What is the coin of Judas's 30 pieces of silver

[lim]

I recently brought up articles and there are different versions everywhere regarding Judas's 30 pieces of silver in the Bible. These include literally any coin of large denomination. And your opinion is interesting. What kind of coin could it be? In the photo, I will present the types that are considered for this role in various articles.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[lim]

One more question. Why are the articles often considered for the role of 30 pieces of silver Judas- tetradrachms of Ptolemy and Athens? These coins were issued much earlier.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[Ocatarinetabellatchitchix]

These were POSSIBLY 30 silver shekels minted in Tyre. This sum appears to show the chief priests’ contempt for Jesus, since under the Law, it was the price of a slave. (Ex 21:32). A shekel equaled 11.4 g (0.367 oz t).

[lim]

I think Judas would be afraid to take the reward for betrayal with temple money.

[CPK]

As @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, the Tyrian shekel (4th coin you posted, with the eagle and club) is the likeliest candidate. At least one scholar even posited that the later issues were actually struck in Jerusalem, though I don't think this theory has wide acceptance.

I've never seen an argument for the Ptolemaic or Athenian coins.

[lim]

And if we take Octavian's Antioch stater?

[lim]

In fact, the main transactions were carried out in Jerusalem with Roman coins. And the Tyre shekel was used in the main temple. And Judas bought the land with this money.

[lim]

What kind of money was the main one in market relations? If we take drachmas, they were inferior in weight to the same staters and tetradrachms.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[kirispupis]

As others have already stated, the text simply states that 30 pieces of silver were used, this being a very popular coin in the area at that time. This was the price of a slave so were this a Roman denarius (which were also common at the time), it would have required 120 of them.

For that reason, it's generally accepted in numismatics and biblical scholarship that the Tyre shekel was used, and coins dated to that time sell for significantly more.

Of course, you can speculate all you want and it's completely impossible to know the coin for sure, but you're not going to get farther than the many research papers already written on this very subject.

[lim]

We all collect coins, but it’s interesting to speculate about the market economy of those years. What went where. How did the local Jews earn their salaries? What kind of money were they paid with?

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[lim]

For example, these coins were used to collect taxes from the population. That's why Jesus didn't love this money. Can someone tell me how the relationship between local money and Roman money was?

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[Sulla80]

1 hour ago, lim said:

For example, these coins were used to collect taxes from the population. That's why Jesus didn't love this money. Can someone tell me how the relationship between local money and Roman money was?

There was an interesting transition happening during this period at the end of 1st century BC and beginning of the 1st Century AD as Rome (dominant across the Mediterranean) transitioned from Roman Republic to Roman Empire. 

For a thorough answer see the book that @DonnaML recently highlighted on NF: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DK8T9MXD.  Here's a quick quote regarding coins of the Eastern regions in 2nd to 1st century BCE.

 

 

Edited December 8, 2024 by Sulla80

[ominus1]

...well, those kind of questions are best answered by an expert of such things...(this guy has the bill for the last supper for sale)

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Ancient historians were notorious for being vague about coin denominations, as well as for exaggerations.

[Roman Collector]

The word used in Matthew 26:15, ἀργύρια, simply means "silver coins", and scholars disagree on the type of coins that would have been used. Donald Wiseman, in Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology, suggests two possibilities. They could have been tetradrachms of Tyre or staters from Antioch with the head of Augustus. 

Edited December 8, 2024 by Roman Collector
I have OCD

[lim]

29 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

Слово, использованное в Евангелии от Матфея 26:15, ἀργύρια, просто означает «серебряные монеты», и учёные расходятся во мнениях относительно того, какие именно монеты использовались. Дональд Уайзман в «Иллюстрациях из библейской археологии»предполагает два варианта. Это могли быть тирские тетрадрахмы или статеры из Антиохии с изображением головы Августа.

Is this a coin like that? Antioch of August.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[CPK]

27 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

The word used in Matthew 26:15, ἀργύρια, simply means "silver coins", and scholars disagree on the type of coins that would have been used. Donald Wiseman, in Illustrations from Biblical Archaeology, suggests two possibilities. They could have been tetradrachms of Tyre or staters from Antioch with the head of Augustus. 

