thirty pieces of silver

Cultural  

1. The money Judas Iscariot received for betraying Jesus to the authorities. He later threw the money into the Temple of Jerusalem (see also Jerusalem), and the chief priests bought the “potter's field” with it, to be used as a cemetery for foreigners.

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“Thirty pieces of silver” is also used proverbially to refer to anything paid or given for a treacherous act.

This money is referred to as “blood money” — money received for the life of another human being.

Example Sentences

His early masterpiece, Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver of around 1629, for example, communicates the physical burden of treachery in horrifying terms: clothing rent in desperation, scalp bleeding after a violent fit, hands clasped in agony, body contorted in humiliation and despair.

From Salon

He said the mob chanted, “Thirty pieces of silver, thirty pieces of silver,” a reference to the amount Judas Iscariot was supposedly paid to betray Jesus.

From Washington Post

“Whether it's thirty pieces of silver or a seven-figure book advance for you, your publicist, your ghost-writers and others, all that’s changed is this book deal and her being fired, so I think he probably feels very betrayed.”

From Washington Post

His decision to use a syncopated beat on tracks such as Little Honey, They Got to Go and Thirty Pieces of Silver is credited as pivotal in ska music's development and he gave himself the moniker "King of Ska".

From BBC

The same radical syncopation was used on many of the other tracks, including classics such as Little Honey, Humpty Dumpty, They Got to Go and Thirty Pieces of Silver.

From The Guardian