home | what's new | other sitescontact | about

 

 

Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity




When Matthew quotes the Old
Testament, he mistakenly cites
Jeremiah for Zechariah.

 


 

return to the main-page article on "Bible"

 

 

Preview and Summary: The gospel-writer doesn't even know which book in the Old Testament he's quoting! Is this how perfect, blemish-free, "holy" books are produced? And since God purportedly has inspired every word  - yes, they say every word - of scripture, it seems that Divinity's mind wandered for a moment. Right.

 

 

The writer of the gospel known as "Matthew" is ignorant of the literature concerning which he professes to be an expert. He doesn't know that he has botched one of his quotes:

 

  • Matthew 27: 9: "This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, They took the thirty pieces of silver - the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel" (New Living Translation)

 

But the "thirty pieces of silver" is mentioned in Zechariah, not Jeremiah!

 

  • Zechariah 11: 12: "So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver." (New Living Translation)

 

Those intent upon maintaining an illusion of Biblical perfection, scramble to offer this as explanation:

 

Matthew asserts what "Jeremiah ... says"; - that is, we are asked to believe that Matthew is reporting something that Jeremiah spoke, verbally professed, but did not write down!

 

I'm tempted to ask if this is a punchline to a joke, but it's presented in all seriousness. We are assured by church-politicians that Matthew knows what Jeremiah said, but did not write down, many hundreds of years before Matthew was born!

But there's another reason why the "Jeremiah said" argument is bogus. The writer of "Matthew" is appealing to a certain audience - a Jewish audience, with their particular Jewish sensibilities; as such, Matthew very often attempts to quote the Old Testament, a source that would be impressive and authoritative to the Jewish mind.

Does it make sense to you, that, in the midst of all of this Old Testament name-dropping, in this attempt to bask in the halo-effect authority of the Old Testament, suddenly Matthew should try to convince his readers that he, personally, is now a psychic astral-traveler, leaping across time and space, divining what the great Jeremiah - of 600 BC - "said"?

Yes, very impressive, indeed. I'm sure his readers were all swayed by the force of this argument.

But these are the slippery games - the "snowballs in July, Doc" sophistry and prevarication - played by those intent upon clinging to fable, willing to say anything to maintain their "one, true infallible doctrines."

 

 

 

Editor's last word: