11. But now I have to seek the exact
solution of this seeming discrepancy. For they who make light of
the prophets, allege that the Prophet says on the one hand, And I
cast them into the house of the Lord, into the foundry, but the
Gospel on the other hand, And they gave them for the potter’s
field Matt. xxvii. 3, 7.. Hear then
how they are both true. For those conscientious Jews forsooth,
the high-priests of that time, when they saw that Judas repented and
said, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed innocent blood,
reply, What is that to us, see thou to that Ib. v.
4.. Is it then nothing to you, the
crucifiers? but shall he who received and restored the price of murder
see to it, and shall ye the murderers not see to it? Then they
say among themselves, It is not lawful to cast them into the
treasury, because it is the price of blood Ib. v.
6.. Out of your own mouths is your
condemnation; if the price is polluted, the deed is polluted
also: but if thou art fulfilling righteousness in crucifying
Christ, why receivest thou not the price of it? But the point of
iniquity is this: how is there no disagreement, if the Gospel
says, the potter’s field, and the Prophet, the
foundry? Nay, but not only people who are goldsmiths, or
brass-founders, have a foundry, but potters also have foundries for
their clay. For they sift off the fine and rich and useful earth
from the gravel, and separate from it the mass of the refuse matter,
and temper the clay first with water, that they may work it with ease
into the forms intended. Why then wonderest thou that the Gospel
says plainly the potter’s field, whereas the Prophet spoke
his prophecy like an enigma, since prophecy is in many places
enigmatical?