Matthew 26:15
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And said to them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And said to them, What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
American Standard Version (ASV)
and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
What will you give me, if I give him up to you? And the price was fixed at thirty bits of silver.
Webster's Revision
And said, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him to you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
World English Bible
and said, "What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?" They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
English Revised Version (ERV)
and said, What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they weighed unto him thirty pieces of silver.
Clarke's Matthew 26:15 Bible Commentary
Thirty pieces of silver - Τριακοντα αργυρια, thirty silverlings; but στατηρας, staters, is the reading of the Codex Bezae, three copies of the Itala, Eusebius, and Origen sometimes; and στατηρας αργυριου, silver staters, is the reading of the famous Basil MS. No. 1, in Griesbach, and one copy of the Itala.
A stater was the same as the shekel, and worth about 3s. English money, according to Dean Prideaux: a goodly price for the Savior of the world! Thirty staters, about 4l. 10s. the common price for the meanest slave! See Exodus 21:32. The rabbins say, thirty סלעין selain of pure silver was the standard price for a slave, whether good or bad, male or female. See tract Erachin, fol. 14, and Shekalim, cap. 1. Each selaa weighed 384 barley-corns; the same number was contained in a shekel; and therefore the shekel and the selaa were the same. See the notes on Genesis 20:16, and Exodus 38:24.
Barnes's Matthew 26:15 Bible Commentary
And they covenanted with him - Made a bargain with him.
Agreed to give him. Mark says they "promised" to give him money. They did not pay it to him "then," lest he should deceive them. When the deed was done, and before he was made sensible of its guilt, they paid him. See Matthew 27:3; Acts 1:18.
Thirty pieces of silver - Mark and Luke do not mention the sum. They say that they promised him "money" - in the original, "silver." In Matthew, in the original, it is thirty "silvers, or silverlings." This was the price "of a slave" (see Exodus 21:32), and it is not unlikely that this sum was fixed on by them to show their "contempt" of Jesus, and that they regarded him as of little value. There is no doubt, also, that they understood that such was the anxiety of Judas to obtain money, that he would betray his Lord for any sum. The money usually denoted by "pieces" of silver, when the precise sum is not mentioned, is a shekel - a silver Jewish coin amounting to about 50 cents, or 2 shillings, 3d. The whole sum, therefore, for which Judas committed this crime was 15, or 3 pounds, 7 shillings, 6d (circa 1880's).
Wesley's Matthew 26:15 Bible Commentary
26:15 They bargained with him for thirty pieces of silver - (About three pounds fifteen shillings sterling; or sixteen dollars sixty - seven cents,) the price of a slave, Exodus 21:32 .