Enter Pilate, Exit Judas
ENTER PILATE, EXIT JUDAS
MATTHEW 27:1-14
There must have been a point in Judas’ life when treachery, greed and dishonesty were first tolerated.
While the Sanhedrin under Roman occupation could not execute sentence of death, its leaders did not go to Pilate to have their own sentence ratified but rather to have Jesus convicted and condemned by him on a charge of sedition. In whatever sense he claimed to be the Messiah, such a claim could readily be represented to Pilate as political in character, involving rebellion against the Roman emperor. In Jewish eyes the Messiah, the Lord’s anointed, was by definition the King of Israel. From Pilate’s question (27:11) it is plain that Jesus was charged before him with setting himself up as “King of the Jews” (the Roman equivalent of “King of Israel”), and it was on this ground that he was executed (27:37). He admitted the charge when Pilate put it to him, although “You have said so” (as in 26:64) implies that the form of words is his questioner’s, not his own, and that he does not necessarily accept them in the sense intended by the questioner. But to the charges pressed against him by his accusers he has nothing to say (27:12,14; cf. 26:63a); it looks as if he is resolved to make the issue of his kingship the decisive one. Pilate governed Judea from AD 26 to 36; an inscription from his term of office discovered at Caesarea in 1961 shows that his technical title was “prefect” rather than “procurator.” He quickly acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and obstinacy.
The Judas episode (27:3-10), like that concerning Peter (26:69-75), provides a dramatic interlude. Judas had served the chief priests’ purpose and they had no further interest in him. But they had the responsibility of disposing of the thirty shekels which he left in the temple before taking his life. To understand the following narrative, we must realize that in Zechariah 11:13 there is a variant reading, osar, “treasury” (cf. RSV) for yoser, “potter” (cf. av). It is almost as if the chief priests said: “Which reading of this prophecy shall we fulfill? Shall we give the money to the treasury or to the potter? We cannot put it in the temple treasury because it is blood money; let us give it to the potter in exchange for his field.” So they bought the potter’s field with it as a burial-place for foreigners, and because it was bought with blood money it was called “Blood Acre” (27:8, NEB; in Aramaic Akeldama, according to Acts 1:19), traditionally located on the ridge south of the Valley of Hinnom. The quotation of Zechariah 11:13b is ascribed to Jeremiah (27:9-10) probably because in an early Christian collection of Old Testament “testimonies” it was attached to one or more passages from Jeremiah (18:2f. with 32:6-15, perhaps, or 19:1-13).
Thought There must have been a point in Judas’ life when treachery, greed and dishonesty were first tolerated. Small surrenders to the enemy have far-reaching effects.