Matthew 27:8

27:8 Field of Blood is a way of describing a cemetery (cp. Acts 1:18-19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 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 Mat 27:6.—ἕως τῆς σήμερον, unto this day) St Matthew wrote some time after [the events which he recorded]; cf. ch. Mat 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.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 8. The field of blood] In vain do the wicked attempt to conceal themselves; God makes them instrumental in discovering their own wickedness. Judas, by returning the money, and the priests, by laying it out, raise to themselves an eternal monument - the one of his treachery, the others of their perfidiousness, and both of the innocence of Jesus Christ. As, long as the Jewish polity continued, it might be said, "This is the field that was bought from the potter with the money which Judas got from the high priests for betraying his Master; which he, in deep compunction of spirit, brought back to them, and they bought this ground for a burial-place for strangers: for as it was the price of the blood of an innocent man, they did not think proper to let it rest in the treasury of the temple where the traitor had thrown it, who afterwards, in despair, went and hanged himself." What a standing proof must this have been of the innocence of Christ, and of their perfidy!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(8) The field of blood.—St. Luke (Act_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 Mat_28:15, an interval, more or less considerable, between the events and the record. (Comp. the Introduction as to the date of the Gospel.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Act 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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

Ver. 8. Was called the field of blood] Not the burial place for strangers, as they would have had it called (thinking thereby to have gotten themselves an eternal commendation, for their love and liberality to strangers), but "the field of blood" (so the Vulgate would needs call it, much against these masters’ minds), for a lasting monument of their detestable villany, which they thought to have carried so cleanly, that the world should have been never the wiser; and therefore they would not kill Christ themselves as they did Stephen; but, to decline the envy, delivered him up to Pilate to be put to death. It is hard if hypocrites be not, by one means or other, detected; how else should their names rot?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The field of blood - The field purchased by the price of blood. The name by which this field was called was “Aceldama,” Act 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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Haceldama is a Syriac word: it is not the Greek; and some conjecture, that it found its way hither from the first chapter of the Acts, ver. 19. (Bible de Vence)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

8. The field of blood — The name stood as a memento of the direful sale and execution. The name, “called in their proper tongue Aceldama,” is at the present day traditionally given to a spot south of the Valley of Hinnom. Unto this day — Unto the time that Matthew writes. This was perhaps about eight years of interval. Sceptics have quoted this phrase in proof that Matthew was written in a later age. But it is a curious coincidence, that we fell upon this phrase a few days since in a New York newspaper, in regard to an event not more than eight years distant.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The field of blood. Aceldama, (Act_1:19) the Syriac name. It was so called (dio) 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. Gen_19:37, 38 Jos_4:9, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. ἕως τῆς σήμερον (ἡμέρας). Cp. Latin, ‘hodierno die,’ Cic. Cat. III. 9. 21, and frequently.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] ἀγρ. αἵμ.,—חֲקַל דְּמָא. See Act 1:19.

ἕως τῆς σήμ.] This expression shews that a considerable time had elapsed since the event, before Matthew’s Gospel was published.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(P) 8. Wherefore that field was called, Field of Blood, unto this day.]

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.