In the previous chapter, when Peter denied Christ, Matthew dropped in a word without fully explaining it.
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.”
Who else was "also" in the courtyard that was with Jesus? Peter gained entrance to the courtyard of the High Priest because of another disciple, who knew the High Priest and was known to the servants (John 18:15-17).
Matthew does this again in Matthew 27:3-10. Judas in his guilt attempts to return the money that he received for betraying Jesus. Rebuffed by the priests, he throws the money into the temple. This left the chief priests with a problem.
Matthew 27:6
But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” To keep from bringing guilt upon themselves, they eventually used the money to purchase "the" field in which they found Judas had hanged himself. This discovery and transaction took time, for it appears that his body was not buried in a timely fashion (Acts 1:18-19).
So they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
This event was the fulfillment of yet another prophecy (the last mentioned by Matthew).
Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.”
Confusingly, what follows is cited loosely from Zechariah instead of from Jeremiah. Matthew, rather than making a mistake, is for a third time omitting the full explanation and drawing those familiar with the passages into their fulfillment. Read both.
Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
The LORD God is “the potter” and worthy of His wages. The sovereign work of the potter ordained Judas for damnation (Romans 9:21).
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