p386 [F G Patterson] MY DEAR BROTHER, - As regards Acts 1:18-19, and Matthew 27:3, &c.; I take Acts 1:18-19 for a parenthesis of Luke's. The passages have been much discussed. The field was looked at as Judas' field, being purchased with his money, as some even say, he having bargained for it, the priests completed it and appropriated it to this purpose: he got a field as the reward of his iniquity, his money being employed for this. We have not details enough to connect the two accounts of his death. Some think, being hung he fell down, and thus the catastrophe took place. But I do not reject your thought of the association of Judas and the priests. The account in Acts supposes he went and fell headlong at first - at once - so that the passage does not imply that he got regular possession by contract himself. It is very possible that "purchased" is too definite; he got a field - with Matthew 27 - is bought, purchased. It was probably some poor waste ground, and Judas having thus gone and hung himself there, they bought it formally and appropriated it to this use. It is supposed he fell down on his face when he hung himself.

I do not take ψυχή (Acts 2:31) in any other sense but soul. His soul was in hades, His body in the grave: but I do not see how it separates His soul from His Person; the divine nature has nothing to do with place. His soul was separated from His body, but both held by divine power, so to speak, for His resurrection and glory. I do not think leaving out ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ makes much difference, as it is in the psalm and quoted before. But I see no difficulty in the statement, for His soul was in paradise, His body in the grave; ἅδου is merely the invisible place of departed spirits without more.

There are many statements as to facts we cannot explain because we have not the connecting link - as supposing the field was on a rock, an easy thing at Jerusalem, and he fell from the hanging place down it. I have no particular notion it was so, I use it as an illustration. If we knew such a fact, the statement is very plain. In doctrines many things are difficulties, because beyond sight we know so little.

Your affectionate brother.

1864.

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