Matthew 27:8

Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) The field of blood.—St. Luke (Acts 1:19) gives the Aramaic form, Akeldama, but assigns the death of Judas in a field which he had bought as the origin of the name. It is possible that two spots may have been known by the same name for distinct reasons, and the fact that two places have been shown as the Field of Blood from the time of Jerome downwards, is, as far as it goes, in favour of this view. It is equally possible, on the other hand, that Judas may have gone, before or after the purchase, to the ground which, bought with his money, was, in some sense his own, and there ended his despair, dying literally in Gehenna, and buried, not in the grave of his fathers at Kerioth, but as an outcast, with none to mourn over him, in the cemetery of the aliens.

Unto this day.—The phrase suggests here, as again in Matthew 28:15, an interval, more or less considerable, between the events and the record. (Comp. the Introduction as to the date of the Gospel.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

27:1-10 Wicked men see little of the consequences of their crimes when they commit them, but they must answer for them all. In the fullest manner Judas acknowledged to the chief priests that he had sinned, and betrayed an innocent person. This was full testimony to the character of Christ; but the rulers were hardened. Casting down the money, Judas departed, and went and hanged himself, not being able to bear the terror of Divine wrath, and the anguish of despair. There is little doubt but that the death of Judas was before that of our blessed Lord. But was it nothing to them that they had thirsted after this blood, and hired Judas to betray it, and had condemned it to be shed unjustly? Thus do fools make a mock at sin. Thus many make light of Christ crucified. And it is a common instance of the deceitfulness of our hearts, to make light of our own sin by dwelling upon other people's sins. But the judgment of God is according to truth. 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. It fulfilled a prophecy, Zec 11:12. Judas went far toward repentance, yet it was not to salvation. He confessed, but not to God; he did not go to him, and say, I have sinned, Father, against heaven. Let none be satisfied with such partial convictions as a man may have, and yet remain full of pride, enmity, and rebellion.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The field of blood - The field purchased by the price of blood. The name by which this field was called was "Aceldama," Acts 1:19. It was just without the walls of Jerusalem, on the south of Mount Zion. It is now used as a burying-place by the Armenian Christians in Jerusalem, who have a magnificent convent on Mount Zion - Missionary Herald, 1824, p. 66. See the plan of Jerusalem.

To this day - That is, to the day when Matthew wrote this gospel, about 30 years after the field was purchased.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury—"the Corban," or chest containing the money dedicated to sacred purposes (see on [1371]Mt 15:5).

because it is the price of blood—How scrupulous now! But those punctilious scruples made them unconsciously fulfil the Scripture.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Matthew 27:10".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore that field was called,.... Not by the priests and elders, but by the common people, who knew by what money it was purchased,

the field of blood; or "Aceldama", which so signifies, as in Acts 1:19, not called the field of the priests, the purchasers; nor the field of the strangers, for whom it was bought; but the field of blood, being purchased with that money, for which innocent blood was betrayed; and this name it bore

unto this day; in which Matthew wrote his Gospel, about eight years after, as is thought. Jerom (x) says, that in his time this field was shown on the south side of Mount Sion.

(x) De locis Hebraicis.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 27:8. ἀγρὸς αἵματος = aceldama, Acts 1:18, name otherwise explained there.—ἕως τῆς σήμερον: phrase frequent in O. T. history; sign of late date of Gospel, thinks De Wette.

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 27:8. Ἐκλήθη, κ.τ.λ., was called, etc.) A public testimony to the fact. The appellation of the field, though originating with the common people, was not fortuitous.—αἵματος, of blood) See Matthew 27:6.—ἕως τῆς σήμερον, unto this day) St Matthew wrote some time after [the events which he recorded]; cf. ch. Matthew 28:15.

Adrichonius says—” This soil (namely, that of the Field of Blood) possesseth a wonderful virtue, and one almost passing belief, viz., that within four and twenty hours it reduces the bodies of the dead to dust, which virtue, even when carried into other regions, it still preserves; for when, by command of the Empress Helena, as much earth, they say, as 270 vessels could hold, was taken from this field to Rome, and unloaded close by the Vatican Mount, on to that which the inhabitants call CAMPO SANTO, although it has changed its country, yet daily experience shows that it retains its power: for, rejecting Romans, it admits to sepulture only the bodies of strangers, the whole substance of whose flesh it here also entirely consumes within four and twenty hours, leaving only the bones.” This statement is partly confirmed, partly denied, by recent travellers.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - The field of blood. Aceldama (Acts 1:19), the Syriac name. It was so called (διὸ) from the circumstances attending its purchase, which gave it an evil notoriety, and which the priests must have divulged. "This also," says Chrysostom, taking the blood to be that of Jesus, "became a witness against them, and a proof of their treason. For the name of the place more clearly than a trumpet proclaimed their blood guiltiness." Unto this day. Until the time when this Gospel was published, the new appellation obtained. It is implied that a considerable interval had elapsed. Such chronological hints are often found in the Old Testament (cf. Genesis 19:37, 38; Joshua 4:9, etc.). Matthew 27:8