntassō, G4929) appears in this Gospel only three times, and in the other two the ones who do exactly as they were appointed are disciples under orders. Here the ones doing exactly as the Lord appointed are a council that would be appalled to hear it, and a traitor who thought he was disposing of his own guilt. JFB says it in six words about verse 6: their scruples made them unconsciously fulfil the Scripture. That is a claim about providence, not about their innocence, and Matthew never softens the second to get the first: Judas sinned, the priests despised innocent blood, and the field is still called by the name the street gave it. The one thing this reading will not do is resolve the name in verse 9. The brief offers six explanations and the tool has no way to adjudicate between them; what can be said honestly is that the evangelist who most loves the fulfilment formula uses it here over a citation whose attribution his own readers could check, and did not hide it.

The priests could not put the money back in the box, so they spent it on graves for the people they would not lie beside.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

Thirty pieces and the potter: the wording Matthew is quoting structural / thematic: confirmed

The wording of vv. 9 and 10 comes chiefly from Zechariah 11:12-13, where the rejected Shepherd asks for his wages, is weighed thirty pieces of silver, and is told to cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD. JFB names it at v. 5, before Matthew's own formula arrives: “But thus were fulfilled the words of the prophet.” Cambridge gives the Hebrew literally and adds that neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint is followed exactly; Pulpit lists the differences, that the prophet's vision has no field, and that the Septuagint reads differently again. This is the clearest quotation link in the unit and it is still not tiered verbal here: the two refs cross the Testaments, so no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed between a Greek text and a Hebrew one, and the house rule (and qa.py check B) forbids the verbal tier for such a pair. The basis records that limit rather than hiding it.

Zechariah 11:12-13 · Matthew 27:9

basis: Cross-Testament pair (Greek Matthew to Hebrew Zechariah): shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed across the Testaments, so no verbal basis exists even though the citation is formally marked and near verbatim. Recorded basis is the formal citation formula plus the shared concrete data named by Cambridge, Pulpit, Barnes, JFB, Gill and Poole: thirty pieces of silver, the potter, the house of the LORD. Tiered structural, not verbal, for the cross-Testament reason stated.

Why the citation says Jeremiah flagged: verify source

Matthew writes Ἰερεμίου. The wording is Zechariah's. Jeremiah 18:1-4 and 19:1-13 supply the potter and the potter's house in the Valley of Hinnom (Ellicott points to both), and Jeremiah 32:6-9 supplies a prophet buying a field and weighing out silver for it (Poole notes it was his uncle's son's field and seventeen shekels, not thirty). Pulpit's sixth solution is that Matthew has made a cento of these passages with Zechariah 11 and filed it under the better known name. Benson reports Grotius's opinion that Jeremiah spoke the oracle first and Zechariah later recorded it. Gill reports that Jerome was shown a Hebrew apocryphal work of Jeremiah containing the words verbatim. The provenance of the attribution is genuinely disputed in the sources themselves, so the badge is flagged rather than confirmed.

Jeremiah 18:1-4 · Jeremiah 19:1-13 · Jeremiah 32:6-9

basis: Provenance disputed in the sources. The Verifier supplies no lexeme basis (cross-Testament). The connection to these Jeremiah chapters rests on the potter and field motifs named by Ellicott, Pulpit, Poole and Gill, and on Matthew's own attribution, which Barnes, Benson, Cambridge, Geneva and Pulpit all regard as either a scribal error or a citation from memory. Flagged, not confirmed.

Innocent blood: the word that returns on Pilate's lips verbal / quotation: confirmed

ἀθῷος (athōos, G121) is not a common New Testament word. The Verifier finds it in two verses only, and both are in this chapter: Judas says “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (v. 4), and twenty verses later Pilate washes his hands and says “I am innocent of this blood.” The traitor uses the adjective of his victim; the judge uses it of himself. Both then hand the responsibility to someone else with the same idiom, σὺ ὄψῃ at v. 4 and ὑμεῖς ὄψεσθε at v. 24. The link is within Matthew's Greek and rests on a rare shared lexeme.

Matthew 27:24

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G121 ἄθωος (in 2 vv, which is every occurrence in the Greek New Testament), with G129 αἷμα (in 90 vv) in both. Both refs are New Testament, so the cross-Testament restriction does not apply. The rarity of G121 carries the verbal tier.

Korban: the chest that swallows a vow and refuses a bribe verbal / quotation: confirmed

The priests will not put the silver into the κορβανᾶν. The word is Hebrew carried whole into Greek, and Benson notes it “occurs in no other passage in the Scriptures” in this form. The Verifier finds the lexeme in two verses: here and Mark 7:11, where Jesus attacks the man who says “Corban” over what he owed his parents. The same sacred word does opposite work in the two scenes and identical work underneath: in Mark it makes a vow into a way of withholding mercy, in Matthew it makes a treasury into a way of withholding responsibility. Matthew draws no such comparison; the shared lexeme is the record, the reading is ⚙ and fallible.

