430 The potters field is purchased with the money. SECT. piring, in a most painful and terrible manner, a cxciii. spectacle of horror to all that beheld him, alive, or dead, as a multitude of spectators did. (ComXXVII. pare Acts i. 18, 19.) Mat. 6 priests took the silver price of blood. And the chief priests, taking up the pieces of 6 And the chief silver, were at some loss how they should dispose pieces, and said, It is of them; for they said, It is not lawful for us to not lawful for to put put them into the chest which is called Corban, them into the treaor the sacred treasury, because it is the price of sury, because it is the blood, and would in effect be offering to God the life of a man. And these hypocrites scrupled such a point of ceremony, while they still persisted in their resolution to destroy Jesus, which, if they had desired it, they might yet with them the potters 7 have prevented.. But afterwards, when they And they took 8 9 And there- 8 Wherefore that field was called, the fore, by the way, that field was called, in the field of blood, unto 9 (Then was fulfilled that which was Then was that fulfilled in a very remarkable manner, which was spoken by the prophet, spoken by Jeremy the c The potters field.] Thirty pieces of silver may seem a very inconsiderable price for a field so near Jerusalem; but as Grotius well observes, the ground was probably much spoiled by digging it up for earth to make potters vessels; so that it was now unfit for tillage or pasture, and consequently of small value. d Which was spoken by the prophet] Most copies read it, by Jeremiah the prophet; yet it is universally known that these words are found no where in Jeremiah, but in Zechariah (chap. xi. 13): it appears to ine very unnatural to say with Dr. Lightfoot (Hor. Hebr. in loc.) that all the prophetic writings might be called the book of Jeremiah; because in ancient times the prophecy of Jeremiah was put at the beginning of the volume of the prophets: nor would the granting this fact account for the expression of its being spoken by him, Nor am I at all convinced by Mr. Joseph (Zech. pro Mede's reasonings (see his Works, p. 965), that these words, though recorded by Zechariah, or rather found in his book, were originally spoken by Jeremiah, and by some accident displaced: a principle on which the whole credit of the prophecies might be destroyed. It would be a much less dishonour to the sacred writings, to suppose a small error in the pen of some carly transcriber, who might (as Bishop Hall prettily conjectures), by the mistake of one letter only (supposing the word to be contracted), write Igis for Z. And though it is certain that Jeremiah was the received reading, as early as Origen's time, yet there is room to doubt whether any prophet was named in the first copies, as the Syriack version, which is allowed to be made in the most early times, says only, It was spoken by the prophet, without mentioning by whom. On the whole, I think it more respectful to the evangelist, το And thus what Zechariah said was fulfilled. pieces of silver, the 431 SECT. prophet, saying, And (Zech. xi. 13), saying, " And I took the thirty they took the thirty pieces of silver" (which sum, the reader will cxciii. price of him that was observe, was the usual price of one who was sold Mat. valued, whom they of for a slave, or of one whom the children of Israel XXVII the children of Israel did sell, being esteemed among them on an 9 did value. 10 And gave them the Lord appointed me.) for the potters field, as MAT. XXVII. 62. Now average but the equitable price of such a one; But to return now to the main story. When, 62 to suppose that some officious transcriber might either insert or change the prophet's name, than to impute it, as Dr. Mill seems to do, to a slip in the author's memory. The price of one who was sold, &c.] We may either render the words, [ ? , ijuntavio año via Ioan,] of one who was sold, even of one whom the children of Israel did sell; and so consider them as expressive of the common price a slace was rated at among them: or we may render them, of him that was sold, or valued (even their own Messiah) whom the very children of Israel sold at this shameful price. And I think, either of these versions would suit the original, and convey a lively and proper sense: I have therefore suggested both in the paraphrase, though in the ver sion, which could not well be equally ambiguous, I have preferred the former. And they were given for the potters field, as the Lord commanded me.] It is plain these words are not exactly quoted, either from the Hebrew or the Septuagint; yet I cannot think the difference so great, as it at first appears; since those words in the parenthesis (TY THAN TH TCΤιμημένα, οι ετιμησαν, από vy Iopana,) which are not in either, may be considered as the words of the evangelist himself (to which he was naturally led by those of the prophet, A goodly price that I was prized at of them); and if, which might easily happen, idway be written for doxa, as 26 is ambiguous, it may be rendered yet nearer to the original, I took-and gave them, &c.