The 30 pieces of silver are recorded in Matthew 26:14-16, “Then one of the Twelve — the one called Judas Iscariot — went to the chief priests and asked, ‘What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?’ So, they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.”
Meaning of Thirty Pieces of Silver
The 30 pieces of silver have a great deal of significance, though it is easy to overlook this passage in Scripture. As told to us in Matthew 26:14-16, Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. During New Testament times and within Hebrew culture, 30 pieces of silver was not a large amount of money.
Thirty pieces of silver was the amount required for a person to pay a master if his slave was gored by a bull as Exodus 21:32 tells us, “If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay 30 shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull is to be stoned to death.” In other words, the price marked upon Jesus’ life was the same as a servant’s life.
The significance of the 30 pieces of silver was to first demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy of Zechariah 11:13, “And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ — the handsome price at which they valued me! So, I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.”
By Jesus fulfilling these prophecies in the Old Testament as well as many others, it verifies that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.
In addition to the 30 pieces of silver attesting to Jesus’ fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, it is also significant due to the fact that it demonstrates what a small amount of worth the Jewish leaders viewed Jesus as having.
Thirty pieces of silver was an extremely small sum of money, which shows that the Jewish leaders saw Jesus’ worth as being very minute.
Despite Jesus being literally God in the flesh, the Jewish leaders saw Him as nothing. Rather than viewing Him as the true Messiah, they chose to reject Him and ultimately kill Him.
Fulfilling Messianic Prophecy
As briefly mentioned, the significance of the 30 pieces of silver is that they fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Zechariah 11:13, Jeremiah 19:1-13, and Jeremiah 32:6-9 describe the prophecy of Jesus being sold for 30 pieces of silver, which Jesus fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-16.
Judas Iscariot is the person who betrays Jesus and hands Him over to the Jewish leaders. In exchange for handing over Jesus to them, the Jewish leaders pay Judas 30 pieces of silver.
Judas was the disciple in charge of the money; however, the Gospel of John tells us that Judas would often take money out of the money bag to keep for Himself (John 12:4-6).
Judas was a betrayer, liar, and thief. Jesus gave Judas numerous chances to repent, yet Judas chose to remain on his path of self-destruction. After Jesus had been falsely condemned to death, Judas felt remorse and went to return the 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 27:3).
Matthew 27:4 records Judas’ encounter with the Jewish leaders as he says, “‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’ ‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘That’s your responsibility.’ After the Jewish leaders had said this, Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver on the ground, left, and went away to hang himself” (Matthew 27:5).
With the 30 pieces of silver, the Jewish leaders decided to use the money to purchase the potter’s field as it was blood money, which meant it could not be placed in the treasury (Matthew 27:6-7).
The Jewish leaders were just as wicked as Judas. They wanted to keep the money and place it in the treasury for their own use, but since it was blood money, they couldn’t do this.
Since they could not do this, they bought the potter’s field to bury strangers in it. The Bible tells us that to this day, the field is called the Field of Blood (Matthew 27:8).
Jesus’ True Worth
Jesus’ worth far exceeds the 30 pieces of silver because He is our Lord and Savior. To try to downplay or undermine Jesus’ worth is a great sin and a huge problem. Jesus is the Name above all names as He is our Lord. He is God as Jesus is the second member of the Trinity.
Jesus is completely worthy of our praise and worship. During Jesus’ earthly life, the Jewish leaders rejected Him and hated Him. They saw Jesus as being nothing. The Jewish leaders were jealous of Him, and they wanted to kill Him out of jealousy, anger, and hate.
Even though the people hated Jesus, He still loved them. The Lord’s love extends forever, which means that Jesus' love even extends to those who have rejected Him. The Jewish leaders who placed 30 pieces of silver on Jesus’ head pushed His worth down to nothing.
Regardless of the small worth, the Jewish leaders placed on Christ, He places a large worth upon each of us. The Lord tells us we are each fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16).
In addition to being fearfully and wonderfully made, God made us in His Image (Genesis 1:27). This means that God has placed a large sense of worth on us.
The Lord has given us each inherited self-worth and as believers, we need to place a high emphasis on Jesus’ worth because He is God and He died for our sins.
Despite the Jewish leader's low view of Jesus’ worth by placing the amount of 30 pieces of silver on His head, Jesus’ worth is so much greater. In summary, the 30 pieces of silver were symbolic of the low view the Jewish leaders had on Christ.
Significance of 30 Pieces of Silver
The 30 pieces of silver were significant for two reasons. First, the 30 pieces of silver demonstrated how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah as found in the books of Zechariah and Jeremiah.
Second, the 30 pieces of silver also symbolize how low the Jewish leaders ascribed Jesus’ worth. They did not treat Jesus as the King He truly is, but rather, they treated Him as if He was a criminal and a wicked person.
The Lord was betrayed for 30 measly pieces of silver when He was the Savior of the world! Being betrayed in this way would have brought great pain to Jesus, yet He continued on with His mission to redeem the world from our sins.
Many people try to spectate on whether or not Judas repented or not after He betrayed Christ, but we don’t know for certain.
The Bible does tell us that he was filled with remorse (Matthew 27:3); however, we are not told if He accepted Christ or not. Jesus had to die in this way in order to fulfill the prophecies written about Him.
The Lord’s death was gruesome and filled with pain, grief, and agony, yet this was the way He was going to die for the sins of the world. As believers today, we can look back and worship Jesus for going to great lengths to redeem us from our sins.
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