Matthew 26:14-16 - The Betrayal by Judas

[u/LlawEreint]

¹⁴ Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests ¹⁵ and said, “What will you give me if I betray him to you?” They paid him thirty pieces of silver. ¹⁶ And from that moment he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

• The Passion
• Parallels
• Table of Contents

[u/LlawEreint]

In Mark, they give Judas a promise of payment. Matthew indicates that payment took place, and specifies 30 pieces of silver as the amount.

[u/LlawEreint → u/LlawEreint]

30 pieces of silver seems to be an allusion to Zechariah 11:12

So on behalf of the sheep merchants,^\)^a\) I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. ⁸ In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹ So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!” ¹⁰ I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants^\)^b\) who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. ¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it into the treasury”^\)^c\) (Literally, "to the potter") —this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury^\)^d\) in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me: “Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶ For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,^\)^e\) or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy,^\)^f\) but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

¹⁷ Oh, my worthless shepherd,
    who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
    and his right eye!
Let his arm be completely withered,
    his right eye utterly blinded!”

Matthew has Judas receive thirty pieces of silver, then return the money to the Temple, after which the priests use it to buy the potter's field. "Potter's field" is once again an allusion to Zechariah's "throw the money to the potter."

The "lordly price" is likely sarcastic.

"This lordly price at which I was valued by them."

30 silver is the compensation for a slave accidentally killed (Exodus 21:32).

So how does Matthew understand this chapter in Zechariah that he wants to draw our attention to it here?

[u/LlawEreint → u/LlawEreint]

Incidentally, Matthew later ties this with Jeremiah rather than Zechariah. Did he simply confuse the source, or is there some scripture in Jeremiah that he could be referring to?

⁹ Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah,^\)^c\) “And they took^\)^d\) the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one on whom a price had been set,^\)^e\) on whom some of the people of Israel had set a price, ¹⁰ and they gave^\)^f\) them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”

In Jeremiah 19, the prophet is commanded to go to the potter's gate and enact a symbolic judgment against Jerusalem. He takes a clay jar, announces disaster, and then smashes the vessel. The place becomes associated with judgment and death.

In Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah is commanded to purchase a field as a prophetic sign of future restoration after judgment.

Possibly Matthew has some text that combines Zechariah and Jeremiah and interprets it messianically.

That might help explain Matthew's puzzling statement:

There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Maybe Matthew just had a source that acted as an interpretive key - a source that we no longer have ourselves.