The Thirty Pieces of Silver

 

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said to them, what will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver". Mathew (26, 14-15) 

                       

Shekels of Tyre, Silver, Phoenicia, 110 BC, (Blood Money)

 

There can hardly be doubt that the " thirty pieces of silver," said to have been received by Judas Iscariot in payment for his betrayal of Jesus, consisted of tetradrachms or shekels. Because the betrayal took place when and where it did, we can deduce the identity of the coins rather easily.

                       

Arrest of Christ (also called Kiss of Judea), by Giotto, 1303-1305, at Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.

One important way in which the Phoenician coins differed from their Seleucid predecessors is that they reverted from being based on the coins of Athens (the Attic standard) to a standard first instituted by the Ptolemies, which is the Phoenician standard. A tetradrachm under Attic standard weighs 17.5 gm, but 14.5 gm under the Phoenician standard. This trivial statistic makes these coins important in the Bible.

                       

Zechariah 11:12-13, thirty pieces of silver.

 

In ancient Jewish tradition, when payments of Shekels were made to the priests, the rabbis specified that these shekels must be of Tyrian weight. As these coins had silver content of 94 percent, they met the biblical requirement of being pure. Most of the other coins from Macedon, Thrace, Egypt and Syria did not meet these standards. 

These coins were also used to pay the annual half shekel tax or tribute to the Temple in Jerusalem. There was a stipulation of pure silver. It is instructive that the famous reference to the thirty pieces of silver is the last in the Bible. In fact, the number 30 has some historical relevance going as far back as Exodus (21:32) where this was the amount that had to be paid to an owner on the account of the accidental death of a slave, Also, Zechariah (11:12-13) mentions thirty shekels as the price of blood.                      

Shekel of Tyre, year 159 =33/4 CE, silver, weight 13.9 gm, Obverse: Laureate head of Melqart, Reverse: Eagle with foot and palm branch over shoulder and date 159=33/4 CE, in field KO and NAP monogram. Struck in the year of crucifixion. 

                         

Tyrian half Shekel, silver, weight 6.7 gm, Obverse: Head of Melqarth facing right, Reverse: Eagle standing facing left on beak of ship.

Reference: Coins of The Bible, by Arthur Friedberg.