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We set out to unearth the origin of this curious term for the place where indigent or unknown people are laid to rest with a search on "potters field origin." We hit pay dirt with our first result, a web page from the New York Correction History Society. According to the page, the term "Potters Field" probably derives from the Gospel of Matthew. In the book, after Judas Iscariot betrays Christ, he repents and returns his payment of 30 pieces of silver to the priests before hanging himself. The priests called the coins "the price of blood" and did not want to put them in the temple treasury, so they used them to buy a field: And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. The original Potters Field is thought to have been located in Hinnom valley in Jerusalem. The burial ground was also called the "Field of Blood" or "Aceldama" in the Aramaic language. Usually with etymology questions, we find a number of likely explanations
(along with some not-so-likely ones). But in the case of "Potters Field," there seems to be a general consensus that the term comes from the Bible, and we uncovered no other popular explanations.
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