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the chief priests had fixed the price of betrayal at thirty pieces of silver because of the law
that made that sum the compensation for injury done to a servant, and we had read in
Matt. 27::--
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And
they took the thirty pieces of silver (the price given in Israel to compensate for injury of a
servant), and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."
Would anyone be found who would teach that the prophet Jeremiah was not quoted,
but rather the writer of the book of Exodus? For the sake of clearness let us have two
further hypothetical examples:--
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And
they took the twenty pieces of silver (the price of him who was sold by his brethren into
Egypt); and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me."
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And
they took the four hundred shekels of silver (the price paid to Ephron the Hittite for the
field of Machpelah as a burial place), and they gave them for the potter's field, as the
Lord appointed me."
It is, moreover, evident that the "him" who was priced and valued, and the "me"
whom the Lord appointed to buy the field, cannot have been one and the same man. We
exhibit the parenthetical reference to Zechariah, together with the quotation from
Jeremiah, so that the reader may see what Matthew has done:--
"Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
And they took the thirty pieces of silver.
They shall buy fields for silver.
(the price of him who was priced, whom
(the amount of the price that I was priced
they of the children of Israel did price),
at of them),
and they gave them for the potter's field,
And fields shall be bought in this land.
As the Lord appointed me.
Thou, O Lord Jehovah, hast said unto me,
But to thyself the field for silver."
One further illustration of the way in which Matthew quotes the prophets is found in
Matt. 21: 5. The words: "Tell ye the daughter of Zion", are quoted from Isa. 62: 11,
while those which follow are quoted from Zech. 9: 9. Both here and in Matt. 26: 31
Zechariah is quoted without being named, which is in keeping with the silence of
Matt. 27: in regard to the parenthetical words, "the price of him that was valued,
whom they of the children of Israel did value".
Both the passages quoted in Matt. 27: have one feature in common, which in some
measure links them together. In Jeremiah, concerning the proposal to purchase the field,
we read: "And I knew this was the word of the Lord" (Jer. 32: 8), and in Zechariah,
when the staff was broken, we read: "The poor of the flock who observed me knew that
this was the word of the Lord" (Zech. 11: 11).