Maarten J.J. Menken, «The Old Testament Quotation in Matthew 27,9-10: Textual Form and Context», Vol. 83 (2002) 305-328

The source of the fulfilment quotation in Matt 27,9-10 must be Zech 11,13, but the biblical text is distorted to a degree that is unparalleled in the other fulfilment quotations, and Matthew ascribes the quotation to Jeremiah. Another difficulty is that the quotation seems to have influenced the context to a much larger extent than in the case of the other fulfilment quotations. A careful analysis of the text shows that the peculiar textual form can be explained in a relatively simple way. The influence of the quotation on Matt 27,3-8 is limited, and is best ascribed to Matthew’s redaction. After all, this fulfilment quotation appears to be less exceptional than it is sometimes supposed to be.

is distorted to a degree that is unparalleled in the other fulfilment quotations. One obvious reason for the distortion was no doubt the need to gear the quotation to the preceding narrative.

        Apart from the obscure provenance of the quotation, there is another difficulty. Not only has the context apparently influenced the quotation, it also seems that the quotation has influenced the context to a much larger extent than in the case of the other fulfilment quotations. The thirty silver pieces (Matt 26,15; 27,3), Judas’ throwing them into the temple (27,5), the refusal of the chief priests to put them into the temple fund (27,6) and their buying of the potter’s field (27,7): all this has been supposed to be due to influence of the quotation on the narrative, either at a pre-Matthean level or at the level of Matthew’s redaction ⁹. The other fulfilment quotations, however, have obviously been appended to existing narratives: they were added by the evangelist, who took them from a continuous Greek biblical text, determined their extent, and made occasional editorial modifications in them¹⁰. In some cases (1,23; 21,5), there was probably already