page_title: Thirty pieces of silver
section_title: Relics and depiction in art
hierarchical_section_title: Thirty pieces of silver / Relics and depiction in art
context_page_description: Thirty pieces of silver was the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, according to an account in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15 in the New Testament. Before the Last Supper, Judas is said to have gone to the chief priests and agreed to hand over Jesus in exchange for 30 silver coins, and to have attempted to return the money afterwards, filled with remorse.
  The Gospel of Matthew claims that the subsequent purchase of the Potter's field was fulfilment, by Jesus, of a prophecy of Zechariah.
  The image has often been used in artwork depicting the Passion of Christ. The phrase is used in literature and common speech to refer to people "selling out", compromising a trust, friendship, or loyalty for personal gain.
context_section_description: Judas is often shown in narrative scenes from the Passion holding the silver in a bag or purse, where they serve as an attribute to identify him.  As one of the "Instruments of the Passion" the Thirty Pieces by themselves often feature in groups of the Instruments, especially in the late Middle Ages, although they are one of the less commonly chosen elements of the group.  Sometimes a money bag is used in depictions; otherwise a hand holding the coins, or two hands, showing the counting-out.
  A number of "Judas-pennies", ancient coins said to be from the original thirty, were treated as relics in the Middle Ages, and were believed to help in difficult cases of childbirth.  As a minor component of the Instruments, and one whose survival was hard to explain given the Biblical account of the use of the money, the relics, and their depiction in art, both appear from the 14th century, later than more important elements like the Crown of Thorns or Spear of Longinus.  This was as a result of new styles of devotions, led by the Franciscans in particular, which promoted  contemplation of the Passion episode by episode, as in the Stations of the Cross.  The stone on which the coins were said to have been counted out was in the Lateran Palace in Rome.
  A Syracusan decadrachm held at the Hunt Museum, Limerick is one such coin claimed to be one of the thirty: inscribed on the mount is Quia precium sanguinis est (Latin: "This is the price of blood").
caption: Rembrandt's Judas Returning the Thirty Silver Pieces, 1629.
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