Potters Field

POTTERS FIELD; the Field that was bought with the Money, for which Judas Mat. xxvii. 7, 10.sold our Saviour Christ, and which he brought back again to the Temple. See the Article ACELDAMA. This Field is seen to this Day to the South of Mount Sion, and about a Stone’s Cast from the Pool of Siloam: It is surrounded by Walls of the Length of seventy Cubits, and of the Breadth of fifty; and cover’d with a Vault, with seven Openings above, to let¹ down the Bodies which are to be buried there, and which are consumed in the Space of twenty-four Hours. This Earth must necessarily abound with the Spirit of a very corrosive Salt, that can dissolve Flesh in so little Time. They say it was the Empress Helena that caus’d the Vault to be built over this Field, which is still there to be seen; and ‘tis said likewise, that she loaded several Ships with the Earth of Aceldama, and order’d it to be carry’d to Rome, where it was laid near the Mount Vatican, and still preserves to this Day its Quality of consuming dead Bodies in the Space of four and twenty Hours. This Place is call’d the Holy Field, and serves for a Burying-place to Strangers. Cornelius à Lapide assures us, Adrichom. Cornel. à Lapide in Matth.that he has seen it at Rome, and that he was inform’d of this Matter by the Curate of the Place.

We cannot tell what Use the Potter could make of this Field, except it was to dry his Pots before he baked them; and the Price of thirty Pieces of Silver, for which it was bought, shews it was of no considerable I have not found this Passage in this Author.Value. Raban Maur is quoted, to shew, that Judas himself was the first that was buried in this Place. The Jews of Pisa, they say, have a Burial-place very like this at Rome, where the Bodies are consumed in a very short Time; and they think themselves happy that they can be buried there, because they think the Earth was brought from Jerusalem. The Jews of the neighbouring Cities esteem it as an Honour, that they can be buried there; which is some Comfort to ‘em, for their Misfortune, that they cannot be buried at Jerusalem.

Misna tract. de Synedr. c. 6. n. 14, 15.We read in the Mishna, that they did not allow Malefactors, or such as were executed for their Crimes, a Burial in the Tombs of their Fathers, except that their Flesh had first been consumed in other Places appointed for the Punishment of such Offenders. And ‘tis, perhaps, for this Reason, that Joseph of Arimathea begg’d the Body of Jesus from Pilate, that he might immediately lay him in a private Sepulchre, before he was laid in this publick Burying-place, where he might have been undistinguish’d from the common Criminals.

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