EmmausAtlas
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Guided reading · 6 passages

The price of the shepherd

The Law sets thirty shekels as compensation when an ox kills a servant. Zechariah receives that contemptuous wage as the rejected shepherd; Judas accepts it for Jesus, and the returned silver buys the potter's field.

01

Exodus 21:32

Thirty shekels for a servant's death

Open passage

CPDV · Exodus 21:32 · verified

21:32If it attacks a male or female servant, he shall give thirty shekels of silver to their lord, yet truly the ox shall be stoned

02

Zechariah 11:12–13

The rejected shepherd's wages

Open passage

CPDV · Zechariah 11:12–13 · verified

11:12And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, bring me my wages. And if not, remain still. And they weighed for my wages thirty silver coins

11:13And the Lord said to me: Cast it towards the statuary, the handsome price at which I have been valued by them. And I took the thirty silver coins, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, towards the statuary

03

Matthew 26:14–16

Thirty pieces to hand him over

Open passage

CPDV · Matthew 26:14–16 · verified

26:14Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the leaders of the priests

26:15and he said to them, “What are you willing to give me, if I hand him over to you?” So they appointed thirty pieces of silver for him

26:16And from then on, he sought an opportunity to betray him

04

Jeremiah 19:1–13

The potter's vessel and innocent blood

Open passage

CPDV · Jeremiah 19:1–13 · verified

19:1Thus says the Lord: “Go, and take a potter’s earthen bottle from the elders of the people and from the elders of the priests

19:2And go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is near the entrance to the earthen gate, and there you shall proclaim the words that I will speak to you

19:3And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will lead an affliction over this place, so much so that it will ring in the ears of all who hear about it

19:4For they have abandoned me, and they have made this place foreign, and they have offered libations in it to foreign gods, whom neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known. And they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent

Excerpt · 9 more verses on passage page
05

Matthew 27:3–10

The price of blood buys the potter's field

Open passage

CPDV · Matthew 27:3–10 · verified

27:3Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he had been condemned, regretting his conduct, brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the leaders of the priests and the elders

27:4saying, “I have sinned in betraying just blood.” But they said to him: “What is that to us? See to it yourself.

27:5And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed. And going out, he hanged himself with a snare

27:6But the leaders of the priests, having taken up the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple offerings, because it is the price of blood.

Excerpt · 4 more verses on passage page
06

Jeremiah 32:6–15

Silver weighed for a field

Open passage

CPDV · Jeremiah 32:6–15 · verified

32:6And Jeremiah said: “The word of the Lord came to me, saying

32:7Behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your cousin, will come to you, saying: ‘Buy for yourself my field, which is in Anathoth. For it is your right, as next of kin, to buy it.

32:8And in accord with the word of the Lord, Hanamel, the son of my uncle, came to me, to the entrance of the prison, and he said to me: ‘Take possession of my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. For the right of inheritance is yours, and as the next of kin you may possess it.’ Then I understood that this was the word of the Lord

32:9And I bought the field, which is in Anathoth, from Hanamel, the son of my uncle. And I weighed out the money to him, seven small coins and ten pieces of silver

Excerpt · 6 more verses on passage page

Sources and interpretation

Evidence for this thread

Every supporting connection, including links between nonadjacent readings.

allusionL41

Exodus 21:32 → Zechariah 11:12–13

The covenant law fixes thirty shekels as the indemnity when an ox kills a servant. Zechariah's good shepherd is dismissed with the same amount. The number makes the wage an insult: the shepherd and the Lord whose flock he tends are valued at a servant's death-price.

source checked100 yearsThe legal amount is already established before Zechariah turns it into a judgment on the flock's contempt for its shepherd.
Sources & review
Interpretation
allusion
Principal basis
Commentary
Review status
source checked
  • scripture

    Exod 21:28-32

  • scripture

    Zech 11:4-14

  • commentary

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition

    Zechariah 11:4-17, note

    USCCB online Bible and notes

fulfillmentL42

Zechariah 11:12–13 → Matthew 26:14–16

Zechariah's rejected shepherd is valued at thirty pieces of silver. Judas asks what the priests will pay to hand Jesus over, and Matthew alone gives the same amount. Matthew 27 then returns the silver to the Temple and names the sequence as fulfillment.

