Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 27:8

"Wherefore that field was called, the field of blood, unto this day." — Matthew 27:8 (ASV)

The field of blood —Luke (Acts 1:19) gives the Aramaic form, Akeldama, but he attributes the name's origin to the death of Judas in a field he had purchased. It is possible that two locations were known by the same name for different reasons. The fact that two different places have been identified as the Field of Blood since the time of Jerome lends some support to this view.

On the other hand, it is equally possible that Judas, either before or after the purchase, went to the land that was, in a sense, his own because it was bought with his money. There, he ended his life in despair, dying literally in Gehenna. He was buried not in his ancestral tomb at Kerioth, but as an outcast with no one to mourn him, in the cemetery for foreigners.

To this day —This phrase, here and again in Matthew 28:15, suggests a considerable interval of time passed between the events and the writing of this account. (Compare the Introduction regarding the date of the Gospel.)