-As for the general propriety of applying these words to this occasion, I think it may well be vindicated; for the connection and sense of the prophecy in the Old Testament seems to be this. In order to represent to Zechariah the contempt which Israel put upon their God, he had a vision to the following purpose. He thought God first appointed him to appear among them as a shepherd; (making him by that emblem a representation of himself:) after some time, he directs him to go to the rulers of Israel, and ask them, What they thought he deserved for his labour in that office? They give him the price of a slave, thirty pieces of silver; and this in the house of the Lord, where the court sat. On this, God, as resenting this indignity offered to trim in the person of his prophet, orders him to throw it down with disdain before the first poor labourer he met, who happened to be a potter at work by the temple gates, as a fitter price for a little of his paltry ware, than a suitable acknowledgment of the favours they had received from God. Now surely, if there was ever any circumstance in which the children of Israel behaved themselves so as to answer this visionary representation, it must be when they gave this very sum of thirty pieces of silver as a price for the life of that very Person whom God had appointed their great Shepherd. And, in order to point out the correspondence the more sensibly, Providence so ordered it, that the person to whom this money went should be a potter: though the prophecy would have been answered if he had been a fuller, or of any other profession. It may also be farther observed, that God's ceasing to be the Shepherd of Israel, which was represented by the prophet's breaking his pastoral staves, was never fully answered till their final rejection after the death of Christ; which may farther lead us to refer the affront of their giving the pieces of silver to this event. I do not remember ever to have seen this matter set in, what seems to me, its just and most natural light; but Grotius has some valuable hints upon it, which I wonder he did not pursue farther. B After 432 Mat. The priests desire to have the sepulchre secured ; to Pilate. 63 Saying, Sir, we rise again. SECT. notwithstanding the confession of Judas, the Now the next day exciii. Jews had crucified Christ, and his friends had that followed the day of the preparation, the taken down his body from the cross, and laid it chief priests and PhariXXVII. in Joseph's tomb on the evening of the sixth day sees came together un62 of the week. On the morrow, or on the sab bath itself, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests, and other Pharisees who be longed to the grand sanhedrim, assembled together in a body to wait upon Pilate, as with an 63 address of solemn importance: Saying, Sir, remember that that we remember that this notorious deceiver, who deceiver said, while was yesterday put to death for his crimes, and he was yet alive, Afis well known to have practised many arts to ter three days I will impose upon the people while he was yet living, said, After three days I will rise again from the 64 deads: We desire therefore, that since his friends have been intrusted with the care of interring him, thou wouldst order that the se- third day, lest his dispulchre where he is laid may be strictly guarded ciples come by night, and secured till the third day is past; lest his and stal him away, disciples should come by night and steal him away, ple, He is risen from and upon this should tell the people that, accord- the dead: so the last ing to his own prediction, he is risen from the error shall be worse dead and so the last deceit will be worse than the first, and the deluded populace will be more eager to profess their regard to him after his death, than they ever were while he was living. 65 66 And Pilate said to them, You have a guard in waiting about your court in the temple; go your way therefore, and order as many of them as you think fit to march to the sepulchre, and to keep centry there all night, and thereby make [it] as secure as you possibly can. And accordingly they went and took a detachment of soldiers with them to the garden of Joseph; and having first satisfied themselves that the corpse was there", they secured the sepulchre as well as they possibly could, sealing the stone, that it might not be broke open without a discovery of the fraud; and also setting a guard & After three days I will rise again.] Their intending to make the sepulchre secure only till the third day ended, shewed that they understood our Lord's expression of rising after three days to be (as indeed it was) equivalent to a declaration that he would rise on the third day. See note f on Mat. xii. 40. Vol VI. p. 331. Compare also Deut. xiv. 28, with xxvi. 12. h Having first satisfied themselves that near 64 Command there fore that the sepulchre be made sure until the and say unto the peo than the first. 65 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. the corpse was there.] Common prudence would teach them to do this; and perhaps they might feed their cruelty with viewing the dead body, as Herodias did with that sad spectacle the baptist's head. See note 9 on Mark vi. 28, Vol. VI. p. 408. i Sealing the stone.] Some have conjectured they might also cement it with lead, or bind it with iron; but the sabbath would hardly have allowed this. The guard would prevent Reflections on the miserable end of Judas. 