Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Matthew 26:15

"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." — Matthew 26:15 (ASV)

In Judas’s view Jesus was acting less and less regal and more and more like a defeatist on his way to death. Judas may also have been smarting from Jesus’ rebuke over the anointing of the woman as recorded in Jn 12:4–8. He therefore approaches the “chief priests” with an offer to hand Jesus over. They “counted out for him thirty silver coins,” calling to mind Zec 11:12, to which Matthew will return in 27:3–10. In Zec 11, thirty pieces of silver is a paltry amount—the value of a slave accidentally gored to death by an ox (Exodus 21:32). That Jesus is lightly esteemed is reflected not only in his betrayal but also in the low sum agreed on by Judas and the chief priests.