Islam and Christianity A Common Word: An Ancient Christian Art: Quoting Out of Context part 2

Here is part 2

Than it gets worse (Matthew 27:9-10) another example of quote mining.

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Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet, ⁵"And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites,

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and they paid it out for the potter's field just as the Lord had commanded me."

Even the foot note to the New American Bible had this interesting piece of information to say.

⁵ [9-10] Cf Matthew 26:15. Matthew's attributing this text to Jeremiah is puzzling, for there is no such text in that book, and the thirty pieces of silver thrown by Judas "into the temple" (Matthew 27:5) recall rather Zechariah 11:12-13. It is usually said that the attribution of the text to Jeremiah is due to Matthew's combining the Zechariah text with texts from Jeremiah that speak of a potter (Jeremiah 18:2-3), the buying of a field (Jeremiah 32:6-9), or the breaking of a potter's flask at Topheth in the valley of Ben-Hinnom with the prediction that it will become a burial place (Jeremiah 19:1-13).

"So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD." (Zechariah 11:12-13)

Source taken from (http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/matthew/matthew27.htm)

But what do the Christians do? Instead of being honest and acknowledging this for what it is:quote mining they come up with all kinds of 'could have' 'should have' and 'perhaps' scenarios.

One of the things they say is that Matthew was 'loosely' quoting Jeremiah. Go to any apologetic web site and see it for yourself! Quoting loosely indeed! The other amazing thing they try and push on the gullible masses and one of my personal favorites is the following response.

Well you see Matthew doesn't say Jeremiah wrote anything it simply says he spoke. If this is the case where is the proof? What is so amazing about a so called 'prophecy' if no one was expecting it to be a prophecy in the first place.

This just opens a can of worms. Maybe I could become inspired by the Holy Spirit too and write my own Gospel account. Maybe I could also quote things from Moses, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel to and simply say 'Hey! The Holy Spirit inspired me that they said this'.

No! This is not the case my dear readers. This is another horrible example of whom ever wrote the Gospel of Matthew quote mining from the TNCH or 'Old Testament'.

Here is a better answer based on Jewish first century customs:

Some claim it is a mistake that Matthew attributes the quotation in Matthew 27:9-10 to Jeremiah instead of Zechariah.
Most questions of this sort usually find answers in the footnotes of the common Study Bibles.
For example the NIV Study Bible has this footnote on Mt. 27:9

Jeremiah. The quotation that follows seems to be a combination of Zec 11:12-13 and Jer 19:1-13 (or perhaps Jer 18:2-12 or Jer 32:6-9). But Matthew attributes it to the major prophet Jeremiah, just as Mark (1:2-3) quotes Mal 3:1 and Isa 40:3 but attributes them to the major prophet Isaiah.

This is actually pretty common in the Bible. The NIV Quest Study Bible adds possible another thought:

... it was customary to allude to an entire section of the Bible by the name of the first book in that section. It may be that in Matthew's day Jeremiah was the first of the prophetic books.

If a more in depth discussion is needed, I would recommend the valuable book Hard Sayings of the Bible, which discusses this passage on pages 399-400. Another contemporary reply, is Gleason Archer's Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Zondervan, 1982), p. 345. However, some might prefer the older approach used by E. W. Bullinger in The Companion Bible (ca. 1916; reprinted in the U.S. by Zondervan, 1974), at Appendix 161, which deals with these passages at length. "When Critics Ask" by Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe also has a short discussion on it. (Copmmentary on Matthew 27:9)

I want to point out that in Jesus' time, 30 pieces of silver was the common average wage for a year. Zechariah say that this is the price of a man. Also in the first century they would not have looked at this as a mistake, like one might in our culture of precision copies and communication. His Jewish audience knew that Matthew was referring to zachariah not to Jeremiah. They did that often. Sometimes referring to a "minor" prophet by the name of a "major" prophet. Remember "minor" vs "major" refers to the leng6th of the book not the prophet's value!

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: An Ancient Christian Art: Quoting Out of Context