Mark 7:11

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexeme G2878 κορβᾶν (in 2 vv, both occurrences in the Greek New Testament). Both refs are New Testament. Rare lexeme, so verbal; no quotation is claimed in either direction, only the shared transliterated term.

The same silver, from the bargain to the bribed guards structural / thematic: confirmed

ἀργύρια runs through Matthew's Passion as a single ledger. At 26:15 the chief priests weigh out thirty pieces to hand Jesus over (παραδῶ, the same verb that names Judas in v. 3). Here the coins come back, are refused, and buy a grave. At 28:12 the same body gives a large sum of the same metal to the soldiers, and at 28:15 the story they bought is still being told. Matthew never comments on the pattern; the Verifier's lexeme counts make it visible. The link is narrative repetition within one Gospel, not quotation, so the tier is structural even though τριάκοντα is moderately uncommon.

Matthew 26:15 · Matthew 28:12 · Matthew 28:15

basis: Verifier: Matthew 26:15 shares G3860 παραδίδωμι (in 117 vv), G694 ἀργύριον (in 20 vv), G5144 τριάκοντα (in 11 vv); Matthew 28:12 and 28:15 share G694 ἀργύριον (in 20 vv) and, at 28:12, G4245 πρεσβύτερος (in 66 vv). Real verbal links, but the relation is repeated narrative motif and no quotation is claimed, so the tier is downgraded to structural deliberately.

The price of a dog and the hire of a harlot structural / thematic: confirmed

The ruling the priests invoke is not invented on the spot. Deuteronomy 23:18 barred the hire of a harlot and the price of a dog from the house of the LORD for any vow, and Ellicott, Poole, Barnes, Benson, Cambridge and Pulpit all name that verse as the ground of “it is not lawful.” The same field of law stands behind the phrase Judas used: Deuteronomy 27:25 curses the man who takes a bribe to slay innocent blood, and Proverbs 6:17 lists hands that shed innocent blood among the things the LORD hates. Both describe precisely what has happened in vv. 3 to 6, and neither is quoted by Matthew. Greek to Hebrew, so no shared lexeme can be computed and the verbal tier is unavailable in principle.

Deuteronomy 23:18 · Deuteronomy 27:25 · Proverbs 6:17

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): shared Strong's numbers cannot be computed, so no verbal basis exists and the verbal tier is excluded. Recorded basis is the legal ruling explicitly cited by six commentators in the brief (Ellicott, Poole, Barnes, Benson, Cambridge, Pulpit) for Deuteronomy 23:18, plus the shared motif of a bribe taken against innocent blood at Deuteronomy 27:25 and Proverbs 6:17. Matthew makes no quotation claim at any of the three.

Ahithophel, the counsellor who went and hanged himself typological

Ellicott records the lexical fact: ἀπήγξατο, the verb Matthew uses of Judas, “is the same as that used of Ahithophel, in the Greek version of 2Samuel 17:23.” Pulpit states the figural reading outright, that Judas “is the Ahithophel of the New Testament,” and adds Psalm 41:9 and Psalm 55:12-14, the table companion who lifted his heel and the familiar friend who betrayed. In 2 Samuel the trusted counsellor of David, his advice rejected, sets his house in order, hangs himself, and is buried in his father's tomb. This is a figural reading, ancient in the Church and widely held, but it is a reading and not a quotation, and the shared verb is a shared word between Matthew's Greek and a Greek translation of Hebrew, not a shared Strong's lexeme between the two texts.

2 Samuel 17:23 · Psalm 41:9 · Psalm 55:12-14

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew): no shared Strong's lexeme can be computed, so the verbal tier is excluded. Recorded basis is Ellicott's observation that the Septuagint of 2 Samuel 17:23 uses the same Greek verb, which is a versional coincidence and not a Hebrew to Greek link, plus Pulpit's explicit identification of Judas as the Ahithophel of the New Testament with Psalm 41:9 and Psalm 55:12-14. Widely held figural reading, marked as such.

The potter and the clay structural / thematic: confirmed

κεραμεύς (kerameus, G2763) is rare in the Greek New Testament: three verses, two of them in this unit (vv. 7 and 10) and the third Romans 9:21, where Paul asks whether the potter has authority over the clay to make one vessel for honour and another for dishonour. The shared word also sits beside the shared noun τιμή, which in Matthew means the price of blood and in Paul means honour. The overlap is real and the Verifier records it; any theological weight put on it is ⚙ and belongs to the reader, since Matthew's potter is a tradesman with an exhausted clay pit and Paul's is a figure for God.

