Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 27:6-10

"And the chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter`s field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, the field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom [certain] of the children of Israel did price; and they gave them for the potter`s field, as the Lord appointed me." — Matthew 27:6-10 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: The chief priests, knowing they had paid for a murder, were condemned by their own conscience. They said, “It is the price of blood.”

St. Jerome: Truly, they were straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. For if they would not put the money into the treasury because it was the price of blood, why did they shed the blood in the first place?

Origen of Alexandria: They thought it fitting to spend the price of blood on the dead. But since there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus’ blood to purchase a potter's field where foreigners might be buried, rather than in the tombs of their ancestors as they would have desired.

St. Augustine of Hippo: I believe it was brought about by God's providence that the price paid for the Savior would not provide the means for sinners' indulgence, but rather rest for foreigners. In this way, Christ could both redeem the living by shedding His blood and shelter the dead by the price of His passion.

Therefore, the potter's field is purchased with the price of the Lord's blood. We read in Scripture that the salvation of the entire human race has been purchased by the Savior's blood. This field, then, is the whole world. The potter, who is the Lord of the soil, is the one who formed the vessels of our bodies from clay. This potter's field, therefore, was purchased by Christ's blood, and for strangers who wander throughout the world without a country or home, rest is provided by Christ's blood. ¹

These foreigners are the more devout Christians who have renounced the world and have no possession in it, and so find their rest in Christ's blood. For the burial of Christ is nothing other than the rest of a Christian. As the Apostle says, “We are buried with him by baptism into death” (Romans 6:4). In this life, then, we are like foreigners.

St. Jerome: We also, who were strangers to the Law and the Prophets, have profited from the perverse disposition of the Jews to obtain salvation for ourselves.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, the “foreigners” are those who remain alienated from God to the very end, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out of the rock. But those who are alienated from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter—a worker in clay—which, having been bought with the price of blood, is called the field of blood.

Glossa Ordinaria: “To this day” refers to the time when the Evangelist was writing. He then confirms the event with the testimony of the Prophet, saying, “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet...” ²

St. Jerome: This passage is not found in Jeremiah at all, but in Zechariahⁱ, who is the second to last of the twelve Prophets. Something similar is told there, and though the meaning is not very different, the arrangement and the words are.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But if anyone thinks this discredits the historian, let him first know that not all copies of the Gospels have the name Jeremiah; some simply say “by the prophet.” ³

However, I do not like this defense, because the majority of the more ancient copies have “Jeremiah,” and there would be no reason to add the name and thus introduce an error. The erasure of the name, on the other hand, is easily explained by the boldness of an ignorant person who had heard this objection.

It might be, then, that the name Jeremiah occurred to Matthew's mind as he wrote, instead of Zechariah, as so often happens. He would have corrected it immediately if those who read the text during his lifetime had pointed it out to him. However, he must have thought that his memory, guided by the Holy Spirit, would not have recalled one name instead of another unless the Lord had determined that it should be written that way.

As to why God would have so determined it, the first reason is that it conveys the wonderful agreement of the prophets, who all spoke by one Spirit. This is a much greater reality than if all the words of all the prophets had been uttered through the mouth of one man. Therefore, we should receive without doubt that whatever the Holy Spirit spoke through them, each word belongs to all in common, and the whole is the utterance of each.

Suppose, for example, that today someone repeating another's words mentioned not the speaker's name, but that of a close friend of the speaker. Upon realizing the mistake and correcting himself, he might still add, “Yet I am right, if you only consider the close unanimity that exists between the two.” How much more should this be observed in the case of the holy prophets!

There is a second reason why the name Jeremiah should be allowed to remain in this quotation from Zechariah, or rather, why it should have been suggested by the Holy Spirit. It is said in Jeremiah that he bought a field from his cousin and gave him silver for it (Jeremiah 32:9), though not the same sum of thirty pieces of silver stated in Zechariah. It is plain that the Evangelist has adapted the thirty pieces of silver from Zechariah to this event in the Lord's history.

But Matthew may also wish to convey that Jeremiah's words about the field are mystically alluded to here. Therefore, he uses the name of Jeremiah, who spoke of purchasing the field, rather than Zechariah, who spoke of the thirty pieces of silver. In this way, a person reading the Gospel and finding the name of Jeremiah—but not finding the passage about the thirty pieces of silver, and instead finding the account of purchasing the field—might be prompted to compare the two passages. By doing so, the reader could discern the meaning of the prophecy and how it was fulfilled in the Lord.

As for what Matthew adds to the prophecy, “Whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me,” this last phrase, “as the Lord appointed me,” is found in neither Zechariah nor Jeremiah. It must, therefore, be taken as inserted by the Evangelist with a mystical meaning, signifying that he had learned by revelation that the prophecy referred to the price for which Christ was betrayed.

St. Jerome: Far be it, then, from a follower of Christ to suppose the Evangelist guilty of falsehood. His task was not to scrutinize words and syllables, but to establish the core of the doctrine. ⁴

St. Augustine of Hippo: I recently read in a Hebrew book, given to me by a Hebrew of the Nazarene sect, an apocryphal book of Jeremiah in which I found the very words quoted here. After all, however, I am more inclined to think that Matthew took the passage from Zechariah, following the usual practice of the Apostles and Evangelists when they quote from the Old Testament: they often neglect the exact wording and attend only to the meaning. ⁵

1. App. Serm., 80, 1
2. non occ.
3. de Cons. Ev., iii, 7
4. Hieron. ad Pam. Ep. 57, 5
5. Hieron. in loc.