Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 1:18-19

"(Now this man obtained a field with the reward of his iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch that in their language that field was called Akeldama, that is, The field of blood.)" — Acts 1:18-19 (ASV)

Now this man purchased a field. A better translation is acquired, got possession of, a field, the Greek not necessarily including the idea of buying. On the difficulties presented by a comparison of this account with that in Matthew 27:5-8, see the note on that passage. Here, the field bought with Judas’s money is spoken of as what he gained as the reward of his treachery.

The details that follow are additions to the briefer statement of Saint Matthew, but are obviously not incompatible with it. Nor is there any necessity for assuming, as some have done, that there were two fields known as Aceldama: one that the priests had bought, and the other that was the scene of Judas’s death. The whole passage must be regarded as a note by the historian, not as part of the speech of Saint Peter. It was not likely that he, speaking to disciples, all of whom knew Aramaic (the popular Hebrew of Palestine), should stop to explain that Aceldama meant in their proper tongue, The field of blood.

In their proper tongue. This literally means in their own dialect. The word is used frequently in Acts (Acts 2:6; Acts 2:8; Acts 21:40), but not elsewhere in the New Testament.