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I have a question about alleged Biblical Contradictions:
The Holy Gospel of St. Matthew said: "Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, 'And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of Him who was priced, whom they the children of Israel priced, and gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me" (Matthew 27:9,10).

Now Jeremiah the prophet did not say this, some scholars said that it was Zechariah the prophet in (Zechariah 11:12). In the Holy Book of Zechariah, he talks about the thirty pieces of silver but what St. Matthew documented is not mentioned verbatim. What is the solution for this one?

There are many explanations:

1. The Syriac and Persic versions make no mention of any prophet's name, only read, "which was spoken by the prophet" and so may as well be ascribed to Zechariah, as to Jeremy, but it must be owned, that Jeremy is in all the Greek copies, in the Vulgate Latin, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel.



2. Jeremiah was a prophet to Judah (Jeremiah 1:1-3), he was called by the Lord (Jeremiah 1). Put in stocks (Jeremiah 20:1-3). Threatened for prophesying (Jeremiah 11:18-23, 26). Opposed by Hananiah (Jeremiah 28). Scroll burned (Jeremiah 36). Imprisoned (Jeremiah 37). Thrown into cistern (Jeremiah 38). Forced to Egypt with those fleeing Babylonians (Jeremiah 43). Perhaps St Matthew attributed the name Jeremiah through oral tradition, which began following the burning of his scroll.



3. Some think that Zechariah had two names; and that besides Zechariah, he was called Jeremy; but of this there is no proof.



4. St. Jerome affirms, that in an Hebrew volume, being an apocryphal work of Jeremiah, which was shown him by one of the Nazarene sect, he read these words verbatim: “so that though they do not stand in the writings of Jeremiah, which are canonical Scripture, yet in an apocryphal book of his, and which may as well be referred to, as the traditions of the Jews, the prophecies of Enoch, and the writings of the Heathen poets”.



5. Some Holy Bible Scholars like Mr. Mede has labored, by various arguments, to prove, that the four last chapters of the Holy Book of Zechariah in which this passage stands were written by Jeremiah, and if so, the reason is clear, for the citation in his name.



6. The most acceptable explanation is Jeremiah the prophet had the first place among the prophets, and hereby he comes to be mentioned above all the rest in the Holy Gospel of St Matthew 16:14; Because he stood first in the volume of the prophets, therefore he is named first. When, therefore, St Matthew produced a text of Zechariah under the name of Jeremiah, he only cited the words of the volume of the prophets under his name that stood first in the volume of the prophets. The order of the books of the Old Testament is not the same now as it was formerly. The sacred writings were divided, by the Jews, into three parts: the first was called the law, which contains the five books of Moses; the second, the prophets, which contains the former and the latter prophets (the former prophets began at Joshua, and the latter at Jeremy); The third part was called Cetubim, or the Hagiographa, the holy writings, which began with the Holy Book of Psalms. This whole third and last part is called the Holy Psalms, (Luke 24:44) because it began with that book; So,  for the same reason, all that part which contained the latter prophets, beginning at Jeremiah, might be called by his name; hence a passage, standing in the prophecy of Zechariah, (who was one of the latter prophets), might be justly cited, under the name of Jeremiah.

Regarding the verbatim, the word, which St Matthew uses, could be rendered, "I took," as it is in the Syriac version.