Did Judas betray Jesus for money? It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to go back in time to discover the precise intentions of Judas Iscariot, but we can do something else, namely, examine the price he asked for the betrayal of Jesus. Was this betrayal worth it?
How much is the 30 silver worth. What is written in the Gospel of Matthew
It is written in the Bible that one of the twelve apostles, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said to them, “What will you give me, and I will give it into your hands? they agreed on 30 pieces of silver. ” (Matthew 26: 14-15)
There are several hypotheses. One of them states that the money used to make the payment to Judas was Roman denars. A Romanian soldier received 225 Romanian denars a year. By comparison, a modern U.S. Army soldier earns about $ 25,000 a year. If we follow this interpretation, it turns out that Judas would have received the equivalent of $ 3,000 in modern money.
On the other hand, some researchers say that we could take the example of the Book of Exodus, where 30 silver would be the price of a slave.
Based on these interpretations, Judas received a value that could have ranged from $ 90 to $ 3,000, depending on the value of money in the modern era.
One theory holds that Judas was paid in shekels, not in denars. The shekel was the coin used in Jesus’ day to pay for the entrance to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The entrance fee was half a shekel and was paid by all Jewish men who were at least 20 years old. The researchers say that this tax was the equivalent of two working days.
According to simple calculations, it is observed that 30 shekels would be the equivalent of 4 monthly salaries.
Depending on the country where you live, you can calculate for yourself the value of 4 average net salaries in your country. For example, if the average net salary in a country is $ 1,000, Judas would have earned $ 4,000, according to calculations.
