Zechariah 11:13 - Money to be Thrown into God's House

There is a story in Matthew 27:5 where Judas, after having pocketed the money a chapter earlier, was so disgusted by what he had done, betraying another person for blood money, that he threw it into the Temple and left. 

This is supposedly the fulfilment of a prophecy in Zechariah 11:13.

But was it?

If one actually reads the text, one will see that:

In Zechariah 11:12-13, God, using a metaphor of getting paid 30 shekels, tells His holy prophet to take the precious pieces of silver that the people had just given to Him.

God then tells Zechariah (specifically!) to toss the purse of silver to "היוצר", which can refer to the artisan (a potter or, perhaps, a silversmith) who is working in the Temple. It is also a term for the creator of these object, and was possibly chosen for the wordplay of THE Creator (YHVH) tells Zechariah to toss the silver to "the creator". It's something worth considering. (See the Abarbanel on this idea).

This craftsman may be a specific craftsman, perhaps even the lead one since he is referred to as "היוצר" or THE potter. Or perhaps it is a pun for "THE creator". As to what the potter is supposed to do with the silver is unclear although the LXX version has "smelting furnace" (χωνευτήριον) instead of "potter", so perhaps he is to melt it if one holds that the LXX is correct in this area.

In any case, this interaction between God and His prophet is generally assumed to be a metaphor (e.g., God doesn’t need cash and 30 pieces of silver is too specific of a request), and there are many interpretations. But that’s not at issue here.

What is crucial here is that all of these actions had been handled by Zechariah himself.

There was nothing left that needed to be fulfilled in the future. Not by a messiah nor anyone else.

End of story.

CONCLUSION

A traitor to a messiah hundreds of years after Zechariah had already accomplished the silver tossing was not fulfilling anything.

The assertion by Christians that the scene in Matthew, where a traitor threw away his blood money in disgust, is equated to Zechariah taking silver that was precious and delivering it to the temple's craftsman, is absurd.

So, no, Jesus did not fulfil this. Neither did Judas.

Here was the meme used: