Bible Commentaries

Repented himself (μεταμεληθεὶς)

See on Matthew 21:29.

What is that to us?

They ignore the question of Christ's innocence. As to Judas' sin or conscience, that is his matter. Thou wilt see to that.

In the temple

But the best reading is εἰς τὸν ναόν, into the sanctuary. He cast the pieces over the barrier of the enclosure which surrounded the sanctuary, or temple proper, and within which only the priests were allowed, and therefore into the sanctuary.

It is not lawful

In such cases the Jewish law provided that the money was to be restored to the donor; and if he insisted on giving it, that he should be induced to spend it for something for the public weal. This explains the apparent discrepancy between Matthew's account and that in the book of Acts (Acts 1:18). By a fiction of the law the money was still considered to be Judas', and to have been applied by him to the purchase of the potter's field.

Scarlet (κοκκίνην)

From κόκκος, cochineal, which grew in several parts of Greece. Garments of this color would seem to have been rare among the orientals. Herodotus relates that the admiration of Darius, then an officer in the army, was excited by the scarlet cloak of a Samian exile, who, on his offering to purchase it, presented it to him, and was afterward richly rewarded when Darius came to the throne (iii. 139).

Robe (χλαμύδα)

The short military cloak which kings and emperors as well as soldiers wore.

Compelled to go (ἠγγάρευσαν)

See on Matthew 5:41. Rev. has impressed in margin.

Golgotha

An Aramaic word, Gulgoltha, equals the Hebrew, Gulgoleth, and translated skull in Judges 9:53; 2 Kings 9:35. The word Calvary comes through the Latin calvaria, meaning skull, and used in the Vulgate. The New Testament narrative does not mention a mount or hill. The place was probably a rounded elevation. The meaning is not, as Tynd., a place of dead men's skulls, but simply skull.

Wine (οἶνον)

The older texts read ὄξος, vinegar. The compound of wine and gall was intended as a stupefying draught.

Watched (ἐτήρουν)

Or, to give the force of the imperfect tense, kept watch. This was to prevent the infliction of wanton cruelties, and also to prevent what sometimes happened, the taking down and restoring of the victim.