Matthew 27:4

Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) I have sinned in that I have betrayed.—More accurately, I sinned in betraying.

What is that to us?—We instinctively feel, as we read these words, that deep as was the guilt of Judas, that of those who thus mocked him was deeper still. Speaking after the manner of men, we may say that a word of sympathy and true counsel might have saved him even then. His confession was as the germ of repentance, but this repulse drove him back upon despair, and he had not the courage or the faith to turn to the great Absolver; and so his life closed as in a blackness of darkness; and if we ask the question, Is there any hope? We dare not answer. Possibly there mingled with his agony, as has been suggested by one at least of the great teachers of the Church (Origen, Horn. in Matt. 35), some confused thought that in the world of the dead, behind the veil, he might meet his Lord and confess his guilt to Him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

27:1-10 Wicked men see little of the consequences of their crimes when they commit them, but they must answer for them all. In the fullest manner Judas acknowledged to the chief priests that he had sinned, and betrayed an innocent person. This was full testimony to the character of Christ; but the rulers were hardened. Casting down the money, Judas departed, and went and hanged himself, not being able to bear the terror of Divine wrath, and the anguish of despair. There is little doubt but that the death of Judas was before that of our blessed Lord. But was it nothing to them that they had thirsted after this blood, and hired Judas to betray it, and had condemned it to be shed unjustly? Thus do fools make a mock at sin. Thus many make light of Christ crucified. And it is a common instance of the deceitfulness of our hearts, to make light of our own sin by dwelling upon other people's sins. But the judgment of God is according to truth. Many apply this passage of the buying the piece of ground, with the money Judas brought back, to signify the favour intended by the blood of Christ to strangers, and sinners of the Gentiles. It fulfilled a prophecy, Zec 11:12. Judas went far toward repentance, yet it was not to salvation. He confessed, but not to God; he did not go to him, and say, I have sinned, Father, against heaven. Let none be satisfied with such partial convictions as a man may have, and yet remain full of pride, enmity, and rebellion.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have sinned - I have been guilty. I have done wrong.

In that I have betrayed the innocent blood - That is, in betraying an innocent being to death. Blood is put here for "life," or for the "man." The meaning is, that he knew and felt that Jesus was innocent. This confession is a remarkable proof that Jesus was innocent. Judas had been with him for three years. He had seen him in public and private; he had heard his public teaching and his private views; he had seen him in all circumstances; and if he had done anything evil, or advanced anything against the Roman emperor, Judas was competent to testify it. Had he known any such thing he would have stated it. His testimony, being a disciple of Jesus, would have been to the chief priests far more valuable than that of any other man; and he might not only have escaped the horrors of a troubled conscience and an awful death, but have looked for an ample reward. That he did not make such a charge that he fully and frankly confessed that Jesus was innocent - and that he gave up the ill-gotten price of treason, is full proof that, in the belief of Judas, the Saviour was free from crime, and even the suspicion of crime.

What is that to us? - This form of speaking denoted that they had nothing to do with his remorse of conscience, and his belief that Jesus was innocent. They had secured what they wanted - the person of Jesus - and they cared little now for the feelings of the traitor. So all wicked men who make use of the agency of others for the accomplishment of crime or the gratification of passion care little for the effect on the instrument. They will soon cast him off and despise him, and in thousands of instances the instruments of villainy and the panders to the pleasures of others are abandoned to remorse, wretchedness, crime, and death.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood—What a testimony this to Jesus! Judas had been with Him in all circumstances for three years; his post, as treasurer to Him and the Twelve (Joh 12:6), gave him peculiar opportunity of watching the spirit, disposition, and habits of his Master; while his covetous nature and thievish practices would incline him to dark and suspicious, rather than frank and generous, interpretations of all that He said and did. If, then, he could have fastened on one questionable feature in all that he had so long witnessed, we may be sure that no such speech as this would ever have escaped his lips, nor would he have been so stung with remorse as not to be able to keep the money and survive his crime.

And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that—"Guilty or innocent is nothing to us: We have Him now—begone!" Was ever speech more hellish uttered?

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Matthew 27:5".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Saying, I have sinned,.... Here was a confession, and yet no true repentance; for he confessed, but not to the right persons; not to God, nor Christ, but to the chief priests and elders; nor over the head of the antitypical scape goat, not seeking to Christ for pardon and cleansing, nor did he confess and forsake sin, but went on adding sin to sin, and so found no mercy. The same confession was made by a like hardened wretch, Pharaoh, Exodus 9:27. He proceeds and points out the evil he had committed:

in that I have betrayed innocent blood, or "righteous blood"; so the Vulgate Latin, and Syriac versions, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel read, and some copies; that is, have betrayed an innocent and righteous person, and been the occasion of his blood being about to be shed, and of his dying wrongfully. So God, in his all-wise providence, ordered it, that a testimony should be bore to the innocence of Christ, from the mouth of this vile wretch that betrayed him; to cut off the argument from the Jews, that one of his own disciples knew him to be a wicked man, and as such delivered him into their hands: for though Judas might not believe in him as the Messiah, and the Son of God, at least had no true faith in him, as such; yet he knew, and believed in his own conscience, that he was a good man, and a righteous and innocent one: and what he here says is a testimony of Christ's innocence, and what his conscience obliged him to; and shows the terrors that now encompassed him about; and might have been a warning to the Jews to have stopped all further proceedings against him; but instead of that,

they said, what is that to us? see thou to that: signifying, that if he had sinned, he must answer for it himself; it was no concern of theirs; nor should they form their sentiments of Christ according to his: they knew that he was a blasphemer, and deserving of death; and whatever opinion he had of him, it had no weight with them, who should proceed against him as an evildoer, let him think or say what he would to the contrary; and suggest, that he knew otherwise than what he said: so the Syriac and Persic versions render it, "thou knowest", and the Arabic, "thou knowest better".

