CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 27:2. Pontius Pilate.—Must have belonged, by birth or adoption, to the gens of the Pontii, one of whom, C. Pontius Telesinus, had been the leader of the Samnites in their second and third wars against Rome, B.C. 321–292. The cognomen Pilatus means “armed with the pilum or javelin,” and may have had its origin in some early military achievement. When Judæa became formally subject to the empire, on the deposition of Archelaus, a procurator, or collector of revenue, invested with judicial power, was appointed to govern it, subject to the Governor of Syria (Luke 2:2), and resided commonly in Cæsarea. Pontius Pilate, of whose previous career we know nothing, was appointed, A.D. 25–26, as the sixth holder of that office. His administration had already, prior to our Lord’s trial, been marked by a series of outrages on Jewish feelings.
(1) He had removed the headquarters of his army from Cæsarea to Jerusalem, and the troops brought their standards with the image of the emperor into the Holy City. The people were excited into frenzy, and rushed in crowds to Cæsarea to implore him to spare them this outrage on their religion. After five days of obstinacy and a partial attempt to suppress the tumult, Pilate at last yielded (Jos., Ant. XVIII. iii. 1, 2; B.J., II. ix. 2–4).
(2) He had hung up in his palace at Jerusalem gilt shields inscribed with the names of heathen deities, and would not remove them till an express order came from Tiberius (Philo. Leg. ad Caium, c. 38).
(3) He had taken money from the Corban, or treasury of the temple, for the construction of an aqueduct. This led to another tumult, which was suppressed by the slaughter, not of the rioters only, but also of casual spectators (Jos., B. J., II. ix. 4).
(4) Lastly, on some unknown occasion he had slain some Galileans while they were in the very act of sacrificing (Luke 13:1), and this bad probably caused the ill-feeling between him and the tetrarch Antipas mentioned in Luke 23:12. It is well to bear in mind these antecedents of the man, as notes of character, as we follow him through the series of vacillations which we now have to trace (Plumptre). The wish of the Sanhedrin in delivering Jesus to Pilate was to have their sentence confirmed without inquiry. See Matthew 26:66 (Carr).
Matthew 27:3. Repented himself.—It is worth while to mark in the translation the difference between μεταμέλομαι, to change one’s care, and μετανοέω, to change one’s mind or purpose, and thus between the repentance of Peter, who abhorred the cause of his sin, and the remorse of Judas, who shrank back from the effect; or the godly sorrow which leads to life, and the worldly regret which leads to death (Schaff).
Matthew 27:5. In the temple.—Into the sanctuary (R.V.). “The holy place,” into which only the priests might enter. How is this to be explained? Perhaps he flung the money in after them. But thus were fulfilled the words of the prophet (Zechariah 11:13) (Brown).
Matthew 27:6. The treasury.—The temple free-will-offering treasury, called “Corbanas” (Jos., B. J., II. ix. 4), into which the corbans, or gifts of the people, were cast (Morison). The price of blood.—See Deuteronomy 23:18. By parity of reasoning, the priests seem to have thought that the blood-money which was thus returned was excluded also (Plumptre).
Matthew 27:7. The potter’s field.—Tradition places this (Aceldama, Acts 1:19) in the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem. To bury strangers in.—That is, say Grotius, Fritzsche, and Meyer, for such stranger-Jews as might die while visiting the city on occasion of any of the great festivals. It is more likely, however, that the reference is to foreigners, such as Greeks and Romans, whose ashes would be regarded as, in a special sense, unclean. So Beza. There would thus be a compromise of feelings. The money would be treated as unclean, and yet it would be laid out for a charitable purpose (Morison).
Matthew 27:8. Wherefore.—St. Luke (Acts 1:19) 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 (Plumptre).
