Matthew 27:7

Matthew 27:7. And they took counsel. Probably soon after the crucifixion.

The potter's field. Some well known spot, of little value, because unfit for tillage.

To bury strangers in. Not heathen, but either foreign Jews, or, as is more likely, proselytes of the gate. ‘The field of blood' would be deemed good enough for this class, who could not be wholly overlooked. The charity was at all events a cheap one, and Pharisaism is true to itself in this. Compare the traders in the court of the Gentiles (chap. Matthew 21:12). It is not expressly stated, but suggested by Acts 1:18, that Judas was buried there. This first graveyard (instead of the usual isolated sepulchres) was not consecrated but desecrated by the burial of a suicide; the remains of such are usually refused a place in ‘consecrated ‘burial-grounds.