Acts 1:18

Purchased (ἐκτήσατο) See on possess, Luke 18:12. Better, as Rev., obtained. Judas did not purchase the field, but the priests did with the money which he returned to them, (Matthew 27:7). The expression means merely that the field was purchased with the money of Judas. Falling headlong (πρηνής γενόμενος) Lit., having become headlong. He burst asunder (ἐλάκησε) Only here in New Testament. Lit., to crack, to burst with a noise. So Homer, of the bones cracking beneath a blow ("Iliad," xiii., 616). Compare Aristophanes, "Clouds," 410.

Acts 1:18-20 . This man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity — That is, a field was purchased therewith: for that reward, being restored by him to the chief priests, had been paid by them for the purchase of a field, which, in some sense, he might be said to have purchased, having supplied the money that paid for it. See note on Matthew 27:3-10 , where the next clause also, namely, his falling headlong, and bursting asunder, (in consequence, probably, of the rope breaking wherewith he hanged himself,) so that his bowels gushed out, is explained at large. It is justly observed by Dr. Doddridge, that an action is sometimes said in Scripture to be done by a person who was the occasion of doing it. See Genesis 42:38 ; Exodus 23:8 ; Romans 14:15 ; 1 Corinthians 7:16 ; 1 Timothy 4:16 . And it was known to all the dwellers at Jerusalem — The fact was public and notorious, and, the circumstance being extraordinary, it was so much noticed as to become the subject of general conversation; insomuch as that field — Which was so purchased; is called in their proper tongue, (Chaldaio-Syriac,) Aceldama, the field of blood — As being bought with money which was, in more senses than one, the price of blood; having been the cursed hire for which Judas sold the blood of his Master, and, in effect, his own.

We must either suppose that Luke added the expression, that is, the field of blood, to the words of Peter, for the use of Theophilus and other readers who did not understand the language of Palestine, or that the whole verse is to be considered as Luke’s words, and to be read in a parenthesis. It may not be improper to observe here, that Aringhius (in his Romans Subterran., p. 436) mentions a funeral inscription dug up in the Via Nomentana, in Italy, by which it appears that the fate of Judas became a proverbial form of cursing. For it is written in the book of Psalms — See note on Acts 1:16 .

Purchased a field; which Judas might have agreed for at that price, and yet the chief priests bought, {as Matthew 27:7} by a strange providence, leading of them to that purchase; howsoever, eventually he bought it, as throwing back to them their money which paid for it, Matthew 27:5 . Falling headlong, he burst asunder; it is said he hanged himself, which implying only his death by suffocation, whether he died out of horror of his fact, or laying violent hands on himself in such circumstances as may agree with this relation, it is not material to determine.

Acts 1:18 . Ἐκτήσατο , acquired possession of ) purchased . Judas, indeed, did not pay the money, Matthew 27:5 , “He cast down the pieces of silver in the temple—And the chief priests took the silver pieces—and bought with them the potters’ field:” but yet he either had determined to purchase it: comp. 2 Kings 5:26 [Elisha to Gehazi, “Went not mine heart with thee when,” etc.]; or by making the commencement of the purchase, gave occasion to the priests to consummate it. The wretched man did not believe that the cause of Jesus would be a lasting one: and in the event of its coming to nought, he had marked out, against the time to come, a dwelling-place for himself and those belonging to him ( Psalm 109:9 implies he had a wife and children, “Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow: let his children be continually vagabonds and beg”), whither they might betake themselves; and he wished to provide for his and their livelihood. Others explain it, ἐκτήσατο , he acquired, or obtained, viz. not for himself, but in reality for others.— πρηνὴς γενόμενος , having fallen forward on his face [ headlong ]) The kind of death which Judas inflicted on himself ( Matthew 27:5 , note; he strangled himself, a death which is usually effected by hanging. So Ahitophel, 2 Samuel 17:23 ), was at the time well known.

Therefore it is taken for granted in this place; and what followed that act is added, namely, the position of the dead body after it had been cast out with ignominy, viz. lying prostrate on the face; whereas those decently buried are laid out lying on the back. The passage may be illustrated from a book written in elegant Greek, 3Ma 5:41 (43), where a king, most hostile to the Jews, threatens that he will level the temple to the ground by fire , τὸν ναὸν πυρὶ πρηνέα καταστήσειν . Πρηνῆ γένεσθαι does not mean to throw himself headlong .— ἐλάκησε μέσος , burst asunder with a crash [loud noise] in the midst ) Hesychius explains ἔλακεν by ἐψόφησεν . And the μέσος makes the language more express and explicit. The verb coheres with πρηνὴς , as in Wis 4:19 , ῥήξει αὐτοὺς ἀφώνους πρηνεῖς .— σπλάγχνα , bowels ) He had himself previously laid aside the bowels of compassion: Psalm 109:17-18 , “As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water.”