Matthew 27:9. Jeremy the prophet.—The citation is from Zechariah 11:13, but neither the Hebrew nor the LXX. version is followed exactly. Among the explanations of the prophecy being attributed to Jeremiah rather than Zechariah are the following:
(1) “Jeremiah,” who begins the Book of the Prophets in the Hebrew Canon, is intended to indicate the whole of that division of the Scriptures. This was the view of Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr.), and is favoured by Scrivener, David Brown, and others.
(2) This is an error on the part of an early transcriber.
(3) This is a slip of the pen or a slip of the memory on the part of the Evangelist himself.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 27:1-10
The homage of guilt.—“When the morning was come,” it appears to have been thought by those who had condemned the Saviour to death that the time had arrived for carrying out the resolution they had come to. They therefore, it is said, “took counsel” as to the best way of so doing. Two things seem to have determined them in the line they adopted. One was that the power of life and death was now out of their hands (John 18:31-32). The other that the Roman governor, in whose hands it lay, would soon be taking his morning seat for the administration of justice. To him, therefore, they lead the Saviour forthwith, taking Him “bound” (Matthew 27:2) as one already condemned, and going in a body (Luke 23:1), as though to show that the condemnation was the act of them all. None that looked on, therefore, could fail seeing all that was meant. Jesus is now “seen” to be “condemned (Matthew 27:3). The effect of this sight on the man who had betrayed Him, and the effect of this effect on those who had condemned Him, are told to us next.
I. The effect on Judas.—We see this, first, in that which he says. When he “sees” that Jesus is “condemned” (ibid.), he sees also what has been said of Him by the priests, viz., that He is guilty, and so worthy of death. What he says in reply, seeing this, is, that He is nothing of the kind. To shed His blood, on the contrary, will be to shed “innocent blood.” That is the first thing he declares. He declares, also, what is implied in this, that he had his own share in the matter. “I have sinned” in that I have betrayed this innocent blood. And he showed, yet further, how strongly he felt this by the peculiar emphasis of his words: Here, take this money which you gave me for betraying Him, for I desire to have it no more (Matthew 27:3). A marvellous result on the part of one who is spoken of as a “thief” (John 12:6), that he should thus deny, as it were, his own nature, on account of the depth of his feelings. The same effect is shown still more in that which he does. In this we find him resolved, at all costs, to have nothing more to do with that bribe. If they will not accept it, he will not retain it, be the result what it may. In no sense shall it be his any more. It shall not even, as it were, be any more in his hands. As something, therefore, now utterly hateful to him, “he flings it down” in the temple, and then goes away, and, in a similar manner, flings away his own life (Matthew 27:5). The whole tragedy, in short, is, in every way, a most striking testimony to the innocency of Jesus. Even this man of covetousness cannot bring himself to keep the price of His life. What a revelation of the real nature of his convictions about Him! With all the almost certain suspiciousness of his nature (see John 12:4-5); with all the length and depth of his past intimacy with Jesus; he remembers nothing of Him but that which is good! No more competent witness, no more reliable witness, no louder witness, to the innocency of Jesus, could possibly be. Even Judas cannot live and see it denied!
