Akeldama · South of Jerusalem’s Old City near the Hinnom Valley, on the southern slope just before the valley joins the Kidron Valley; the traditional site is around the Monastery of St. Onuphrius (Akeldama Monastery) on the southeastern hillside.
A field near the Hinnom Valley south of Jerusalem whose Aramaic name means “Field of Blood”; bought with the 30 silver pieces Judas returned, it served as a burial place for strangers and has a traditional site to this day.
First mentioned in the Bible
Therefore, that field has been called Field of Blood to this very day.— Matthew 27:8
Background
Akeldama is a field south of Jerusalem whose name comes from Aramaic and means “Field of Blood.” It appears in two Christian Greek Scripture accounts that describe the end of Judas Iscariot from complementary viewpoints. Matthew records that after Jesus was condemned, Judas his betrayer felt remorse, threw the 30 silver pieces back into the temple, and went off and hanged himself. The chief priests took the silver pieces, said it was not lawful to put “the price of blood” into the sacred treasury, and after consulting together used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers; “therefore, that field has been called Field of Blood to this very day.” Matthew notes that this fulfilled what was spoken through Jeremiah (the quotation drawing chiefly on Zechariah 11:12, 13). In Acts, Peter says that “this very man purchased a field with the wages for unrighteousness, and falling headfirst, his body burst open and all his insides spilled out”; the matter became known to all Jerusalem’s inhabitants, “so that the field was called in their language A·kelʹda·ma, that is, ‘Field of Blood.’” The accounts are not contradictory: the chief priests bought the field with the very money Judas had received for betraying Jesus and then returned, so Luke can attribute the purchase to Judas while Matthew describes how the money was used. Since the fourth century C.E., the field has been identified with a site on the southern slope of the Hinnom Valley, just before it joins the Kidron Valley—an area where potters apparently worked. The traditional location today is around the Monastery of St. Onuphrius (Akeldama Monastery) on the southeastern hillside outside the Old City.
Related Scriptures (New World Translation)
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, felt remorse and brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders, saying: “I sinned when I betrayed innocent blood.” They said: “What is that to us? You must see to it!” So he threw the silver pieces into the temple and departed. Then he went off and hanged himself. But the chief priests took the silver pieces and said: “It is not lawful to put them into the sacred treasury, because they are the price of blood.” After consulting together, they used the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. Therefore, that field has been called Field of Blood to this very day. Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the 30 silver pieces, the price that was set on the man, the one on whom a price was set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, according to what Jehovah had commanded me.”— Matthew 27:3-10
(This very man, therefore, purchased a field with the wages for unrighteousness, and falling headfirst, his body burst open and all his insides spilled out. This became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language A·kelʹda·ma, that is, “Field of Blood.”)— Acts 1:18-19