30 pieces of silver and Judas Iscariot

[MaryM]

I would like clarification and thoughts about Judas Iscariot and the sum of 30 pieces of silver. I am reflecting on Judas' motivation for betraying Jesus, whether the sum was worth it and how this terrible lesson can be applied to our lives. I mean if the sum had been far more, then money could be regarded as a chief motive. Iscariot couldn't have thought the matter through very well, so what was really in it for him? What made him hate Christ so much that he would do this thing?

In our lives we behave surely at times in a parallel manner. Betrayal of all kinds is often not for money but because of base emotions, resentment and jealousy.

 

[PaulThomson]

I found this sermon very informative on your question. What do you think?

 

[JohnDB]

I would like clarification and thoughts about Judas Iscariot and the sum of 30 pieces of silver. I am reflecting on Judas' motivation for betraying Jesus, whether the sum was worth it and how this terrible lesson can be applied to our lives. I mean if the sum had been far more, then money could be regarded as a chief motive. Iscariot couldn't have thought the matter through very well, so what was really in it for him? What made him hate Christ so much that he would do this thing?

In our lives we behave surely at times in a parallel manner. Betrayal of all kinds is often not for money but because of base emotions, resentment and jealousy.

Judas believed that the Son of God instituting the heavenly kingdom on Earth would make him wealthy.

So believing that endangering God's son with arrest and capital punishment would cause God to act and institute the kingdom at the same time.
He would be a hero by forcing God to act.

So....
We say that Judas never believed in Jesus....and it's true in a fashion but quite untrue mostly in direct truth.

When you see Jesus perform miracles and perform them yourself in his name....kinda hard not to believe that Jesus was God's Son. But that the New Covenant was going to have drastically different parameters and effects on our daily lives was completely lost on him. "A brotherhood of suffering " was not in his focus whatsoever.

"Let us do evil so good can result" is the epitome of lies and a path to eternal destruction.

 

[vassal]

There is an interesting prophecy about it in zechariah 11;

Zec 11:12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
Zec 11:13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

 

[vassal]

I cant remember where but i saw somewhere that the price of a slave at that time was 30 pieces of silver, to the priests, Jesus life had little value. The same of Judas who was a thief, he was in charge of the funds of the followers or Christ and he stole from it, he was a thief with no morals who loved money above all else.

Peace.

 

[FollowerofShiloh]

The majority of the Jews did not believe in a form of Messiah that took place 2,000 years ago. They believed the Messiah would be like how we know Jesus will be in His Second Coming, King of kings and Lord of lords. A Ruler, a King who destroys the enemies of the Jews. And when Jesus proved He was the Messiah but He came to also save the enemies of the Jews, the Gentiles, it made a lot of Jews angry. Angry enough to kill Jesus. But they did not know that was God's Plan the whole time. Jesus killed in His First Coming and then as King in His Second Coming.

 

[MaryM]

I cant remember where but i saw somewhere that the price of a slave at that time was 30 pieces of silver, to the priests, Jesus life had little value. The same of Judas who was a thief, he was in charge of the funds of the followers or Christ and he stole from it, he was a thief with no morals who loved money above all else.

Peace.

Interesting, where does it say he was a thief?

 

[MaryM]

The majority of the Jews did not believe in a form of Messiah that took place 2,000 years ago. They believed the Messiah would be like how we know Jesus will be in His Second Coming, King of kings and Lord of lords. A Ruler, a King who destroys the enemies of the Jews. And when Jesus proved He was the Messiah but He came to also save the enemies of the Jews, the Gentiles, it made a lot of Jews angry. Angry enough to kill Jesus. But they did not know that was God's Plan the whole time. Jesus killed in His First Coming and then as King in His Second Coming.

I do not know how it could be clearer that Jesus is who he says he is.

 

[vassal]

Interesting, where does it say he was a thief?

Hello Mary it is found in John 12;

Jhn 12:3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
Jhn 12:4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him,
Jhn 12:5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
Jhn 12:6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Peace

 

[JohnDB]

Interesting, where does it say he was a thief?

In John's Gospel.

 

[JohnDB]

I do not know how it could be clearer that Jesus is who he says he is.

Because....in the overall picture of Jesus....He was the least successful of the many "messiahs" running about at that time.
Jesus only had 200+ dedicated followers. The others had tens of thousands.
When Jesus said "drink my blood and eat my flesh" that turned off the thousands who might have followed him.

These false messiahs and followers all met up with the Roman army in the Judean wilderness and died.

