Thirty pieces of silver

Thirty pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament.

[1] Before the Last Supper, Judas is said to have gone to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins and to have attempted to return the money afterwards, filled with remorse.

The phrase is used in literature and common speech to refer to people "selling out", compromising a trust, friendship, or loyalty for personal gain.

The chief priests decided that they could not put it into the temple treasury as it was considered blood money,[6] and so with it they bought the Potter's Field.

"[8] Although the Gospel of Luke, which is commonly thought to have been written by the same author as Acts, mentions in 22:3–6 that Judas and the chief priests and temple guard officers agreed on a price, the amount is not specified, nor is the money paid up front as in Matthew.

In the medieval period some religious institutions displayed ancient Greek coins of the island of Rhodes as specimens of the Thirty Pieces of Silver.

Namely, "They took the thirty silver coins, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord commanded me" (Matthew 27:9–10).

According to Blomberg's more charitable interpretation, Matthew is telling his readers that, "like Jeremiah and Zechariah, Jesus attempts to lead his people with a prophetic and pastoral ministry, but instead he ends up suffering innocently at their hands".

[24] Blomberg also suggests that Matthew may also be saying that "Jesus' death is a ransom, the price paid to secure a slave's freedom", and that the use of the blood money to buy a burial ground for foreigners (Matthew 27:7) may hint at the idea that "Jesus' death makes salvation possible for all the peoples of the world, including the Gentiles".

[26] "Judas-pennies", ancient coins said to be from the original thirty, were treated as relics in the Middle Ages, and were believed to help in difficult cases of childbirth.

[27][28] As a minor component of the Instruments, and one whose survival was hard to explain given the Biblical account of the use of the money, the relics and their depiction in art both appear from the 14th century, later than more important elements like the Crown of Thorns or Spear of Longinus.

[30] A Syracusan decadrachm held at the Hunt Museum, Limerick is one such coin claimed to be one of the thirty: inscribed on the mount is Quia precium sanguinis est (Latin: "This is the price of blood").

In Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2, the mistress of Falstaff asks "and didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings?

"[34] The story "Treasure Trove" by F. Tennyson Jesse relates the rediscovery in modern times of the thirty pieces of silver and how they drive men to kill in varied forms including murder, manslaughter, homicide, euthanasia and suicide.

"[40] In 2021, evangelist Franklin Graham condemned the ten Republican congressmen who supported the second impeachment of Donald Trump, suggesting that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised them "thirty pieces of silver".