TEXT [Commentary]

C. Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus (26:14-16; cf. Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6)

14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.

NOTES

26:14-16 How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you? This passage returns to the betrayal narrative of 26:1-5. It supplies the missing link to the leaders’ plan (cf. Mark 14:10-11; Luke 22:3-6). Now they need not wait until after the Passover festival is concluded to arrest Jesus (26:47ff). With Judas’s aid, they could apprehend him privately without inciting a riot among the people. Prior to this point, Judas was mentioned only in 10:4, where his name occurs last in the list of disciples with the qualifier “who later betrayed him.” Matthew makes it clear that Judas initiated the betrayal by going to the chief priests seeking money. See John 12:6 on Judas’s theft from the disciples’ funds.

thirty pieces of silver. The price paid to Judas for the betrayal was thirty silver shekels. In Exod 21:32 this is the price to be paid to the owner of a slave gored by an ox. Zech 11:12-13 speaks sarcastically of this amount of money. Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Midianites for twenty shekels (Gen 37:28). A shekel was evidently worth four denarii, so thirty shekels would be around four months wages for a day laborer. This sum is not insignificant but is rather paltry compared with the value of the ointment used by the woman to anoint Jesus.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Judas was a pathetically and enigmatically evil person (26:24; John 17:12), and the motivation for his betraying Jesus is one of the more inscrutable matters in the Bible (Davies and Allison 1997:451-452). Some believe he took this action out of greed, since Judas asked how much the leaders would pay him (cf. 6:19-21, 24). He was disgusted at the waste of money when Jesus was anointed with the expensive perfume by the woman at Bethany (cf. John 12:4-6). Others theorize that Judas was looking for a military-political type of Messiah and had become disillusioned when Jesus’ spiritually-oriented message was not widely received, especially by the leaders of Israel. Perhaps both greed and disillusionment were involved; greed drove Judas to betray Jesus when he realized that Jesus was not a militaristic Messiah. Luke 22:3 and John 6:70; 13:2 cite satanic influence behind Judas’ action. Blomberg (1992:387) is probably stretching things a bit in suggesting that Judas had perhaps committed the unpardonable sin (12:32), since there is no reason to suppose Judas attributed Jesus’ miracles to the power of the devil. In any event, Judas sold out Jesus, later regretted doing so, and committed suicide (27:3-5).

The allusion to Zechariah 11:12-13 is subtle but important in that it connects Judas’ betrayal to OT prophecy and thus supports the idea in Matthew 26 that God is in control of all the Passion week events, even the betrayal of Jesus (26:18, 31, 54, 56). This profound matter deserves reflection (cf. Acts 2:23; 4:27-28). Every follower of Jesus should also reflect on the monstrous treachery of Judas and grieve with the original disciples that one of the Twelve could betray the Lord (26:22).