Romans 9:21

basis: Verifier: shared Greek lexemes G2763 κεραμεύς (in 3 vv) and G5092 τιμή (in 40 vv). Both refs are New Testament and the potter lexeme is rare enough to support a verbal tier, but no quotation or allusion is claimed in either direction, so the tier is deliberately downgraded to structural.

The other account of how Judas died flagged: verify source

Acts 1:18-19 tells the same end differently: Judas, not the priests, purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; falling headlong he burst asunder and his bowels gushed out; and the field is called Aceldama for that reason rather than for the reason Matthew gives. Barnes harmonizes by supposing a rope that broke above the ravine of Hinnom, and cites measured cliff heights; Gill offers either the broken rope or a suffocating disease; Poole lists four proposals and then declines to choose; Pulpit reports a fragment of Papias with a passing waggon; Benson notes the Syriac reads “he strangled himself.” Cambridge refuses all of them: “The two accounts are not actually inconsistent, but the key to their concordance is lost. No entirely satisfactory solution of the discrepancy has been given.” The link is certain and the reconciliation is contested, so this is flagged.

Acts 1:18-19

basis: No Verifier lexeme basis was returned for this pair. The link is the two narratives of the same event and is undisputed; what is disputed is the harmonization, and the brief contains five mutually exclusive proposals (Barnes, Gill, Poole, Pulpit, Benson) alongside Cambridge's statement that no satisfactory solution has been given. Flagged so the contested reconciliation is visible rather than implied.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The price set on the Shepherd ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit's own theological claim is made by its vocabulary before it is made by its argument. Three times in verse 9 the root timaō sounds: the price, the one who has been priced, whom they priced. Barnes states the datum the reading rests on, that thirty pieces of silver was the common price of a slave, and reads the sum as a deliberate measure of contempt: “To show their great contempt of him and his office, and of God who had sent him, they gave him thirty pieces of silver.” In Zechariah 11 the rejected Shepherd asks the flock to name his wages, and the naming of them is the verdict. Poole works through the Zechariah chapter at length and concludes that the Shepherd is Christ, who came in person to feed the church of the Jews and was abhorred, and that “their selling of Christ to a traitor for so much, signified their high contempt of him.” JFB, Gill and Henry read the passage the same way. The redemptive-historical point is not that the sum was large but that it was small, and that Israel's own valuation of her Shepherd was entered as evidence by the Shepherd's own book.

Zechariah 11:12-13 · Matthew 26:15 · Matthew 27:9

Blood confessed innocent by the man who sold it ancient/widely-held

⚙ The Passion narrative needs no witness to Christ's innocence more hostile than Judas, and Matthew gives it. Barnes builds the case carefully: Judas had been with him three years, in public and private, and was competent to testify to anything said against Rome or against God; such testimony from a disciple would have been worth more to the priests than any other, and it would have saved him; he gave the opposite instead and threw away the price. JFB adds that a treasurer with a thievish habit would incline to suspicious readings of his Master rather than generous ones, so the absence of any accusation is itself an argument. Henry reads the confession as “full testimony to the character of Christ; but the rulers were hardened.” Then the same rare adjective, ἄθωος, comes back at v. 24 in Pilate's mouth: the Roman judge declares himself innocent of the blood that the Jewish traitor has already declared innocent, and between the two declarations the sentence is carried out anyway. The unblemished victim is certified by the two men with the least reason to certify him.

Matthew 27:4 · Matthew 27:24

A grave bought for strangers with the price of blood ancient/widely-held

⚙ Henry records a reading the church has long made of this field: “Many apply this passage of the buying the piece of ground, with the money Judas brought back, to signify the favour intended by the blood of Christ to strangers, and sinners of the Gentiles.” Henry's own verb, “apply,” is the honest one, and it is kept here: Matthew makes no such statement, and the reading is figural. What the text does supply is the shape. The price of blood is refused by the sanctuary and spent on a burial place for ξένοις, the outsiders, whom Geneva describes as those the Jews “could not endure to be joined with even after they were dead,” and Barnes as those the high priests regarded as abominable. Ellicott presses that the ground itself was accursed, in the valley whose name became the word for hell. That a price of blood, rejected by the temple, ends by purchasing resting ground for the excluded is the pattern the older readers heard; whether Matthew intended it is not something this tool can decide, and the attestation is marked accordingly.

