JavaJo has good points!
Matthew 27
1Now when morning had come, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: 2and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor. 3Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.
But they said, What is that to us? You see to it.
5He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. 6The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, Its not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood. 7They took counsel, and bought the potters field with them, to bury strangers in. 8Therefore that field was called The Field of Blood to this day. 9Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,
They took the thirty pieces of silver,
the price of him upon whom a price had been set,
whom some of the children of Israel priced,
10and they gave them for the potters field,
as the Lord commanded me. ---World English Bible
(Jamison, Fausset, and Brown Commentary (1871)
Matthew 27:4:
4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent bloodWhat a testimony this to Jesus! Judas had been with Him in all circumstances for three years; his post, as treasurer to Him and the Twelve (Joh 12:6), gave him peculiar opportunity of watching the spirit, disposition, and habits of his Master; while his covetous nature and thievish practices would incline him to dark and suspicious, rather than frank and generous, interpretations of all that He said and did. If, then, he could have fastened on one questionable feature in all that he had so long witnessed, we may be sure that no such speech as this would ever have escaped his lips, nor would he have been so stung with remorse as not to be able to keep the money and survive his crime.
And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that"Guilty or innocent is nothing to us: We have Him nowbegone!" Was ever speech more hellish uttered?
5. And he cast down the pieces of silverThe sarcastic, diabolical reply which he had got, in place of the sympathy which perhaps he expected, would deepen his remorse into an agony.
in the templethe temple proper, commonly called "the sanctuary," or "the holy place," into which only the priests might enter. How is this to be explained? Perhaps he flung the money in after them. But thus were fulfilled the words of the prophet"I cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord" (Zec 11:13).
and departed, and went and hanged himselfFor the details, see on Ac 1:18.
I heard some commentators said that Judas was a Zealot and he expected Christ to lead either a human army or a super natural one to throw the Romans out of Israel. When this didn't happen he was going to force Christ to carry this out. He had no understanding of Christ's purpose on Earth, even if he had been with him constantly for three years.
