Acts 1:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The Jews gave the field this name not for the field's sake, but for Judas' sake. Peter transferred it to the field itself and brought the enemies themselves as witnesses. By saying "it was called," and by adding "in their own tongue," he truly wants to express this. The Jews involuntarily, without knowing it themselves, gave the field its name, just as Caiaphas prophesied without knowing it. God moved them to call it in Hebrew, Akeldama. From this one could already foresee the disasters that were to overtake the Jews.

The Jews gave the field this name not on account of the field itself, but on account of Judas. Peter cites this fact here, presenting as witnesses the enemies who gave the field such a name.

The Apostle Peter wishes to express this thought: Judas at first belonged to the apostolic choir, but later fell away from Christ by selling Him. For this, the terrible judgment of God overtook him, already revealed in his death.

In this, he says (v. 20), the words of the Psalmist were fulfilled: "Let his habitation be desolate, and let no one dwell in it" (Ps 68:26), and, "Let another take his office" (Ps 108:8).

Out of the unhappy passion of love of money, Judas sold his Christ and Lord. Yet it was not appointed for him to use the thirty pieces of silver for himself, nor what was acquired with them.

More than this, the Field of Blood, Judas's property acquired with the reward of unrighteousness, was not inhabited by any living person. Its inhabitants were the dead.

According to Saint Matthew's testimony, the chief priests did not agree to put Judas's silver pieces into the temple treasury. The Law forbade accepting unclean money into the temple (Deut 22:18), and this was the price of blood.

Instead, by common counsel, they later bought an empty place outside the city from a certain potter for the burial of strangers.

Perhaps these were Jews who came in crowds to the holy city and often ended their earthly course there. More likely, it seems, they were Gentiles, for whom a separate burial place was fitting, since the Jews considered them unclean.

The voice of the people, in which the voice of God is so often expressed, soon gave this cemetery an appropriate name: Akeldama, that is, the place of blood.

During the ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost, one of the apostles' first concerns was to fill the place left in their company by Judas's departure. This was done at the first gathering of the faithful in Jerusalem.

Because many of the five hundred to whom Christ had appeared in Galilee were absent, those assembled numbered one hundred and twenty. The fearful circumstances of the traitor's suicide, about which various dreadful accounts were told, left in their hearts a profound belief in God's immediate retribution upon the guilty man.

"And it became known," and so forth, means that the plot of land was bought with Judas's money, and that the traitor died such a terrible death.

"So that field," and so forth. This turn of speech does not show that the plot was called the Field of Judas's Blood because of his terrible, bloody death.

It was so called because it was bought with the price of blood, that is, with the money paid for the betrayal of Christ to death. Compare the note on Mt 27:6.

Therefore the expression "so that" in Peter's speech properly refers to the statement that Judas acquired a field with the reward of unrighteousness. It does not refer to the following statement that his belly burst open, and so on.

The apostle may mention that all this was commonly known to the people of Jerusalem in order to calm the minds of the faithful, who were troubled by Judas's betrayal.

Taken as a whole, the entire matter clearly shows that the vile traitor suffered a fitting recompense.

Moreover, that field serves forever as a living memorial of God's punishment of the traitor, visible to all. It is called Akeldama, the field of innocent blood.

The Jews bought it from a certain potter with the traitor's money, for the burial of strangers of every kind, who had no one and no means to bury them (see Mt 27:7; cf. Ex 26:21; Gen 4:10-11).

This field is still shown near Jerusalem, to the southeast, in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom.

What was said in the preceding verse about the purchase of land with Judas' money and about his unhappy death became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem at that time. It would not be forgotten afterward, for both circumstances are testified by the very name of the purchased plot: "field of blood," Akeldama. The people gave this name to the purchased land partly because it was acquired for the price received for betraying Christ to His enemies. They thirsted for His blood and shed it on Golgotha. It was also partly because Judas' own death was the consequence of his remorse over betraying innocent blood.