II. The effect of this effect on the priests.—This was very significant in itself. Carefully gathering together the pieces of silver thrown down, all they think of is how to invest them in the most politic way. As the price of blood, it would never do to return them to the treasury of the temple. On the other hand, to them it would be just as inadmissible not to use them at all. What they resolve on, therefore, is to employ them in purchasing a piece of ground in the neighbourhood of the city, once used by a potter, but now probably exhausted, and so to be had (probably) for the exact modicum of money of which they wished to dispose. Not impossibly they had learned this through Judas himself. Not impossibly, also, this is how that exact sum had come to be agreed on between them. Anyhow, if the transaction was begun by him, it was completed by them. Thinking the place a convenient one to “bury strangers in”—and looking on it, doubtless, as quite good enough for that purpose—they purchased it for that end. Herein, therefore, we see the whole effect upon them of what Judas had done. The further question, whether or not they were really shedding “innocent blood,” as he said, was, in their judgment, no business of theirs (Matthew 27:4). Even more significant, next, was this action of theirs in regard to the future. That purchased field became one of immense notoriety before long. Bought with the money of perishing Judas, it became inseparably linked with that fact. It became known, therefore, for all future time, as the “field of” (innocent) “blood,” because bought with money which the betrayer himself, with his dying lips, had declared to be the price of such blood. Who could see that field afterwards without thinking of the two lives it had cost? And without remembering also what the one of those lives had virtually said of the other, viz., that it was a life without sin? Quite as significant, lastly, was this action of the priests in connection with the past. Either as a thing of vision, or else of equally instructive typical history, there was language on record in one of the prophets—it does not really matter in which—which relates the purchase of an exactly similar field at an exactly identical price; and describes that price also as being, in some way, the value set on a life (Matthew 27:9-10). So plainly, although so mysteriously; so fitly, and therefore so forcibly, had this step been foretold. Whatever else is doubtful, this is clear about that mysterious word. It was the crowning element in lending importance to this nefarious transaction. Long prophecy, in a word, had foreseen, what all posterity has since verified, of the significance of that field as an unconscious but eternal testimony to the innocency of the Saviour.
1. See, therefore, finally, on the one hand, the real origin of this testimony.—We have called it the homage of guilt. Judas designedly—the priests undesignedly—proclaim Christ here to be guiltless. Like so many Balaams, these later witnesses, intending to curse, are found blessing instead. But what has brought this about? Whose hand is it that is working in reality behind both Judas and them? And whose voice is it, therefore, that, as well by his lips and their actions as by the voice of prophecy about both, is thus testifying to Jesus? No devout heart can help seeing that it is the voice of His Father Himself. Practically, in short, it is Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5 over again.
2. See, in consequence, on the other hand, the peculiar timeliness of this testimony.—Just after Judas has treated the Saviour as guilty, he is compelled to testify to the exact opposite in the most irresistible way. Just after the priests have condemned the Saviour, they are made to condemn themselves for so doing. In other words and finally, just when Jesus has been delivered up to the Gentiles as guilty, God declares Him thus to be His “Holy One” still. Perhaps never more so than then!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 27:1-2. Christ sent to Pilate.—
1. The wicked are exceeding watchful to accomplish an ill turn, especially against Christ; for late at night and early in the morning are the chief priests and others busy to have Christ put to death.
2. It is no new thing to see corrupt church governors abuse the civil magistrate in execution of their unjust and cruel conclusions, as here the priests and elders deliver Christ bound to Pilate the governor.—David Dickson.
Was Jesus dealt with legally?—The question is sometimes asked, Was the trial of Jesus fair and legal according to the rules of Jewish law? The answer must be that the proceedings against Jesus violated both
(1) the spirit, and
(2) the express rules of Hebrew jurisdiction, the general tendency of which was to extreme clemency.
I. The Talmud states: “The Sanhedrin is to save, not to destroy life.” No man could be condemned in his absence, or without a majority of two to one; the penalty for procuring false witnesses was death; the condemned was not to be executed on the day of his trial. This clemency was violated in the trial of Jesus Christ.
II. But even the ordinary legal rules were disregarded in the following particulars:
(1) The examination by Annas without witnesses;
(2) The trial by night;
(3) The sentence on the first day of trial;
(4.) The trial of a capital charge on the day before the Sabbath;
(5) The suborning of witnesses;
(6) The direct interrogation by the high priest.—A. Carr, M.A.
