---
title: "Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels"
author: "Thomas Aquinas"
translator: "John Henry Newman (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 144 of 394
url: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/144/
cite: "Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.), Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels, section 144. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/144/"
---

# Catena Aurea: The Four Gospels

*Thomas Aquinas, tr. John Henry Newman (ed.)*

The four Gospels read through chains of quotations from the Church Fathers.

## 144. Matthew 27 · 1 of 6

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/144/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/thomas-aquinas-catena-aurea-the-four-gospels/144/#p-N

[¶0] Ver. 1. When the morning was come, all the Chief Priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:2. And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.3. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Priests and elders,4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, "What is that to us? see thou to that."5. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.

[¶1] Aug., de Cons. Ev., iii, 7: The Evangelist had above brought down his history, of what was done to the Lord as far as early morning; he then turned back to relate Peter’s denial, after which he returned to the morning to continue the course of events, "When the morning was come, etc."

[¶2] Origen: They supposed that by His death they should crush His doctrine, and the belief in Him of those who believed Him to be the Son of God. With such purpose against Him they bound Jesus, Who looses them that are bound. [[Isa 61:1]]

[¶3] Jerome: Observe the evil zeal of the Chief Priests; they watched the whole night with a view to this murder. And they gave Him up to Pilate bound, for such was their practice to send bound to the judge any whom they had sentenced to death.

[¶4] Rabanus: Though it should be observed that they did not now first bind Him, but before, when they first laid hands upon Him in the garden, as John relates. [[Joh 18:12]]

[¶5] Chrys., Hom. lxxxiv: They did not put Him to death in secret, because they sought to destroy His reputation, and the wonder with which He was regarded by many. For this reason they were minded to put Him to death openly before all, and therefore they led Him to the governor.

[¶6] Jerome: Judas, when he saw that the Lord was condemned to death, returned the money to the Priests, as though it had been in his power to change the minds of His persecutors.

[¶7] Origen: Let the propounders of those fables concerning intrinsically evil natures [Source note: ed. note: vid. S. Basil. Reg. Brev. 84.] answer me here, whence Judas came to the acknowledgment of his sin, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed righteous blood," except through the good mind originally implanted in him, and that seed of virtue which is sown in every rational soul? But Judas did not cherish this, and so fell into this sin.

[¶8] But if ever any man was made of a nature that was to perish, Judas was yet more of such a nature. If indeed he had done this after Christ’s resurrection, it might have been said, that the power of the resurrection brought him to repentance. But he repented when he saw Christ delivered up to Pilate, perhaps remembering the things Jesus had so often spoken of His resurrection.

[¶9] Or, perhaps Satan who had "entered into him" [[Joh 13:27]] continued with him till Jesus was given up to Pilate, and then, having accomplished his purpose, departed from him; whereupon be repented.

[¶10] But how could Judas know that He was condemned, for He had not yet been examined by Pilate? One may perhaps say, that he foreboded the event in his own mind from the very first, when he saw Him delivered up. Another may explain the words, when "he saw that he was condemned," of Judas himself, that be then perceived his evil case, and saw that he himself was condemned.

[¶11] Leo, Serm., 52, 5: When he says, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood," he persists in his wicked treachery, seeing that amid the last struggles of death he believed not Jesus to be the Son of God, but merely man of our rank; for had he not thus denied His omnipotence, he would have obtained His mercy.

[¶12] Chrysostom: Observe that he repents only when his sin is finished and complete; for so the Devil suffers not those who are not watchful to see the evil before they bring it to an end.

[¶13] Remigius: "But they said, What is that to us?" that is to say, What is it to us that He is righteous? "See thou to it," i.e. to thy own deed what will come of it. Though some would read these in one [Source note: [marg. note: Quid ad nos tu videris?] , What must we think of you, when you confess that the man whom yourself have betrayed is innocent?

[¶14] Origen: But when the Devil leave any one, he watches his time for return, and having taken it, he leads him into a second sin, and then watches for opportunity for a third deceit. So the man who had married his father’s wife afterwards repented him of this sin, [[1Co 5:5]] but again the Devil resolved so to augment this very sorrow of repentance, that his sorrow being made too abundant might swallow up the sorrower.

[¶15] Something like this took place in Judas, who after his repentance did not preserve his own heart, but received that more abundant sorrow supplied to him by the Devil, who sought to swallow him up, as it follows, "And he went out, and hanged himself." But had he desired and looked for place and time for repentance, he would perhaps have found Him who has said, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." [[Eze 33:11]]

[¶16] Or, perhaps, he desired to die before his Master on His way to death, and to meet Him with a disembodied spirit, that by confession and deprecation he might obtain mercy; and did not see that it is not fitting that a servant of God should dismiss himself from life, but should wait God’s sentence.