There were many other things that Jesus did to make himself unpopular....literally cursing out their current religious heroes was not going to get him "Rabbi of the Year" award. Then there was the whole hand washing thing....they literally had to measure the amount of water and count the strokes for a proper handwashing. Jesus ignored the whole thing.

There was other things he did as well. Like tax collectors and sinners and Samaritans.

 

[LeeLoving]

Judas believed that the Son of God instituting the heavenly kingdom on Earth would make him wealthy.

So believing that endangering God's son with arrest and capital punishment would cause God to act and institute the kingdom at the same time.
He would be a hero by forcing God to act.

So....
We say that Judas never believed in Jesus....and it's true in a fashion but quite untrue mostly in direct truth.

When you see Jesus perform miracles and perform them yourself in his name....kinda hard not to believe that Jesus was God's Son. But that the New Covenant was going to have drastically different parameters and effects on our daily lives was completely lost on him. "A brotherhood of suffering " was not in his focus whatsoever.

"Let us do evil so good can result" is the epitome of lies and a path to eternal destruction.

Huh? I don't think a lot of the stuff you wrote is in the Bible.

 

[SomeDisciple]

I would like clarification and thoughts about Judas Iscariot and the sum of 30 pieces of silver. I am reflecting on Judas' motivation for betraying Jesus, whether the sum was worth it and how this terrible lesson can be applied to our lives. I mean if the sum had been far more, then money could be regarded as a chief motive.

We have to remember that Judas was also the ministry bagkeeper- essentially a treasurer. If Jesus turned out to be a false-messiah and his movement fell apart, Judas was probably going to keep all the money; not just the silver he got for trading in Jesus.

I think Judas joined Jesus' ministry thinking "this guy could be the messiah! I gotta get in on this!". But when Jesus started indirectly claiming divinity and then started talking about dying instead of taking over the world right away; he was like "whoa, he is gonna get himself and all of us killed... I need to save my own butt"- so he gave up Jesus to save himself from the sanhedrin/romans. I think he wanted to come down on the winning side; but he thought Jesus was going to lose.

Then the guilt and conviction settled in. Instead of asking for forgiveness, he killed himself.

 

[JohnDB]

Huh? I don't think a lot of the stuff you wrote is in the Bible.

You are correct that everything I said is not in scripture....because scriptures don't document every single detail....the reader is expected to know the "obvious" things.

The problem is that today none of it is obvious. Also the culture of the Ancient Near East is on the other side of the planet and very different from our Westernized Culture....and has matured differently. You likely have never lived in a highly patriarchal caste based society that was extremely legalistic. Spoken a completely metaphorical language....and witnessed Jewish life in its natural habitat.

The thing was that Judas came from a town called Iscariot...which was South West of Jerusalem. Meaning that it was of the tribe of Judah. His family and town would have definitely supplied Judas with all his financial needs as he studied under his Rabbi Jesus....and even more so due to his relating to them whom he believed Jesus to truly be. So Judas dipping into the money bag for money .....what for? What could he have really needed that required him to do so? (Nothing)

What would cause a person to even think that dipping into the money bag was acceptable behavior? How would a person license the enriching of themselves while doing ministry work today? (There are plenty of examples to choose from)

Judas himself was there when Jesus and Peter walked on water, the blind saw, the deaf mute spoke, Lazarus came back from the dead....during the "Sending of the 12" story Judas likely performed miracle healing himself....he had been there the whole 3½ years.

 

[LeeLoving]

You are correct that everything I said is not in scripture....because scriptures don't document every single detail....the reader is expected to know the "obvious" things.

The problem is that today none of it is obvious. Also the culture of the Ancient Near East is on the other side of the planet and very different from our Westernized Culture....and has matured differently. You likely have never lived in a highly patriarchal caste based society that was extremely legalistic. Spoken a completely metaphorical language....and witnessed Jewish life in its natural habitat.

The thing was that Judas came from a town called Iscariot...which was South West of Jerusalem. Meaning that it was of the tribe of Judah. His family and town would have definitely supplied Judas with all his financial needs as he studied under his Rabbi Jesus....and even more so due to his relating to them whom he believed Jesus to truly be. So Judas dipping into the money bag for money .....what for? What could he have really needed that required him to do so? (Nothing)

What would cause a person to even think that dipping into the money bag was acceptable behavior? How would a person license the enriching of themselves while doing ministry work today? (There are plenty of examples to choose from)

Judas himself was there when Jesus and Peter walked on water, the blind saw, the deaf mute spoke, Lazarus came back from the dead....during the "Sending of the 12" story Judas likely performed miracle healing himself....he had been there the whole 3½ years.

