Few things in the study of Scripture can be more important than its trustworthiness and reliability, even in factual, historical details. Often times, we run across a passage or verse that, on the surface, appears to be what some may call ’an error’ in Scripture. This is dangerous.
The moment we allow as true that ‘an error’ exist in Scripture, we have lost all reliability and trustworthiness in the Word of God. Our faith is shaken, seeds of doubt in everything begin to be sown by those who insist they have found ‘an error’ in Scripture.
One such example occurred recently in our Wednesday night Bible Study. Specifically, in the study of Zechariah (fantastic study, in case you’ve been missing it!). In Zechariah 11:12, 13 says:
“Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”–the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.”
Now this passage is quoted in Matthew 27:9. However, in Matthew we read this:
“Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
What? Jeremiah? Where did he come from? Matthew says this was spoken of by Jeremiah, yet it is a direct prophecy from Zechariah. Is this an error?
No, not at all.
When the Jews divided the Old Testament, they divided it into 3 sections: the law, prophets and the writings. For example, in Luke 24:44 we find Jesus referencing the law, the prophets and the psalms. All the wisdom literature falls under the Psalms. It’s the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon…all the wisdom literature, but its heading is the Psalms. The category of the prophets in rabbinic tradition, manuscripts and in the Talmud is always headed by the book of Jeremiah.
So to a Jew the 3 sections of the Old Testament would be the law, Jeremiah and the Psalms. So when the writer refers to Jeremiah, he is simply taking the name that was at the top of the prophetic roll, which was Jeremiah because his prophecy was listed first, then came the major, then minor prophets.
In the Luke passage, Jesus referred to a whole category of wisdom literature as the Psalms, because that is the heading on that scroll as well. So there’s no contradiction. No error.
In addition, Matthew quotes partly from Zechariah…”the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.” (ESV)
However, Matthew goes on to mention specifically the field of the potter. Zechariah says nothing of the field, which is the main focus. Only in Jeremiah do we have references to a potter’s field and gate. One might say we have a melding of two prophetic quotes together, Zechariah and Jeremiah, rather than simply Zechariah alone.
Regardless, where more than one prophet is quoted together, the general practice of New Testament writers was to quote the more famous one, in this case Jeremiah.
Compare Mark 1:2,3 where you have another such example. There, the quote is taken from both Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, yet only Isaiah is named.
