Bible Commentaries

Now when morning was come (πρωιας δε γενομενης). Genitive absolute. After dawn came the Sanhedrin held a formal meeting to condemn Jesus and so ratify the illegal trial during the night (Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66-71). Luke gives the details of this second ratification consultation. The phrase used, took counsel (συμβουλιον ελαβον) is a Latin idiom (consilium ceperunt) for συνεβουλευσαντο.

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Delivered him up to Pilate the governor (παρεδωκαν Πειλατω τω ηγεμον). What they had done was all a form and a farce. Pilate had the power of death, but they had greatly enjoyed the condemnation and the buffeting of Jesus now in their power bound as a condemned criminal. He was no longer the master of assemblies in the temple, able to make the Sanhedrin cower before him. He had been bound in the garden and was bound before Annas (John 18:12; John 18:24), but may have been unbound before Caiaphas.

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Repented himself (μεταμεληθεις). Probably Judas saw Jesus led away to Pilate and thus knew that the condemnation had taken place. This verb (first aorist passive participle of μεταμελομα) really means to be sorry afterwards like the English word repent from the Latin repoenitet, to have pain again or afterwards. See the same verb μεταμεληθεις in Matthew 21:30 of the boy who became sorry and changed to obedience. The word does not have an evil sense in itself. Paul uses it of his sorrow for his sharp letter to the Corinthians, a sorrow that ceased when good came of the letter (2 Corinthians 7:8). But mere sorrow avails nothing unless it leads to change of mind and life (μετανοια), the sorrow according to God (2 Corinthians 7:9). This sorrow Peter had when he wept bitterly. It led Peter back to Christ. But Judas had only remorse that led to suicide.

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See thou to it (συ οψη). Judas made a belated confession of his sin in betraying innocent blood to the Sanhedrin, but not to God, nor to Jesus. The Sanhedrin ignore the innocent or righteous blood (αιμα αθωιον or δικαιον) and tell Judas to look after his own guilt himself. They ignore also their own guilt in the matter. The use of συ οψη as a volitive future, an equivalent of the imperative, is commoner in Latin (tu videris) than in Greek, though the Koine shows it also. The sentiment is that of Cain (Grotius, Bruce).

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Hanged himself (απηγξατο). Direct middle. His act was sudden after he hurled the money into the sanctuary (εις τον ναον), the sacred enclosure where the priests were. The motives of Judas in the betrayal were mixed as is usually the case with criminals. The money cut a small figure with him save as an expression of contempt as the current price of a slave.

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Into the treasury (εις τον κορβαναν). Josephus (War II. 9,4) uses this very word for the sacred treasury. Korban is Aramaic for gift (δωρον) as is plain in Mark 7:11. The price of blood (blood-money) was pollution to the treasury (Deuteronomy 23:18). So they took the money out and used it for a secular purpose. The rabbis knew how to split hairs about Korban (Mark 7:1-23; Matthew 15:1-20), but they balk at this blood-money.

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The potter's field (του αγρου του κεραμεως). Grotius suggests that it was a small field where potter's clay was obtained, like a brickyard (Broadus). Otherwise we do not know why the name exists. In Acts 1:18 we have another account of the death of Judas by bursting open (possibly falling after hanging himself) after he obtained the field by the wages of iniquity. But it is possible that εκτησατο there refers to the rabbinical use of Korban, that the money was still that of Judas though he was dead and so he really "acquired" the field by his blood-money.

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The field of blood (αγρος αιματος). This name was attached to it because it was the price of blood and that is not inconsistent with Acts 1:18. Today potter's field carries the idea here started of burial place for strangers who have no where else to lie (εις ταφην τοις ξενοις), probably at first Jews from elsewhere dying in Jerusalem. In Acts 1:19 it is called Aceldama or place of blood (χωριον αιματος) for the reason that Judas' blood was shed there, here because it was purchased by blood money. Both reasons could be true.

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