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Mary's expensive perfume vs Judas' 30 pieces of silver

tonychanyt

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John 12:

3 Then Mary took about a pint of expensive perfume, made of pure nard, and she anointed Jesus’ feet and wiped them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.
Matthew 26:

14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
How many pieces of silver were Mary's expensive perfume worth?

The following is from Hold To The Rod:

The perfume was worth quite a bit more than 30 pieces of silver (assuming Judas' appraisal of its value was in the right ballpark).

We aren't told what type of silver coin was used to pay Judas - let's consider 4 options:

A day's wages were roughly 1 drachma (~4.3 grams of silver)

  1. Tyrian shekel: 14 grams = 3.26 day's wages. Multiplied by 30 shekels = 98 day's wages
  2. Antioch stater: 15 grams = 3.49 day's wages. Multiplied by 30 staters = 105 day's wages
  3. Ptolemaic tetradrachm: 13.5 grams = 3.14 day's wages. Multiplied by 30 tetradrachms = 94 day's wages
  4. Athenian tetradrachm: 17.2 grams = 4 day's wages. Multiplied by 30 tetradrachms = 120 day's wages
Even if Judas was paid in the most valuable of the four, the Athenian tetradrachm, his fee for betrayal was only about a third the value of the perfume, which would have been worth:

  • ~91 pieces of the same silver coin if we use 365 day's wages
  • 75 pieces of the same silver coin if we use 300 day's wages (implied but not explicitly stated by the Greek, indicating "300 denarii")

Coin conversions from Wikipedia
 

FenderTL5

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One of my favorite juxtapositions, it takes place the evening, Holy Tuesday during the Orthodox Holy Week.

"She rejoiced in emptying out that which was precious, he hastened to sell Him, Who was above all price.."
HolyTuesday.jpg
 
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