ACC ~ Matthew 26 v15 - 16

THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER

ORIGEN: Let us consider what Judas said to the Jewish priests: “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?” He was willing to take money in exchange for handing over the Word of God. They do the same thing who accept sensual or worldly goods in exchange for handing over and casting out from their souls the Savior and Word of truth who came to dwell with them. Indeed, it would be fitting to apply Judas’s example to all who show contempt for the Word of God and betray him, as it were, by committing sin for the sake of money or for any selfish motive. People who behave in this way appear openly to be calling out to the powers of the enemy who offer worldly gain in return for the sin of betraying God’s Word, saying, “What will you give me if I hand him over to you?”

“And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.” The number of coins they gave Judas was equivalent to the number of years the Savior had sojourned in this world. For at the age of thirty, he was baptized and began to preach the gospel, like Joseph was thirty years old when he began to gather grain for his brothers. [1] Just as at that time the grain was prepared by God for the sons of Israel but given also to the Egyptians, so also the gospel was prepared for the saints but preached also to the unfaithful and wicked. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 78. [2]

[1] Gen 41:46. This is the partiarch Joseph, with reference to the events recounted in Genesis 41—50. The connection is explained by the fact that Joseph was, among the figures of the Old Testament, one of those considered a symbolic and prophetic prefigurement of Christ.

[2] GCS 38.2:187-88.

WHAT WILL YOU GIVE ME?

CHRYSOSTOM: The Romans had set the Jews over the people in order that they should provide for their good order. [1] But by this time the Jews were becoming insurgent. Their government was now undergoing a change according to prophecy.

To these priests Judas went “and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him to you?’ And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.” Judas was by now afraid of the multitude and desired to seize him alone.

O madness! The covetousness of Judas altogether blinds him! He had often seen Jesus when he went through the midst and did not betray him. Jesus had afforded many demonstrations of his Godhead and power, and no one had laid hold on him. Even at the supper Judas did not cease to talk with him and receive his care. This could have put an end to his evil thought. But all this profited nothing. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 80.3. [2]

[1] Luke 22:4 says that Judas went to the priests and the stratēgoi, a term that here signifies the heads of the Jewish people in general terms. Chrysostom uses the term in the sense that these men would have been identified by the Romans.

[2] PG 58:727; NPNF 1 10:482.

THE OPPORTUNITY TO BETRAY

ORIGEN: “From then on he sought an opportunity to betray him.” Luke’s Gospel shows most clearly the kind of opportunity for which Judas was looking when it says, “And he sought an opportunity to betray him in the absence of the crowds,” [1] that is, when the people were not with him but when he was alone with his disciples. His betrayer did the deed after supper, when Christ was alone in the garden of Gethsemane. For once Judas reached his agreement with the Jews, he determined that his opportunity would come when Jesus was not with the crowds. Notice how even today the betrayers of Jesus Christ, Word of truth and Word of God, see their best opportunity to hand him over at a time when Christians are being persecuted. … They are at their worst when the number of his faithful is at its fewest. And since there is a time for all things, for Solomon said “there is a time to be born and a time to die,” [2] the time for betraying the Word of truth was specifically when very few of the faithful were with Christ. COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 78. [3]

[1] Lk 22:6.

[2] Eccles 3:2.

[3] GCS 38.2:188.