Thirty Pieces of Silver
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Zech. 11:12–13; Matt. 26:15)—the price for which Judas agreed to betray Christ. Matthew deliberately relates the sum to Zechariah’s contemptuous valuation of the rejected shepherd. The coins were probably silver shekels, each equivalent to four drachmas, although the Gospel itself does not name the denomination. Obsolete nineteenth-century conversions into Russian currency are omitted.