The End of Judas

Judas, one of the twelve, had betrayed Jesus to the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver. Seeing that Jesus is condemned, he repents and brings the money back to the chief priests and elders: “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.” They answer coldly, “What is that to us? see thou to that.” Judas casts the pieces of silver down in the temple, departs, and goes and hangs himself. The chief priests pick them up: they cannot put them into the treasury, since it is “the price of blood.” After taking counsel, they use the money to buy the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. That field is called “the field of blood” to this day; Acts calls it Akeldama (Acts 1:19). Matthew sees in this the fulfillment of what had been spoken by Jeremiah the prophet.