Page "Akeldama" Paragraph 5

Christian tradition connects the place with Judas Iscariot, who is said to have betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

According to the Acts of the Apostles ( 1: 18-19 ) Judas " acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, and falling headfirst he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out.

This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that in their own language they called that field Hakeldama, that is, “ Field of Blood .”” According to the Gospel of Matthew ( 27: 7, and with allusions to Zechariah 11: 12-13 and Jeremiah 18: 2-3 and 32: 6-15 ) Judas returned the money to the Temple authorities.

Deeming it as blood money, and therefore illegal to put into their treasury, they used it instead to buy the field as a burial ground for foreigners: thus the place gained the name " the Field of Blood ".

The implication here is that the name refers to the blood of Jesus, whereas in Acts the name is said to refer to the blood of Judas.

Lindars holds the Acts narrative to be prior, and that although the incident is not created out of the Old Testament passages the text of Zechariah 11: 12ff is " freely used to fill up the gaps in the story ... to the early Christian exegetes a perfectly legitimate hermeneutical procedure ".