source checked332 yearsA post-exilic shepherd oracle supplies the exact price in Matthew's Passion narrative more than three centuries later.
Sources & review
Interpretation
fulfillment
Principal basis
Explicit New Testament application
Review status
source checked
  • scripture

    Zech 11:12-13

  • scripture

    Matt 26:14-16; 27:3-10

  • catechism

    Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church

    CCC 601

    Vatican English edition

    The Catechism places the Passion within the scriptural plan of salvation. It does not expound the thirty-piece correspondence.

  • catechism

    Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church

    CCC 1851

    Vatican English edition

    The Catechism names Judas's betrayal among the forms of sin manifested in the Passion.

  • commentary

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition

    Matthew 26:15, note

    USCCB online Bible and notes

  • church father

    Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures

    Catechetical Lecture 13, sections 10-11

    Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, vol. 7 (New Advent)

    Cyril explicitly compares Judas's thirty-piece payment with Zechariah's shepherd oracle.

Editorial questions

  • Accepted with qualification · interpretive dispute

    Matthew 27 attributes the fulfillment citation to Jeremiah even though the thirty pieces and Temple action most directly reproduce Zechariah 11:12-13.

    Editorial response: The link records Zechariah as the direct source of the amount while the companion Jeremiah links preserve Matthew's composite field, potter, blood, and burial imagery.

allusionL43

Jeremiah 19:1–13 → Matthew 27:3–10

Jeremiah takes a potter's vessel to ground polluted by innocent blood and says the place will become a burial ground. Matthew names innocent blood and a potter's field purchased for burials. The Gospel's Jeremiah citation gathers the images without quoting this passage word for word.

source checked582 yearsJeremiah's potter and burial-place judgment stand almost six centuries behind Matthew's field of blood.
Sources & review
Interpretation
allusion
Principal basis
Explicit New Testament application
Review status
source checked
  • scripture

    Jer 19:1-13

  • scripture

    Matt 27:3-10

  • commentary

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition

    Matthew 27:9-10, note

    USCCB online Bible and notes

Editorial questions

  • Accepted with qualification · interpretive dispute

    Matthew's wording is not a verbatim quotation of Jeremiah 19, and interpreters differ over which Jeremiah passages stand behind the attribution.

    Editorial response: The link is classified as an allusion, not a quotation. The note limits the claim to the shared potter, innocent-blood, judgment, and burial-place imagery identified by the USCCB commentary.

allusionL44

Jeremiah 32:6–15 → Matthew 27:3–10

Jeremiah weighs silver and purchases a field while Jerusalem is under siege. Matthew's priests use returned silver to purchase another field. Augustine reads the field from Jeremiah and the thirty pieces from Zechariah together in Matthew's fulfillment citation.

source checked582 yearsJeremiah's weighed silver and purchased field become part of Matthew's composite Passion citation almost six centuries later.
Sources & review
Interpretation
allusion
Principal basis
Explicit New Testament application
Review status
source checked
  • scripture

    Jer 32:6-15

  • scripture

    Matt 27:3-10

  • commentary

    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, New American Bible, Revised Edition

    Matthew 27:9-10, note

    USCCB online Bible and notes

  • church father

    Augustine of Hippo, The Harmony of the Gospels

    Book III, chapter 7, sections 29-31

    Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, vol. 6 (New Advent)

    Augustine discusses the Jeremiah attribution and joins the field purchase with Zechariah's silver in his interpretation of Matthew.

Editorial questions

  • Accepted with qualification · interpretive dispute

    Jeremiah 32 concerns a hopeful family land purchase during Jerusalem's siege, while Matthew's field is bought with blood money for burials.

    Editorial response: The link claims shared field-purchase language within Matthew's composite Jeremiah citation, not identical meaning or a direct prediction by Jeremiah 32 alone.