DID YOU KNOW?

Matthew and Acts each end Judas's story at a field bought with his silver. What do both say the field came to be called?

The answer

The Field of Blood. Matthew 27:8 says the potter's field "has been called the Field of Blood to this day." Acts 1:19 gives the name in the local language, Aramaic. That name is Hakeldama, and Acts translates it the same way. Matthew ties the name to the blood money that paid for the field. Acts ties it to what happened to Judas there.

Why it’s interesting

Acts says the residents of Jerusalem named the field "in their language." The New Oxford Annotated Bible, a study Bible, takes those words as a sign that many readers of Acts were Greek speakers who did not know Aramaic. The tellings did not stop at two: a second-century Christian writer, Papias, went further still.

Scholarly consensus

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