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

“Although I am rather hungry, and you have, after all, just sold a memento of my childhood for thirty pieces of silver, so to speak.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

“Yes, sold, your honour, for the thirty pieces of silver, like Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brethren.”

From Hansford: A Tale of Bacon's Rebellion by Tucker, St. George

Then Judas cast the thirty pieces of silver over the marble floor, and fled from the place.

From Child's Story of the Bible by Lathbury, Mary A. (Mary Artemisia)

He did not remember that five hundred years before the prophet Zechariah had written, "So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver."

From Child's Story of the Bible by Lathbury, Mary A. (Mary Artemisia)

Benedict Arnold suggested Judas Iscariot and the thirty pieces of silver given him, and therefore the value of the coin which he received as reward.

From A Man's Value to Society Studies in Self Culture and Character by Hillis, Newell Dwight