I haven’t read what Pitre says about it, but could it perhaps have something to do with the difficulties found in Matthew 27:3-10? Only Matthew, among the four evangelists, gives this account of Judas’ suicide and the potter’s field, though Luke mentions it briefly in Acts 1:18-19. Matthew also attributes to Jeremiah a prophecy that is actually found in Zechariah. This is the passage in the RSVCE:
3 When Judas, his betrayer, saw that he was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.” 7 So they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.”
Several commenters have noticed, in this connection, that the Hebrew words for “treasury” (v. 6) and “potter” (v. 7) are almost identical. Only the first letter is different:
אוצר (otser), treasury
יוצר (yotser), potter
