John Calvin Commentary Genesis 23:16

"And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron. And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current [money] with the merchant." — Genesis 23:16 (ASV)

And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver. I do not know what had come into Jerome’s mind when he says that one letter was removed from Ephron’s name, after he had been persuaded, by Abraham’s pleas, to receive money for the field; because by the sale of the sepulcher, his virtue was impaired or diminished. For, in fact, the name Ephron is found written in the very same way after that event as before.

Nor should it be imputed to Ephron as a fault that, when pressured, he took the lawful price for his estate, when he had been prepared to give it generously. If there was any sin in the matter, Abraham must bear the whole blame. But who will dare to condemn a just sale, in which, on both sides, religion, good faith, and equity, are maintained? Abraham, it is argued, bought the field for the sake of having a sepulcher. But should Ephron on that account give it freely and, under the pretext of a sepulcher, be defrauded of his right?

We see here, then, nothing but mere trifling. The Canonists, however—preposterous and foolish as they are—rashly seizing upon Jerome’s expressions, have determined that it is a monstrous sacrilege to sell sepulchers. Yet, in the meantime, all the Papal sacrificers securely engage in this trade, and while they acknowledge the cemetery to be a common sepulcher, they allow no grave to be dug unless the price is paid.

Current money with the merchant. Moses speaks this way because money is a medium of mutual exchange between people. It is principally used in buying and selling merchandise. When Moses says, at the end of the chapter, that the field was confirmed to Abraham by the Hittites as a possession, the meaning is that the purchase was publicly attested; for although a private individual sold it, the people were present and ratified the contract between the two parties.