Matthew quotes ’s “30 pieces of ” 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 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 , 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 (: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 didn’t know which prophet said it or what the prophecy was? There are already plenty of quotes and allusions in the 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 today’s 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 don’t 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. Don’t 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. Let’s make sure we don’t throw out his Word, taking away lest we be found in error. Let’s 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 potter’s 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 Matthew 27:9-10 “and shall take 30 pieces of silver, the “And they took the 30 pieces of silver, price of him that was valued, the value of Him who was priced whom the children of Israel shall sell, whom they of the children of Israel and shall give that money for priced, and gave them for the potter's field. As the Lord the potter’s field, as the LORD directed commanded me,” 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.”— https://www.facebook.com/groups/386166681508027? view=permalink&id=386290794828949&refid=18&_ft_& tn =*s&_rdr