Akeldama

Aceldama, Akeldama or Hakeldama (Aramaic: חקל דמא; field of blood) is the Aramaic name for a place in Jerusalem associated with Judas Iscariot, one of the followers of Jesus.

The earth in this area is composed of rich clay and was formerly used by potters. For this reason the field was known as the Potter's Field. The clay had a strong red colour, which may be the origin of the modern name. It continued to be used as a burial place for non-Jews up to the first quarter of the 19th century.

During the era of the Crusades, it was used to bury the fifty or more patients who died each day in the hospital run by the Knights Hospitaller in Jerusalem.

Christian tradition connects the place with Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. According to the Acts of the Apostles (1:18–19) Judas "acquired a field with the reward of his unjust deed, and falling headfirst he burst open in the middle and all his intestines gushed out. This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so that in their own language they called that field Hakeldama, that is, 'Field of Blood.'" The Gospel of Matthew has a different account: Judas returned the money to the Temple authorities before hanging himself. Deeming it as blood money, and therefore illegal to put into their treasury, they used it instead to buy the field as a burial ground for foreigners: thus the place gained the name "the Field of Blood". The implication here is that the name refers to the blood of Jesus, whereas in Acts the name is said to refer to the blood of Judas. Lindars holds the Acts narrative to be prior, and that although the incident is not created out of the Old Testament passages the text of Zechariah 11:12ff is "freely used to fill up the gaps in the story ... to the early Christian exegetes a perfectly legitimate hermeneutical procedure".

According to Ian Howard Marshall, Acts may be recording the (inaccurate) story as told within Jerusalem.

The Akeldama (Hakl-ed-damm) today is a large, square sepulchre, of which the southern half is excavated in the rock, the remainder being built of massive masonry. In the center stands a huge pillar, constructed partly of rough blocks and partly of polished stones. Much of its clay was taken away by Empress Helena and other prominent Christians, to make sarcophagi. It lies on a narrow, level terrace on the south face of the valley of Hinnom.

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