one author, in which no discrepancy with regard to the subjects dealt with should be supposed
to exist, as none would be found, and in which there would be a more remarkable example
of consistency and veracity than would have been the case had a single individual, even the
most learned, been the enunciator of all these sayings? Therefore, while there are those,
whether unbelievers or merely ignorant men, who endeavour to find an argument here to
help them in demonstrating a want of harmony between the holy evangelists, men of faith
and learning, on the other hand, ought rather to bring this into the service of proving the
unity which characterizes the holy prophets.1346
31. I have also another reason (the fuller discussion of which must be reserved, I think,
for another opportunity, in order to prevent the present discourse from extending to larger
limits than may be allowed by the necessity which rests upon us to bring this work to a
conclusion) to offer in explanation of the fact that the name of Jeremiah has been permitted,
or rather directed, by the authority of the Holy Spirit, to stand in this passage instead of that
of Zechariah. It is stated in Jeremiah that he bought a field from the son of his brother, and
paid him money for it. That sum of money is not given, indeed, under the name of the
particular price which is found in Zechariah, namely, thirty pieces of silver; but, on the
other hand, there is no mention of the buying of the field in Zechariah. Now, it is evident
that the evangelist has interpreted the prophecy which speaks of the thirty pieces of silver
as something which has received its fulfilment only in the Lord’s case, so that it is made to
stand for the price set upon Him. But again, that the words which were uttered by Jeremiah
on the subject of the purchase of the field have also a bearing upon the same matter, may
have been mystically signified by the selection thus made in introducing [into the evangel-
ical narrative] the name of Jeremiah, who spoke of the purchase of the field, instead of that
of Zechariah, to whom we are indebted for the notice of the thirty pieces of silver. In this
way, on perusing first the Gospel, and finding the name of Jeremiah there, and then, again,
on perusing Jeremiah, and failing there to discover the passage about the thirty pieces of
192
silver, but seeing at the same time the section about the purchase of the field, the reader
would be taught to compare the two paragraphs together, and get at the real meaning of the
prophecy, and learn how it also stands in relation to this fulfilment of prophecy which was
exhibited in the instance of our Lord. For [it is also to be remarked that] Matthew makes
the following addition to the passage cited, namely, “Whom the children of Israel did value;
and gave them the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.” Now, these words are not to
be found either in Zechariah or in Jeremiah. Hence we must rather take them to have been
inserted with a nice and mystical meaning by the evangelist, on his own responsibility,—the
Lord having given him to understand, by revelation, that a prophecy of the said tenor had
1346 [This explanation is at variance with many of the healthy expressions regarding inspiration which
abound in Augustin’s expository writings.—R.]
431
Of the Thorough Harmony of the Evangelists in the Different Accounts of…