[¶17] Rabanus: He "hung himself," to shew that he was hateful to both heaven and earth.

[¶18] Pseudo-Aug., Hil. Quaest. V. et N. Test. q. 94: Since the Chief Priests were employed about the murder of the Lord from the morning to the ninth hour, how is this proved that before the crucifixion Judas returned them the money he had received, and said to them in the temple, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood?"

[¶19] Whereas it is manifest that the Chief Priests and Elders were never in the temple before the Lord’s crucifixion, seeing that when He was hanging on the Cross they were there to insult Him. Nor indeed can this be proved hence, because it is related before the Lord’s Passion, for many things which were manifestly done before, are related after, that, and the reverse. It might have been done after the ninth hour, when Judas, seeing the Saviour dead and the veil of the temple rent, the earthquake, the bursting of the rocks, and the elements terrified, was seized with fear and sorrow thereupon. But after the ninth hour the Chief Priests and Elders were occupied, as I suppose, in the celebration of the Passover; and on the Sabbath, the Law would not have allowed him to bring money. Therefore it is to me as yet unproved on what day or at what time Judas ended his life by hanging.

[¶20] Ver. 6. And the Chief Priests took the silver pieces, and said, "It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood."7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.8. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;10. And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me."

[¶21] Chrysostom: The Chief Priests knowing that they had purchased a murder were condemned by their own conscience; they said, "It is the price of blood."

[¶22] Jerome: Truly straining out the gnat, and swallowing the camel; for if they would not put the money into the treasury, because it was the price of blood, why did they shed the blood at all?

[¶23] Origen: They thought it meet to spend upon the dead that money which was the price of blood. But as there are differences even in burial places, they used the price of Jesus’ blood in the purchase of some potter’s field, where foreigners might be buried, not as they desired in the sepulchres of their fathers.

[¶24] Aug., App. Serm., 80, 1: It was brought about, I conceive, by God’s providence, that the Saviour’s price should not minister means of excess to sinners, but repose to foreigners, that thence Christ might both redeem the living by the shedding of His blood, and harbour the dead by the price of His passion. Therefore with the price of the Lord’s blood the potter’s field is purchased. We read in Scripture that the salvation of the whole human race has been purchased by the Saviour’s blood. This field then is the whole world. The potter who is the Lord of the soil, is He who has formed of clay the vessels of our bodies. This potter’s field then was purchased by Christ’s blood, and to strangers who without country or home wander over the whole world, repose is provided by Christ’s blood.

[¶25] These foreigners are the more devout Christians, who have renounced the world, and have no possession in it, and so repose in Christ’s blood; for the burial of Christ is nothing but the repose of a Christian; for as the Apostle says, "We are buried with him by baptism into death." [[Rom 6:4]] We are in this life then as foreigners.

[¶26] Jerome: Also we, who were strangers to the Law and the Prophets, have profited by the perverse temper of the Jews to obtain salvation for ourselves.

[¶27] Origen: Or, the "foreigners" are they who to the end are aliens from God, for the righteous are buried with Christ in a new tomb hewn out in the rock. But they who are aliens from God, even to the end, are buried in the field of a potter, a worker in clay, which being bought by the price of blood, is called the field of blood.

[¶28] Gloss., non occ.: "To this day" means to the time when the Evangelist was then writing. He then confirms the event by the testimony of the Prophet; "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the Prophet," etc.

[¶29] Jerome: This is not found at all in Hieremias; but in Zacharias [[Zec 11:13]], who is the last but one of the twelve Prophets, something like it is told, and though the sense is not very different, yet the arrangement and the words are different.

[¶30] Aug., de Cons. Ev., iii, 7: But if any one thinks this lowers the historian’s credit, first let him know that not all the copies of the Gospels have the name Hieremias, but some simply "by the Prophet."

[¶31] But I do not like this defence, because the more, and the more ancient, copies have Hieremias, and there could be no reason for adding the name, and thus making an error. But its erasure is well accounted for by the hardihood of ignorance having heard the foregoing objection urged. It might be then, that the name Hieremias occurred to the mind of Matthew as he wrote, instead of the name Zacharias, as so often happens; and that be would have straightway corrected it, when pointed out to him by such as read this while he yet lived in the flesh, had he not thought that his memory, being guided by the Holy Spirit, would not thus have called up to him one name instead of another, had not the Lord determined that it should thus be written.