Geneva Study Bible

Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Matthew 27:4 Ἥ μαρτον παραδούς] see on Matthew 26:12.

αἷμα ἀθῷον] εἰς τὸ χυθῆναι, Euthymius Zigabenus; comp. Deuteronomy 27:25; 1Ma 1:37; 2Ma 1:8; Phalar. ep. 40; Heliod. viii. 10.

τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς] sc. ἐστι; what is it as regards us? i.e. what matters it to us? we are in no way called upon to concern ourselves about what thou hast done. Comp. John 21:22 f.; the words are also frequently used in this sense by Greek authors.

σὺ ὄψῃ] Thou wilt see to it thyself, thou wilt have to consider for thyself what is now to be done by thee; comp. Matthew 27:24; Acts 18:15; 1 Samuel 25:17; 4Ma 9:1. “Impii in facto consortes, post factum deserunt,” Bengel.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 27:4. ἥμαρτον, I sinned, I did wrong.—παραδοὺς α. ἀ. explains how. The sinning and the betraying are one, therefore the participle does not point to an act antecedent to that of the main verb.—αἷμα ἀθῶον, innocent blood, for the blood of an innocent person. So in Deuteronomy 27:25. Palairet cites examples to prove that Greek writers used αἷμα as = ἄνθρωπος.—τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς: that is not our concern.—σὺ ὄψει, look thou to that = “tu videris,” a Latinism. The sentiment itself a Cainism. “Ad modum Caini loquuntur vera progenies Caini” (Grotius).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. I have sinned in that I have betrayed] Rather, I sinned in betraying.

the innocent blood] “the” should be omitted.

see thou (to that)] Lit., thou shalt see, it shall be thy concern. “Impii in facto consortes, post factum deserunt.” (Bengel.)

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 27:4. Ἥμαρτον, I have sinned) Thus also the damned will feel in hell.[1171]—αἷμα ἀθῶον, innocent blood) Miserably involved in his own darkness, he no longer acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah.—τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς, what is that to us?) See how they dismiss, without remark, the question as to the innocence of their Victim.[1172]—σὺ ὄψει, see thou to that) The ungodly, though associating in the commission of a crime, desert their associates when it has been accomplished:[1173] the godly, though not taking part in the crime, endeavour, after its commission, to save the sinner’s soul. Comp. Matthew 27:24.

[1171] And O that the friends of Christ, moved by faith, love, and hope, would confess the truth as openly as men in despair are wont at times to do, when they feel that they have now no longer any opportunity of earning merit in the eyes of the world!—Harm., p. 542.

[1172] In the original, “Vide, quam transiliant τὸ innocentem;” literally, “See how they leap over the ‘innocent;’ ” referring to the words of Judas, “INNOCENT blood.”—(I. B.)

[1173] But still punishment at last awaits all severally, according to the part which each took in the deed.—V. g.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - I have sinned. He confesses his sin, indeed, yet not to God, but to the partners and instigators of his crime, and this, not with godly sorrow, but in self-disgust and vexation of spirit that could not be repressed. His was the sorrow that worketh death (2 Corinthians 7:10). In that I have betrayed [the] innocent blood (αῖμα ἀθῷον, or, according to some manuscripts, αῖμα δίκαιον, but in either case without the article). By speaking of "blood," he showed that he knew the murder was certain. Judas seems to have had no faith in Christ's Divinity, but he had perfect assurance of his holiness and innocence, and felt, and endeavoured to make the rulers feel, that an iniquitous sentence had been passed, and that a guiltless person was condemned to death. This consideration added to the bitterness of his regret. But he obtained no comfort from the hardened and unfeeling priests. They had gotten what they had desired. The question of Christ's moral guilt or innocence was nothing to them; equally indifferent to them was the fierce remorse of Judas. What is that to us? Τί πρὸς ἡμᾶς; See thou to that (σὺ ὄψει, tu videris, equivalent to "that is your concern," as in ver. 24). A more unfeeling, nay, fiendish answer could not have been given. It threw the wretched man back on himself, left him alone with his remorse, the blackness of his night unrelieved by any ray of human sympathy. In their own obduracy and impenitence they scorn the weakness of their miserable tool. As Bengel well moralizes, "Impii in facto consortes, post factum deserunt; pii, in facto non consortes, postea medentur." To sympathize with repentance is the duty and the privilege of the Christian; to deride and scoff at the returning sinner is devilish. It is profitable to contrast the sincere repentance of Peter after his fall with the remorse of the despairing Judas. Matthew 27:4