I've always understood that one reason the Tyrian shekel is preferred over the Syrian Tetradrachm is that the shekel's silver purity was much higher, and met (or at least came the closest) to the purity requirements for temple offerings as prescribed in Jewish law.

For my part, I'm willing to accept the consensus of most scholars and consider the Tyrian shekel to be the coin far most likely to have been paid to Judas Iscariot as recorded in the Gospels.

[lim]

The question is, was temple money used outside the temple? After all, Judas made a big purchase with this money.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[kirispupis]

3 minutes ago, lim said:

The question is, was temple money used outside the temple? After all, Judas made a big purchase with this money.

This wasn't minted as "temple money". It was minted for commercial and (likely) military purposes and just happened to have been the (we believe) preferred coinage for temple taxes as well. There was nothing holy about this coinage to the general public.

[lim]

Once I read an article and it indicated that they were the temple money. And the money changers exchanged Roman coins for temple money. I don't remember what the article was called.

[lim]

If they were, as you claim, not temple ones, then their meaning would be absent. After all, Roman money was running in parallel on the territory of Israel. And they did all the calculations.

Judea was the only province of the Roman Empire that was allowed to mint its own coins. However, with certain restrictions: the natives could only mint shekels — special religious money. The fact is that Roman coins had pagan images, which, according to the Jewish faith, cannot be brought into the Temple. And offerings should be made. Therefore, the Levites (Jewish priests) asked Rome for the right to print their coin. Don't think the worst, gentlemen, we don't want to undermine the empire's currency monopoly at all! Exclusively for religious purposes!.. Rome, which had never planted its cult of Jupiter in the conquered territories and generally pursued a very mild religious policy towards the provinces, allowed it. And Judea began to mint shekels.

Sickles were sold right at the entrance to the Temple on changing tables. (It was them that Christ destroyed.) It was a hefty coin — 1 shekel was equal to 20 denarii. Every adult Jew was obliged to donate half a ruble to the temple at Easter.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[CPK]

27 minutes ago, lim said:

The question is, was temple money used outside the temple? After all, Judas made a big purchase with this money.

According to the gospel accounts, Judas didn't buy anything with the money. Matthew tells us that he experienced remorse almost immediately for what he had done and returned the money to the priests and elders:

"Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that [Jesus] was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned...and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and...bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in." (Matthew 27:3-7, KJV)

[lim]

Of course, I would like to have all possible types of Judas's 30 pieces of silver in the collection.

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[lim]

There is such a coin in the form of a silver piece of Judas in the Hunt Museum in Ireland. But it is not clear what this coin has to do with Israel?

Edited December 8, 2024 by lim

[kirispupis]

22 minutes ago, lim said:

If they were, as you claim, not temple ones, then their meaning would be absent. After all, Roman money was running in parallel on the territory of Israel. And they did all the calculations.

Judea was the only province of the Roman Empire that was allowed to mint its own coins. However, with certain restrictions: the natives could only mint shekels — special religious money. The fact is that Roman coins had pagan images, which, according to the Jewish faith, cannot be brought into the Temple. And offerings should be made. Therefore, the Levites (Jewish priests) asked Rome for the right to print their coin. Don't think the worst, gentlemen, we don't want to undermine the empire's currency monopoly at all! Exclusively for religious purposes!.. Rome, which had never planted its cult of Jupiter in the conquered territories and generally pursued a very mild religious policy towards the provinces, allowed it. And Judea began to mint shekels.

 

I suggest that you review each sentence of the above and consult the bountiful literature online concerning its veracity.

At this point, your statements made without reference to the standard numismatic literature, then your refutations when others on this forum attempt to help you with answers, border on the behavior of a standard troll. It's certainly possible that you're just curious, so in that case I suggest you search for the subject at https://www.academia.edu/ and https://www.jstor.org/, where the papers are less likely to be biased.

Shekels of Tyre are certainly fascinating coins, and a great deal of literature already exists that concerns them. I look forward to your scholarship in the area once you're fully acquainted with the vast amount of existing research.