And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in.
All Commentaries on Matthew 27:7 Go To Matthew 27
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And they look counsel, and bought with them the potter"s field, to bury strangers in. "They saw," says Origen, "that it was most fitting that, as the price of blood, it should be expended on the dead and their place of burial."
Strangers: for the inhabitants had their own burial-places. And God so ordered it that this field should be a standing witness both of Judas" repentance and of Christ"s innocence. "The name," says S. Chrysostom, proclaims their bloody deed with trumpet tongue, for had they cast it into the treasury, the circumstances would not have been made so clearly known to future generations."
Symbolically: It was thus signified that the price of Christ"s Blood would benefit not Jews only, but strangers, the Gentiles, i.e, who would hereafter believe on Him. So Hilary, "It belongs not to Israel, but is solely for the use of strangers."
