Did you know… that the field bought with Judas’ betrayal silver (Matt. 27:3-10) is not the first “field of blood” in the Bible?
The first is the field Cain took Abel to… for the original biblical story of betrayal…. which left Abel’s blood crying out from the ground of the field for justice (Gen. 4:8-12).
Realizing this year’s ago, I could never quite grasp something else about the so-named field in Judas’ story though. If its name was indeed drawn from Scripture, then what about its stated purpose in Matthew as a place for foreigners to be buried (Matt. 27:7) ?
I remained puzzled about this for some time until I finally discovered something while reading: There is not one but two fields featured in the book of Genesis. The other? The field Abraham purchased from the Hittites with silver when his wife Sarah died (Gen. 23) and where Abraham himself and later his descendants also were buried (Gen. 25:10; 50:13). For as foreigners in a foreign land, Abraham and his household owned no land for which to bury their dead (Gen. 23:4).
Seemingly revealing this field in Matthew as a composite of not two, but three fields in the Old Testament! These two fields from Genesis plus the potter’s field directly referenced by Matthew’s Jeremiah quotation.
And adding Matthew’s field as another probably composite amongst the Gospels many Old Testament composites.