Matthew quotes Jeremiahs 30 pieces of silver from the Apocrypha
by True Science
The following is an excerpt from: The Lost Apocrypha of the Old Testament: their
Titles and Fragments Collected, Translated and Discussed (1920) by Montague
Rhodes James, 1862-1936, archive.org, p. 62:
All the four major prophets have had spurious books fathered upon them. For
Isaiah we have the extant Ascension of Isaiah; for Jeremiah the Paralipomena of
Jeremiah, current in Greek, Ethiopic, and Armenian, and edited by Dr. Rendel
Harris under its alternative title, The Rest of the Words of Baruch. We have also
some scattered quotations attributed to him. In Matt. xxvii. 9 the prophecy, And
they took the thirty pieces of silver, etc., is, as we all know, assigned to Jeremiah.
Origen (in loc.) suspects either a mistake (Jeremiah for Zechariah) or the existence
of some apocryphal writing of Jeremiah in which the words occurred. Jerome (in
loc.) had actually seen such a thing. I lately read in a Hebrew book, which a
Hebrew of the Nazarene sect showed me, an apocryph of Jeremiah in which I
found this, word for word. We know of no continuous text comprising these
words, but there is current in Ethiopic, usually appended to the canonical Book of
Jeremiah, a short prophecy, which Dillmann prints and translates in his
Chrestomathia Aethiopica, p. viii. I believe it to exist also in Coptic.
A Prophecy of Jeremiah. And Jeremiah spake thus unto Pashur: But ye all your
days fight against the truth, with your fathers and your sons that shall come after
you. And they shall commit a sin more damnable than you: they shall sell him who
hath no price, and shall hurt him who will heal pain, and shall condemn him who
will forgive sin, and shall take thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was
valued, whom the children of Israel shall sell, and shall give that money for (into)
the potter's field. As the Lord commanded me, so I speak. And therefore shall there
come upon them judgment and destruction for ever, and upon their sons after them,
because in their judgment they have shed innocent blood.
Nothing can be more obvious than that this was written to set right the difficulty
caused by the mention of Jeremiah in the Gospel. It may quite well be identical
with the writing seen by Jerome. His interest in such things was not lively enough
to make him use accurate language: he is oftener contemptuous and angry when
apocryphal writings come into his ken.
My comment: Or was it? Maybe this is actually a legit writing that has been lost to
most of us down through the times, hidden from us by the Evil One. Think about it,
there was a group of Hebrew believers who had this in a Hebrew book. Everyone
is wondering why the heck an inspired writer of the Good Message (Gospel),
Matthew would get it wrong and quote (Matthew 27:9-10) the name of the prophet
who said this wrong, and not quote it exactly right as it is in Zechariah. Are we
really to believe a Hebrew man who knew the prophecies was so dumb that he
didnt know which prophet said it or what the prophecy was? There are already
plenty of quotes and allusions in the New Testament that match so-called
apocryphal writings, such as the Book of Enoch and quite a few others. Why should
we trust that the evil Pharisees got the cannon of the Tanak right? If you completely
trust in todays Tanak cannon even though there were so many other writings from
the Hebrews that many believed were Scripture that were left out, then you are
putting your trust in the corrupt Jewish leadership of the 1st Century, the Pharisees.
Of course most will trust the so-called scholars that say that writings such as this
one are not legit and were written late, but you should know that most scholars
have a corrupt agenda and dont even believe in the truth of the future being told
through prophecy. Look at the ridiculous dating of the Book of Daniel by most
scholars because they assume that prophecy fulfillment is not real so it has to be
written late since it tells the future so flawlessly. Dont trust in these lying Jews,
lying scholars, and the lying Roman Catholic Church which is also corrupt and to
blame for many of these things. Trust in YHWH, the Most High and his Word, his
WHOLE Word. Lets make sure we dont throw out his Word, taking away lest we
be found in error. Lets have an open mind and examine all of the evidence before
we make up our minds and trust men who claim to be the experts.
Also one by be interested in the convincing testimony of Scripture scholar Onieh
Firial Carlson:
Matthew 27:9-10, 9 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the
prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who
was priced, whom they of the children of Israel priced, 10 and gave them for the
potters field, as the Lord directed me. [NKJV]
In the Ethiopian Bible, after the Book of Lamentations, three works come
together: the Epistle of Jeremiah, the Prophecy to Passhur, and 4 Baruch. The
Prophecy to Passhur in its entirety is as follows: And Jeremiah spoke thus unto
Pashur: But you all your days fight against the truth, with your fathers and your
sons that shall come after you. And they shall commit a sin more damnable than
you: They shall sell him who has no price, and shall hurt him who will heal pain,
and shall condemn him who will forgive sin, and shall take thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him that was valued, whom the children of Israel shall sell, and shall
give that
money for the potter's field. As the Lord commanded me, so I speak. And
therefore shall there come upon them judgment and destruction for ever, and upon
their sons after them, because in their judgment they have shed innocent blood.
Comparing them line by line, we see:
Apocryphon of Jeremiah
and shall take 30 pieces of silver, the
price of him that was valued,
whom the children of Israel shall sell,
and shall give that money for
the potter's field. As the Lord
commanded me,
Matthew 27:9-10
And they took the 30 pieces of silver,
the value of Him who was
priced
whom they of the children of Israel
priced, and gave them for
the potters field, as the LORD directed
me.
The following is from a church father, Jerome, his commentary on the Book of
Matthew: Then was fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet,
saying And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price
had been set by the sons of Israel, and they gave them for a potter's field, just as the
Lord appointed for me. This testimony is not found in Jeremiah. Something
similar is recorded in Zechariah, who is nearly the last of the twelve prophets. Yet
both the order and the wording are different, although the sense is not that
discordant. Recently I read something in a certain little Hebrew book that a
Hebrew from the Nazarene sect brought to me. It was an apocryphon of Jeremiah
in which I found this text written word for word. Yet it still seems more likely to
me that the testimony was taken from Zechariah by a common practice of the
evangelists and apostles. In citation they bring out only the sense from the Old
Testament. They tend to neglect the order of the words.
Jerome is strong evidence that the Nazarenes treasured this prophecy to be
authentic and truly divinely inspired Scripture. It was so influential amongst the
Nazarenes, it was extracted from the original book it came from, and included in
Ethiopian Bibles as well as in the church liturgy of the Coptic Church. This
suggests that whoever translated it into Coptic and Ethiopian believed it to be
authentic and truly divinely inspired.
Some people say Matthew's quote is a quotation from Jeremiah in our bibles or
from Zechariah, but the quotation does not match either, and it specifically says
Jeremiah not Zechariah. In some manuscripts of the NT (the Peshitta primarily)
however it was edited to read Zechariah and altered to fit Zechariah's text more
closely. [My comment: The Peshitta readings I have seen actually say, Then was
fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet, saying: (Murdock) so that one who
believes or wants to believe this reading of Matthew is correct, and wants to
believe he quoted Zechariah can (maybe conveniently) say, There is no
contradiction. Matthew left out the name of the prophet and that prophet, going to
the OT, we can see is Zechariah.Tony]
This is one of the many supposed contradictions in the Bible that atheists and
agnostics cite against it. However, there is no contradiction, but rather, only holes
in the Scriptures which were removed by the scribes. This prophecy of Jeremiah
came from an extra Jeremiah book of Scripture which unfortunately no longer
exists. However, there is a lot of evidence that such a Jeremiah book once
existed, including some fragments of it found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as
brief summary of its contents in 2 Maccabees and the Lives of the Prophets.
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