October 18, 2001
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Joe Schaffer
PO Box 496
Luling, TX 78648
9Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying: "And they took the thirty silver pieces, the price upon the man that was priced, the one on whom some of the sons of Israel set a price, 10and they gave them for the potter's field, according to what Jehovah had commanded me."
Matthew 27:9,10, New World Translation
Many hold that Matthew, in writing his gospel account, had mistakenly attributed a prophecy of Zechariah (Zech. 11:12-13) to the prophect Jeremiah at Matthew 27: 9-10. Is this an error?
If so, some would hold that indeed this might prove the Bible to be flawed, and are thus willing to reject living by this high standard. This would amount to ignoring the superiority of it's counsel (2Timothy 3:16,17) over a mere 'straw'. (Luke 6:41)
In all fairness to sincere critics of the scriptures, the Bible having been written by imperfect humans could readily be expected to also be imperfect, with some minute details potentially encroaching upon the sacred message. I say to such as these however, that it it is human error which causes this apparent 'wrong prophetic assignment' to appear to be an error, while in fact it is not. And that such potential for human error passed through the scriptures is no worse than if I left the period off of the end of this sentence, the message would still be clear
Note that the publication "Insight on the Scriptures" states the following valid food for thought regarding this subject:
Why does Matthew attribute the prophecy of Zechariah 11:12, 13 to Jeremiah?The fulfillment of prophecy recorded by Matthew is based on "what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet." Jeremiah was at times placed first in "the book of the prophets," and this section of prophecies therefore included not only Jeremiah's writings but also those of Zechariah. (Compare Lu 24:44.) The quotation made by Matthew appears to be drawn principally from Zechariah 11:12, 13, but paraphrased by Matthew and applied to the circumstances fulfilling it, this under inspiration by God's spirit. As a potter's field the land would be considered as worn out and of little value, worth only the price of a slave.
--Volume 1, pages 69-70 Insight on the Scriptures is a publication of The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.
However, there is further reason to remove 'fault' from Matthew's assignment of this prophecy to Jeremiah.
First it must be noted that not everything that ever occured to the prophets and other Bible characters was recorded. For instance, in John 21:25 we find that not every thing Jesus accomplished was recorded, his activities resulting in too many events to be recorded, especially in a day when scrolls were not as plentiful as the nearest grocery story, as are many bulk papers today. We can further note that not every word that was ever spoken was recorded in the scriptures either.
Note the apostle Paul, who was not only a man who was not a disciple of Christ while he (Christ) was on the earth, but in fact was being trained by those who hated Christ before being killed. (Acts 8:1-3) This is an important fact, because at some point he spoke the words of Acts 20:35, where he assigns the words of Jesus about there being "more happiness in giving, than in receiving". The gospel accounts do not contain a reference to this particular thought, search as one might. While Jesus most certainly did teach this lesson in principle, if one references solely upon the gospel accounts no where can this link between happiness and giving be directly associated in the words of Jesus. By the time this account was penned in writing (approx. 61 C.E.) the accounts by Matthew and Luke had already been written, with the possibility also of Mark. And further, it must be noted that even the Apostle Paul did not in any of his own writings make a reference toward his own quotation from the Christ. It was, instead, one of the gospel writers, Luke, who recorded Paul's words which verbalized a quote of Jesus' words. Were it not for Luke and Paul, who in turn heard it from yet other Christians eyewitness to the original statement, Christ's "happiness in giving" words would have never been brought to light for us to read, apply, and enjoy the fruitages of. Most certainly it was holy spirit that moved Luke to include this particular reference in his writing, that the avid Bible student can learn the thinking of Christ.
In this light then, let's review again the words that Matthew penned at 27:9,10.
9Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying: "And they took the thirty silver pieces, the price upon the man that was priced, the one on whom some of the sons of Israel set a price, 10and they gave them for the potter's field, according to what Jehovah had commanded me."
Matthew 27:9,10, New World Translation
So what Matthew actually stated is that Jeremiah "spoke" the prophecy. (Jeremiah 7:1,2) While it is true that often the spoken words of prophets did become recorded in writing (Matthew 3:3 as compared with Isaiah 40:3), there is precedent that not all spoken words of the prophets became written. (Numbers 11:26-29) Even some that did get written, were destroyed. (Jeremiah 36:23) And in some cases his words, but not his identity. (Judges 6:8; 1Kings 13:1)
Further, Zephaniah prophesied about 60 years after Jeremiah, so if Jeremiah had spoken the prophecy, even though Zephaniah's was the first recorded in writing, it could still be attributed to Jeremiah, as he would have chronological precedence. It would not be the first time that two prophets made the same prophetic pronunciation. (Isaiah 2:4 * Micah 4:3; Hosea 14:2 * Hebrews 13:15) Thus under inspiration, just as Peter made claim that Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2Peter 2:5) while his actual preaching is otherwise scripturally unrecorded, so too Matthew attributed the prophetic statement to Jeremiah's spoken prophetic word. The truthfulness of Jeremiah's prophecy was backed by another prophet of Jehovah, Zechariah, as the second witness.
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