Judas betrayed Jesus for “thirty pieces of silver.”

Quick Scoop

  • The Gospel of Matthew says Judas agreed to hand Jesus over for 30 silver coins.
  • Many scholars think these were likely Tyrian silver shekels , high‑purity silver coins used in the temple.
  • A rough modern estimate (just on metal value) puts that at around a few hundred US dollars , often cited at about 340 dollars , though this is debated.
  • Symbolically, 30 pieces of silver matched the price of a slave in Old Testament law, emphasizing that Jesus was treated with contempt and “undervalued.”

A bit of story flavor

In the narrative, Judas goes to the chief priests and asks what they will give him if he hands Jesus over; they settle on the thirty pieces of silver. Later, filled with remorse, he tries to return the money and throws it into the temple, and the priests use it to buy the “potter’s field,” remembered as the “Field of Blood.”

So in today’s discussions and forum threads, when people ask “how much did Judas betray Jesus for,” the direct answer is: 30 pieces of silver , a relatively modest amount in economic terms, but loaded with symbolic weight as the “price of betrayal.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.