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.

does with the money. The sequence of parts of the sentence is completely identical, but the literal agreement is very limited. If we compare Matthew’s text with the LXX, it is limited at first sight to kai/, au)ta/ / au)tou/j and ei)j to/n. However, the words tou= kerame/wj can be retraced to the Hebrew text of Zech 11,13e as a rendering of rcwyh. The Greek word kerameu/j is an obvious translation of the Hebrew qal participle rcwy in the sense of "potter", and is regularly found in this function in the ancient Greek OT translations²². The LXX renders rcwy in Zech 11,13 by xwneuth/rion, a "furnace" to smelt metals. Although a foundry may have belonged to the second temple and the LXX rendering (which was followed by Symmachus) may thus reflect a historical reality²³, some other ancient versions clearly suggest that rcwy was understood as "potter". Aquila translates by pla/sthj, which is his usual translation of rcwy and means someone who moulds clay²⁴. The Vg has statuarius ("sculptor"), and Jerome considered fictor ("modeller") and figulus ("potter") as possible translations as well (Commentary on Zechariah, on Zech 11,13, PL 25, 1505-1506)²⁵. So kerameu/j is a simple and straightforward rendering of rcwy, suitable in a revised LXX. The word e!dwka in the quotation replaces Kyl#$)w (MT) / e)ne/balon (LXX) / e!rriya (Aquila, Symmachus). It can be a weak expression of the idea of "throwing", maybe instigated by wbh (MT) / do/te (LXX), "give", in Zech 11,12. "Give" here refers to the act of handing the thirty silver pieces to the prophet, who responds to this act by throwing them into the temple. Below we shall consider another, complementary explanation of e!dwka.

        The word that we retain as inexplicable on the basis of Zechariah’s text, is a)gro/n. Taking into account that Matthew ascribes the quotation to Jeremiah²⁶, and that the preceding lines of the quotation did not contain elements from the book of Jeremiah, it seems worthwhile to turn to this biblical book when we look for an explanation of the word.