Matthew 27:3-5. Judas Iscariot.—In the story of Judas Iscariot we have the prominent tragedy of the Gospels.—
I. The character of Judas.
II. The history of his scheme.
III. The efforts to save him.—Judas did not fall at once and unwarned. He had the same chances of better things which his brother Apostles had. He thrust away from himself the helping hand which Christ’s love extended to him. From the earliest time to the latest moment, Christ sought to save the traitor from himself. Recall Christ’s method. He did not receive recruits without caution. There were after-warnings also. Generally, the tone of our Lord’s teaching respecting worldliness was one constant warning. To a man like Judas, trying to secure his own interest, and making this the prime object of his thoughts, the words, “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon,” came like a trumpet-toned note of alarm. But besides general language like this, there were utterances of our Lord’s which, in the light of Judas’ character, sound like direct and special efforts to awake him from his dream of self. Read in the light of Judas’ designs the parable of the unjust steward. Or, again, the parable of the wedding-garment had its message for the traitor. As the crisis draws near, Christ puts forth fresh and final attempts to save him. “Ye are not all clean,” He said, at the time when it was not yet too late for the traitor to cleanse his fault. Christ still stood near at hand in the garb of service, stooping to wash the earth stains from His disciples’ feet. One more effort Christ will make. At the supper table He quotes the words, “He that eateth My bread lifted up his heel against Me” (John 13:18). Later still more explicitly, “One of you shall betray Me” (John 13:21). Even then it was not too late. The last step had not been taken by Judas. But, as with a man sliding down a steep place, the impetus of temptation was too strong. He takes the food from the hand of Christ. With treason in his heart, he does not hesitate to take that pledge of affection and loyalty. There is a treachery in the doing so; the Nemesis of base acts is further baseness. “After the sop Satan entered into him” (John 13:27). The crisis is passed at that moment. He will not turn back now. “That thou doest, do quickly” (John 13:27). “He went out straightway; and it was night.” An hour later his treason was an accomplished fact.
IV. The catastrophe.—The inward story of Judas’ life is a story of help refused and warning disregarded.—Bishop W. B. Carpenter.
Judas’ remorse.—Having uttered these words of anguish to the chief priests (Matthew 27:4), probably as they led the procession on the way back from Herod’s court to Pilate’s, and having suffered the coarse, ungrateful, cruel rebuff that drove him to desperation, he, with hell in his heart and the price of innocent blood in his hand, rushed headlong through the Court of the Gentiles, the Court of the Women, and up the fifteen steps where the Levites were wont to sing the Songs of Degrees. There, because able to proceed no farther, he stood madly at the Gate Nicanor—where penitents had received, a thousand times, those words of forgiveness and blessing which he should never hear, and where, thirty-three years before, Mary had presented the Holy Child whose blood he had betrayed—and, with the might of despair and the bitter vengeance of a lost man, threw the thirty accursed coins over the Court of the priests, over its altar of burnt offering and its brazen laver, over the steps of the priests; so that, having gone hissing through the air, they rang the knell of doom upon the marble floor of the Holy Place. After this act of burning insanity he rushed down the valley of Hinnom, climbed its slippery slopes on yonder side, and on the summit hanged himself—hanged himself probably with the girdle in which he had carried the price of blood; but the girdle that could not carry the price of betrayal could not bear the betrayer, and so it snapped, letting fall its burden over the rocky steeps, down, down, into the valley of Gehenna—“his own place.”—David Davies.
Conscience-stricken Judas.—
1. Though before a sin be committed the bait and allurement is only seen, and the conscience blindfolded, kept captive and benumbed; yet after sin is committed it shall be wakened at last, and see the ugliness of sin discovered.
2. When the evil of sin is discovered, then is the naughtiness of every inducement unto it discovered also, and the grief is more than any gain or pleasure inducing unto it can counterbalance; for Judas now counteth little of the thirty pieces of silver, bringeth back the price, and casteth it down in the temple.
3. Such as sin by the inducement of others need not look for comfort from the enticers of them unto it, but must bear the guilt of it alone.
4. When Justice pursueth the sinner, and he flieth not to God’s mercy in Christ, there needeth no other judge, or witness, but his own conscience only; it is sufficient to convict, condemn, and torture him, so as he will choose to strangle himself rather than endure the vexation of it.—David Dickson.