Now this man {q} purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and {r} falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. (q) Luke did not consider Judas' purpose, but that which followed it, and so we used to say that a man has done himself harm, not that he wanted and intended to, but in respect of that which followed. (r) The Greek words signify this much, that Judas fell down flat and was torn apart in the middle, with a tremendously great noise.

Verse 18. - Obtained for purchased , A.V., an unnecessary change; his iniquity for iniquity , A.V. It is obvious that this verso and ver. 19, which are placed in a parenthesis in the R.V., are not part of St. Peter's discourse, but are explanatory words inserted by St. Luke for the instruction of Theophilus and his other readers. Falling headlong ; i.e. from the tree or gallows on which he hung himself (see Matthew 27:3-8 ). The only apparent discrepancies in the accounts of St. Matthew and St. Luke in regard to the purchase of the field, and the name given to it, are that, according to St. Matthew's more detailed account, it was the chief priests who actually purchased the field with Judas's money, whereas St. Luke says, less accurately, that Judas purchased it. Again, St. Matthew explains the name Akel-dama as being given to the field because it was the price of the "innocent blood" of Jesus betrayed by Judas, whereas St. Luke's account rather suggests that it was Judas's own blood shed in his fall which gave the name. But both accounts of the name might be true, some understanding the name in one sense and some in the other. (Compare the different accounts of the name of Beer-sheba in Genesis 21:31 and Genesis 26:32, 33; of the origin of the proverb, "Is Saul among the prophets?" 1 Samuel 10:11, 12 and 1 Sam 20:24; and other similar cases.) Though, however, there is no serious discrepancy between St. Luke and St.

18 . It seems best to treat this verse and the following, which break the connexion of St Peter’s remarks on David’s prophecies, as no part of the Apostle’s speech on the election of Matthias. St Luke most likely derived the words from St Peter, from whom he no doubt gathered the facts for this part of his history, and the Apostle would thus at a later time emphasize to St Luke, by a minute description, the ruin which came upon Judas, though in his public address he had only spoken in the words of the Psalmist. These two verses (18 and 19) are connected in themselves by the copulative conjunction, but the particles which introduce Acts 1:18 ( μὲν οὗν ) express no more than a confirmation of the statement in which they occur, and a transition to some explanatory matter. They are frequently employed in a similar manner by the writer of the Acts (as Acts 5:41 , Acts 13:4 , Acts 17:30 , Acts 23:22 , Acts 26:9 ). But that which stamps the passage as a parenthesis is the demonstrative pronoun which stands at the head of it. The position of the Greek words would be represented by This man you are to know acquired, &c. If it had been a continuous narrative we should have had some connection of the following kind: “He had obtained part of this ministry, and yet he with the reward of his iniquity, &c.” without the insertion of any demonstrative, or indeed of any pronoun at all, in the Greek.

Now this man purchased a field ] Rather, acquired , which probably was the sense intended by the A. V., as it was an old sense of the English word purchase . This may be said not only of him who buys, but of him who becomes the occasion of another’s buying. The field was bought by the chief priests ( Matthew 27:5-8 ) with the money which Judas returned, but as they could not take that money for the treasury, they were likely to look upon what was purchased with it as still the property of the traitor. St Luke’s employment of the unusual word “acquire” in a narrative where he calls the price of the land “the reward of iniquity,” and speaks of the immediate death of Judas, makes it clear that he views (and that the people of Jerusalem did the same) the field Akeldama as the field which Judas acquired, though it became, from the circumstances, a public possession for a burial ground. the reward of iniquity ] This expression is only found in N. T. here and 2 Peter 2:13 ; 2 Peter 2:15 . So that it seems to be a Petrine phrase. The A. V. conceals the identity of the Greek words in these three passages by giving them in each place a different English rendering. and falling headlong , &c.] This can only have occurred after the hanging mentioned by St Matthew ( Matthew 27:5 ). It appears from St Luke’s narrative here that the death of Judas, attended by all these dreadful circumstances, took place in the spot which the chief priests eventually purchased.