[EGW editor’s preface:  As with any questions concerning what we hope to learn from the Bible, we must always strive to apply good hermeneutics and to let the Bible interpret itself.
     For more tips on good Bible-reading skills, click the subjects Hermeneutics and Bible study. ]

     One of our readers from New Mexico sent in this question.  “Matt. 27:5-10 says Judas gave the silver back and the priests bought a field with the money.  Acts 1:18-20, says that Judas bought the field.  Any help with the differing accounts?”  This same reader also sent in a related question asking about how Judas Iscariot died.
     
• Digging into the Scriptures:

     Matthew 27:3-10

   Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”
   And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”
   Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.
   But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because they are the price of blood.”  And they consulted together and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.  Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day.
   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, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”

     Acts 1:15-20

   And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus;  for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.”
   (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.  And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood.)
   “For it is written in the Book of Psalms:

      ‘Let his dwelling place be desolate,
      And let no one live in it’;

and,

      ‘Let another take his office.’”

     Sometimes when I’m reading biblical accounts that seemingly conflict, I have to remind myself of three facts — one is that truth does not contradict truth, the second is that the Lord is a God of truth (Deut. 32:4; Psalm 25:8-10), and the other is that God’s word is truth (Psalm 119:160; John 17:17-19; 2 Timothy 2:15).  Keeping those facts in mind, I then look for the plausible explanation that fits together the pieces of truth in the separate accounts.  I look at and compare the details of each account and its context — the “who, what, when, where, why”s.  It’s kind of like working on a jigsaw puzzle — each piece has some of the picture, but only when fitted together properly is the full picture revealed.

     From Matthew 27, we learn that after seeing Jesus had been condemned, Judas tried to refund the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders — possibly hoping to set Jesus free by reversing the deal, and probably hoping to release his guilt from the betrayal.  But they refused — they were quite satisfied with the arrangements.  Even after Judas threw down the silver and left the temple abandoning the money with them, these men still refused to accept it back.  It was still Judas’ money, and not the temple’s money.

     
• Summary:
     
     The plausible explanation is that when the priests consulted together and bought the potter’s field with Judas’ 30 pieces of silver, they were actually disposing of the money on behalf of Judas and so legally the field belonged to Judas.  Nowadays, they might have put a plaque or marker on the property saying it was bought and provided by Judas, even though they handled the transaction.
     Ironically, this potter’s field was the same field where Judas killed himself.  Between the two accounts we learn this field gained the name “Field of Blood” — partly because it was bought with “blood money,” partly because it became a burial ground, and partly because of Judas’ messy ending after hanging himself there.