Matthew 27:7 · Matthew 27:8

As the Lord appointed: providence running through hands that meant evil ancient/widely-held

⚙ The unit's last clause puts the whole transaction under a divine appointment, and the verb is rare: συνέταξέν (syntassō, G4929), which Matthew uses elsewhere only at 21:6 and 26:19, both times of disciples doing exactly what Jesus appointed. Here the compliant parties are a council that despises the man it has priced. JFB states the mechanism without excusing anyone: “those punctilious scruples made them unconsciously fulfil the Scripture.” Gill goes further and credits the overruling to Christ himself, who, he argues, so worked on Judas and on the priests that the money reached the potter and the prophecy stood; that is Gill's doctrine of providence applied to a grammatical seam between a plural verb and a singular “me,” and it should be weighed as his and not as Matthew's. What the text asserts is narrower and harder: the wages of a betrayal, refused by the temple and spent on a graveyard, were where the LORD had appointed them to go, and the men who put them there sinned in putting them there.

Matthew 27:10 · Matthew 21:6 · Matthew 26:19

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

The attribution in v. 9 is a real crux and is not resolved here. Matthew writes “what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet,” and the wording that follows is chiefly Zechariah 11:12-13. Every commentator in this brief concedes the fact and none agrees on the cause. Benson, Geneva, Barnes and Pulpit favour an early transcription error (the abbreviated Ζριου and Ιριου being easily confused); JFB citing Lightfoot, with Gill, Cambridge and Barnes, favours Jeremiah standing first in the Hebrew volume of the prophets and so naming the whole; Ellicott and Cambridge favour citation from memory drawing in Jeremiah's potter chapters; Gill reports Jerome being shown an apocryphal Hebrew work of Jeremiah containing the words; Benson reports Grotius's view that Jeremiah spoke the oracle and Zechariah later recorded it; Pulpit proposes a deliberate composite of Jeremiah 18, 19 and 32 with Zechariah 11. The tool states the problem and lets the commentators carry the explanations; it asserts none of them.

Text. Benson and Pulpit both note that the Syriac omits the prophet's name entirely, reading only “which was spoken by the prophet,” and Benson adds that Augustine's remark suggests some copies in his day named no prophet; Pulpit nonetheless judges that nearly all Greek manuscripts and versions carry “Jeremiah,” so it stood in the text received. At v. 4 Pulpit records the variant αἷμα δίκαιον (righteous blood) beside αἷμα ἀθῷον, in either case without the article, and Gill notes the Vulgate, Syriac and Munster's Hebrew Gospel read “righteous.” At v. 5 Pulpit records both ἐν τῷ ναῷ and εἰς τὸν ναόν; the Berean interlinear used here has εἰς. At v. 9 ἔλαβον is formally ambiguous between “they took” and “I took,” and at v. 10 ἔδωκαν is plural where Zechariah and the closing “me” are singular; Gill argues for reading “I gave,” which the Syriac supports. These are the seams, and this unit does not smooth them.

The death of Judas. Matthew's ἀπήγξατο is the only occurrence of the verb in the New Testament and means strangling, without specifying the means; Benson says so explicitly, the Syriac reads “he strangled himself,” and the Authorized rendering follows the Vulgate laqueo se suspendit. Acts 1:18-19 gives a different account and a different reason for the field's name. The brief carries five reconciliations (Barnes's broken rope above the Hinnom cliffs, with his measured heights of 40, 36, 33, 30 and 25 feet; Gill's rope or quinsy, with a long excursus from the Talmud on death by Iscara; Poole's four options, from which he declines to choose; Pulpit's fragment of Papias about a passing waggon; Benson's discussion of suffocation) and one refusal, Cambridge's: “No entirely satisfactory solution of the discrepancy has been given.” That refusal is recorded here as the honest floor.

Thread bases and their limits. The Verifier computes shared Strong's lexemes only within one language. Every Old Testament link in this unit, including the Zechariah quotation that is formally marked and near verbatim, therefore has no computable verbal basis and is tiered structural or typological, with the reason stated in each badge. Within the Greek, G121 ἄθωος and G2878 κορβᾶν are rare enough (two verses each, every occurrence in the New Testament) to carry the verbal tier; G2763 κεραμεύς is equally rare but the relation to Romans 9:21 is motif rather than quotation, so that badge was downgraded on purpose. The Acts 1:18-19 pair returned no Verifier basis at all and is flagged.

What is not sourced. The dating of the Gospel implied by “to this day” is estimated in the brief two different ways, roughly thirty years by Barnes and about eight by Gill, and neither is textual evidence. The location of the field south of Mount Zion rests on Jerome's report, relayed by Gill and Barnes, and on later tradition relayed by Cambridge and Pulpit. Ellicott's suggestion that Judas expected a miraculous deliverance, and Pulpit's refutation of it, are both inference; Ellicott himself writes that “we have to guess at motives.” The Origen reference in Ellicott's note on v. 4, about Judas hoping to meet his Lord behind the veil, is Origen's speculation reported by Ellicott and is neither Matthew's nor this tool's claim.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)