Ok, thanks for sharing. It seems like you're inferring things about Judas that someone couldn't know from the Bible though, which is dicey because what if you're wrong? Thanks again for sharing.

 

[JohnDB]

Ok, thanks for sharing. It seems like you're inferring things about Judas that someone couldn't know from the Bible though, which is dicey because what if you're wrong? Thanks again for sharing.

Again,
You are correct...it is dicey....
But let's challenge what I've said about Judas...
Is it teaching anything that goes against what we know plainly from scripture?

Are Judas's errors, as i have said them, known to be the wrong things to do?
Am I teaching a new doctrine of some sort?

Is what I've said very plausible?

This is what is known more commonly as "testing the spirits".

There are of course many wrong ways to extrapolate things from scriptures that go wildly off the beaten path. Have I done anything like that?

From the many famous pastors (who are always asking for money) could there be a reason why they don't teach this lesson about Judas? (Not that I begrudge pastors making a reasonable salary for their long work weeks...far from it)

There are many lessons that the scriptures explain that NEVER get taught from a pulpit...and the list of reasons are a laundry list long. But that's what a good independent study of the scriptures can do for a person...allow you to know for yourself what others won't teach you.
That's why it's good to have your own study Bible and a stack of reference materials like history and anthropology books that can help you with difficult and often untaught subjects like this.

Judas is one of those "uncomfortable" subjects for many pastors. He was one of the original 12. Thought to be one of the best of them as he was entrusted with the money bag. They all believed Judas to be very trustworthy....
Looked and acted like one of them....but was a devil the whole time with an agenda all of his own. Very uncomfortable subject indeed!

 

[LeeLoving]

Again,
You are correct...it is dicey....
But let's challenge what I've said about Judas...
Is it teaching anything that goes against what we know plainly from scripture?

Are Judas's errors, as i have said them, known to be the wrong things to do?
Am I teaching a new doctrine of some sort?

Is what I've said very plausible?

This is what is known more commonly as "testing the spirits".

There are of course many wrong ways to extrapolate things from scriptures that go wildly off the beaten path. Have I done anything like that?

From the many famous pastors (who are always asking for money) could there be a reason why they don't teach this lesson about Judas? (Not that I begrudge pastors making a reasonable salary for their long work weeks...far from it)

There are many lessons that the scriptures explain that NEVER get taught from a pulpit...and the list of reasons are a laundry list long. But that's what a good independent study of the scriptures can do for a person...allow you to know for yourself what others won't teach you.
That's why it's good to have your own study Bible and a stack of reference materials like history and anthropology books that can help you with difficult and often untaught subjects like this.

Judas is one of those "uncomfortable" subjects for many pastors. He was one of the original 12. Thought to be one of the best of them as he was entrusted with the money bag. They all believed Judas to be very trustworthy....
Looked and acted like one of them....but was a devil the whole time with an agenda all of his own. Very uncomfortable subject indeed!

I mean to be honest all I know about Judas that I know is the truth is what I've read about him in the Bible, I don't know if there is any other source about him that is trustworthy. I think testing the spirits means to literally test the spirits, lol. Sometimes I hear voices and things happen, I think that verse applies to those voices, but I've never really had an opportunity or need to test them I don't think. I mean the words are literally "test the spirits" what would it mean other than to test the spirits, lol.

 

[Nehemiah6]

I mean if the sum had been far more, then money could be regarded as a chief motive.

If that money was able to purchase a field, then it would have been worth a lot more than we imagine. Judas may have had several motivation, but it was Satan who was controlling him. Christ called him "a devil" and "the son of perdition" so there was a lot more to this than simply money,

 

[p_rehbein]

Why did Judas betray Jesus? It was a critical part of Gods Master Plan from the beginning.
Why did God choose Judas? IMO, because He knew the heart of Judas, and that he would be one willing to betray Jesus. That's just my opinion though....

 

[LeeLoving]

Why did Judas betray Jesus? It was a critical part of Gods Master Plan from the beginning.
Why did God choose Judas? IMO, because He knew the heart of Judas, and that he would be one willing to betray Jesus. That's just my opinion though....

I think Jesus wouldn't have had a hidden motivation like that. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, if he chose Judas because he knew he would betray him why wouldn't he take him aside at some point and say, "Judas, I chose you to be a an apostle of mine because you're going to betray me". I mean that would be the truthful thing to do instead of having him along the whole time not knowing that's why he was chosen. I think Jesus would have had a pure motivation and at the same time knew Judas would betray him, maybe knowing the whole time, or maybe not.