[¶32] And why He should have so determined, the first reason is, that it would convey the wonderful consent of the Prophets, who all spake by one Spirit, which is much greater than if all the words of all the Prophets had been uttered through the mouth of one man; so that we receive without doubt whatever the Holy Spirit spake through them, each word belongs to all in common, and the whole is the utterance of each. Suppose it to happen at this day, that in repeating another’s words one should mention not the speaker’s name, but that of some other person, who however was the other’s greater friend, and then immediately recollecting himself should correct himself, he might yet add, Yet am I right, if you only think of the close unanimity that exists between the two. How much more is this to be observed of the holy Prophets!

[¶33] There is a second reason why the name Hieremias should be suffered to remain in this quotation from Zacharias, or rather why it should have been suggested by the Holy Spirit. It is said in Hieremias, that he bought a field of his brother’s son, and gave him silver for it, [[Jer 32:9]] though not indeed the sum stated in Zacharias, thirty pieces of silver. That the Evangelist has here adapted the thirty pieces of silver in Zacharias to this transaction in the Lord’s history, is plain; but he may also wish to convey that what Hieremias speaks of the field is mystically alluded to here, and therefore he puts not the name of Zacharias who spoke of the thirty pieces of silver, but of Hieremias who spoke of the purchase of the field. So that in reading the Gospel and finding the name of Hieremias, but not finding there the passage respecting the thirty pieces of silver, but the account of the purchase of the field, the reader might be induced to compare the two together, and so extract from them the sense of the prophecy, how far it refers to what was now accomplished in the Lord.

[¶34] For what Matthew adds to the prophecy, "Whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me," this, "as the Lord appointed me," is found neither in Zacharias nor Hieremias. It must then be taken in the person of the Evangelist as inserted with a mystic meaning, that he had learned by revelation that the prophecy referred to this matter of the price for which Christ was betrayed.

[¶35] Jerome, Hieron. ad Pam. Ep. 57, 5: Far be it then from a follower of Christ to suppose him guilty of falsehood, whereas his business was not to pry into words and syllables, but to lay down the staple of doctrine.

[¶36] Aug., Hieron. in loc.: I have lately read in a Hebrew book given me by a Hebrew of the Nazarene sect, an apocryphal Hieremias, in which I find the very words here quoted. After all, I am rather inclined to think that the passage was taken by Matthew out of Zacharias, in the usual manner of the Apostles and Evangelists when they quote from the Old Testament, neglecting the words, and attending only to the sense.

[¶37] Ver. 11. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, "Art thou the King of the Jews?" And Jesus said unto him, "Thou sayest."12. And when he was accused of the Chief Priests and elders, he answered nothing.13. Then said Pilate unto him, "Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?14. And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly.

[¶38] Aug., de Cons. Ev., iii, 7: Matthew, having finished his digression concerning the traitor Judas, returns to the course of his narrative saying, "Jesus stood before the governor."

[¶39] Origen: Mark how He that is ordained by His Father to be the Judge of the whole creation, humbled Himself, and was content to stand before the judge of the land of Judaea, and to be asked by Pilate either in mockery or doubt, "Art thou the King of the Jews?"

[¶40] Chrys., Hom. lxxxvi: Pilate asked Christ that which His enemies were continually casting in His teeth, for because they knew that Pilate cared not for matters of their Law, they had recourse to a public charge.

[¶41] Origen: Or, Pilate spoke this affirmatively, as he afterwards wrote in the inscription, "The King of the Jews." By answering to the Chief Priest, "Thou hast said," He indirectly reproved his doubts, but now He turns Pilate’s speech into an affirmative, "Jesus saith unto him, Thou sayest it."

[¶42] Chrysostom: He acknowledges Himself to be a King, but a heavenly one, as it is more expressly said in another Gospel, "My kingdom is not of this world [[Joh 18:36]], so that neither the Jews nor Pilate were excusable for insisting on this accusation.

[¶43] Hilary: Or, when asked by the High Priest whether He were Jesus the Christ, He answered, "Thou hast said," because He had ever maintained out of the Law that Christ should come, but to Pilate who was ignorant of the Law, and asks if He were the King of the Jews, He answers, "Thou sayest," because the salvation of the Gentiles is through faith of that present confession.

[¶44] Jerome: But observe, that to Pilate who asked the question unwillingly He did answer somewhat; but to the Chief Priests and Priests He refused to answer, judging them unworthy of a word; "And when he was accused by the Chief Priests and Elders he answered nothing."