433 cxciii. near it, who took care to place themselves so that SECT. 66 IMPROVEMENT. IN how fatal a manner does the way of transgressors deceive Mat. them! Judas, no doubt, but a few hours before, was thinking with xxvii. 3. eager impatience of receiving this sum of money, which was the wages of unrighteousness: but though he might for a little while roll it as a sweet morsel under his tongue, yet how soon was it turned into the gall of asps within him? (Job xx. 12-14.) He 5 We see the force of conscience, even in the worst of men. that had slighted all the warnings that his Master gave him, and neither was affected by the remembrance of his goodness to him, nor by the fear of his displeasure, while he was set upon accomplishing his covetous design, no sooner comes to feel the sting of an awakened conscience, but he is filled with horror, and is unable to endure the cutting anguish of his own reflections. And thus could God, in a moment, drive the most hardened sinner into all the agonies of remorse and despair, by letting loose his own thoughts upon him, to prey upon his heart like so many hungry cultures, and make him a terror to others, and an executioner to himself. We must surely admire the wisdom of Providence, in extorting 4 even from the mouth of this traitor so honourable a testimony of prevent violence; and the seal would be a security against any fraud of theirs in confederacy with the disciples, if that could possibly have been suspected. I have also hinted in the paraphrase above, that this precaution of sealing the sepulchre might prevent any attempt, not only to remove the body, but to embalm it. For it is to be considered, that they had great reason to believe, that when two such eminent persons as Joseph and Nicodemus had already paid such a public honour to the corpse, they would desire also to embalm it; which accordingly they did really design. This would be such an additional reflection on the proceedings of the sanhedrim as they would certainly desire to prevent. A mandate from Pilate for this purpose they could not be sure of obtaining had they asked it; nor would an act of their own court have been free from uncertainty and inconventence. This method of sealing the stone was therefore the most artful expedient that could be imagined; which would effectual the ly prevent it, without letting it be publicly to attend. 434 cxciii. Reflections on the miserable end of Judas. SECT. the innocence of Jesus, though to his own condemnation. And who could have imagined that the supreme court of Israel itself should have been so little impressed with it, as coldly to answer, What is that to us? See thou to that. Is this the language of rulers, yea, of priests? But they had cast off the fear of that God whose ministers they were, and had devoted themselves to gain and ambition. They therefore felt no remorse, even when Judas trembled before them, and appeared almost distracted under the sense of a crime in which they had been confederates with him. But their consciences were seared as with a red hot iron, and all their familiar converse with Divine things served only, in such a circumstance, to harden their hearts: as tempered steel gathers strength from the furnace and the hammer. 5 Judas repents; he confesses his crime; he throws away the reward of his guilt: yet was there nothing of godly sorrow in all this. Despairing, he becomes his own executioner; and flies to death, and to hell, as a refuge from the rage and fury of an awakened conscience. Fatal expedient! thus to seal his own damnation! But the righteous judgment of God erected him as a monument of wrath, and verified our Saviour's declaration, It had been good for that man if he had never been born. (Mat. xxvi. 24. and Mark xiv. 21. sect. clxx. p. 287.) Tremble, O our souls, at this thought! that Judas, even one of the twelve, should fall into such depths of sin and ruin! May we each of us be jealous over ourselves! and may we never presume to censure whole bodies of men for the fault of particular members, when we find there was a traitor and reprobate among the holy band of the apostles. 63, 64 We see the restless and implacable malice of Christ's enemies, which pursued him even to his tomb, and there endeavoured to blast his memory by fixing upon him the character of an impostor. 65, 66 They demanded, and procured a guard for his sepulchre. And here also we have a repeated instance of God's taking the wise in their own craftiness; (Job v. 13.) The seal and the guard served only more fully to attest the doctrine of Christ's resurrection, which they were set to overthrow, and to grace the triumph they were intended to oppose. Thus shall all the rage, and all the artifice of his enemies, at length promote the purposes of his glory thus shall meat at length come out of the eater, and sweetness out of the strong; (Judg. xiv. 14.) The wrath of man, O Lord, shall praise thee; and the remainder of it shall thou restrain, and shalt triumph over it, either by thy grace, or by thy vengeance; (Psal. Ixxvi. 10. : SECT. |