the Fourth Week after Easter
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Akeldama
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or AKELDAMA (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Aceldama ). The name of the ‘potter’s field’ ( Acts 1:19 ), purchased for the burial of strangers with the blood-money returned by Judas ( Matthew 27:3 ). The traditional site is at the E. side of the Wady er-Rababi (the so-called ‘Valley of Hinnom’) on the S. side of the valley. It is still known as Hakk ed-Dumm (‘field of blood’). which represents the old name in sound and meaning. The identification has not been traced earlier than the Crusaders, who erected here a charnel-house, the ruins of which still remain a vault about 70 feet long and 20 feet wide (internal dimensions) erected over and covering the entrance to some of the ancient rock-cut tombs which abound in the valley. The skulls and bones which once thickly strewed the floor of this charnel-house have all been removed to a modern Greek monastery adjacent. There is no evidence recoverable connecting this site with the work of potters.
R. A. S. Macalister.
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hastings, James. Entry for 'Akeldama'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/a/akeldama.html. 1909.
