After Judas betrayed Jesus, he repented and returned the thirty pieces of silver he had received for his betrayal to the chief priests and elders of the people (Matt.27:1). Judas throws the pieces of silver into the temple and ends his life (Matt.27:5). Because it is ‘a price of blood’ (Matt. 27:6), the leaders cannot put this ‘blood money’ in the offering box and they decide to buy a piece of land with it (Matt.27:6).
Matthew 27
7 And they took counsel, and bought the potter’s field therewith for a burial place for the strangers.
8 Therefore the field is called Bloodfield to this day.
twelve
Later, after the resurrection of Christ, the disciples come together to fill the gap left by Judas, so that there are again twelve disciples or apostles. They appoint two, and from the two, Matthias is chosen. This is described in Acts 1:21-26.
Before this story, we find a commentary by Peter on the events surrounding the death of Judas and the purchase of the piece of land.
Act 1
18 Now this man (=Judas, verse 16) acquires a piece of ground with the reward of unrighteousness, and when he falls down, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels came out.
19 And it became known to all those who dwell in Jerusalem, so that that part of the ground is called in their own language Akeldama, that is, the Ground of Blood.
Judas = Judah
Judas is the Greek name for Judah and he is therefore a model for the Jewish people. Judas handed Jesus over to the Romans, as did the Jewish people as a whole. Judas hanged himself, died by strangulation (Matt. 27:5) and took his own breath, a representation of how the spirit of the Jewish people was taken away. Apparently Judas then fell down, for we read in Acts that he fell forward and burst open, so that his bowels were poured out (Acts 1:18).
This is a depiction of the collapse of the Jewish state and the scattering of the people after they rejected the Messiah. In 70 AD, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and razed to the ground. Then the Jewish diaspora arose, the Jewish people were scattered among the nations and no longer had their own country.
blood field
The plot of land that was purchased with the thirty pieces of silver is a representation of this Jewish state. In the sequel in Acts 1, Peter quotes Psalm 69, from which Paul also quotes in Rom.11:9-10, when he declares that Israel has stumbled and because of their transgression salvation went to the nations (Rom. 11:11).
Acts 1
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his place be desolate, and let there be no one to dwell therein; and, Let another take his charge.
his place
Literally, his place here is about the plot of land that was purchased from Judas’ wages for handing Jesus over, but typologically it speaks of the Jewish land. The place is the Jewish state, which would become desolate and in which no one would live for a long time. Jesus also speaks similar words when He announces judgment on the Jewish people: “Behold, your house is left desolate” (Matt. 23:38).
overseership
Then it says: let another take his overseership. After these words we find the description of the selection of two men, from which Matthias is chosen. He receives the position of Judas. But there is also a deeper layer to this, because the ‘overseership’ of the Jewish people was taken from them and ended up with another people (Rom. 10:19): the ecclesia, the body of Christ.
strangers
With the thirty pieces of silver the potter’s field was bought as a burial place for the strangers: a field of blood. The blood speaks of the blood of the cross (Col.1:20), of Him who died, but now is the Risen and lives!
The potter is God (Jer.18:6; Rom.9:20, 21). The field is a field of the dead and an image of Israel standing aside and dead in the grave (Eze.37:11-12). But because of the ransom Christ paid, it is also a cemetery for strangers. Non-Jews now participate in Christ, because the ransom has been paid (1 Tim.2:6)
Romans 6
3 Or are you ignorant that all who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we were buried together with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.