Reference: Piece of silver
Smith
Piece of silver.
I. In the Old Testament the word "pieces" is used in the Authorized Version for a word understood in the Hebrew (if we except)
The phrase is always "a thousand," or the like, "of silver."
Ge 20:16; 37:28; 45:28; Jg 9:4; 16:5; 2Ki 6:25; Ho 3:2; Zec 11:12-13
In similar passages the word "shekels" occurs in the Hebrew. There are other passages in which the Authorized Version supplies the word "shekels" instead of "pieces,"
De 22:19,29; Jg 17:2-3,4,10; 2Sa 18:11-12
and of these the first two require this to be done. The shekel, be it remembered, was the common weight for money, and therefore most likely to be understood in an elliptical phrase. The "piece" or shekel of silver weighed 220 grains, or about half an ounce, and was worth a little more than half a dollar (55 cents). II. In the New Testament two words are rendered by the phrase "piece of silver:"
1. Drachma,
Lu 15:8-9
which was a Greek silver coin, equivalent, at the time of St. Luke, to the Roman denarias (15 or 16 cents).
2. Silver occurs only in the account of the betrayal of our Lord for "thirty pieces of silver."
It is difficult to ascertain what coins are here intended. If the most common silver pieces be meant, they would be denarii. The parallel passage in Zachariah,
must, however, be taken into consideration where shekels (worth about 55 cents) must be understood. It is more probable that the thirty pieces of silver were tetradrachms than that they were denarii (80 cents).
See Verses Found in Dictionary
He said to Sarah: Do not forget that I have given your brother twenty-five pounds of silver. This is to silence any criticism against you from everyone with you. You are completely cleared.
Some of the Midianite traders approached. The brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites. They took him to Egypt.
He said: Now I can believe you! My son Joseph must really be alive. I will get to see him before I die.
They will fine him a hundred shekels of silver. They will give it to the girl's father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. She will remain his wife. He may not divorce her all his days.
The man who has sex with her must give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she will become his wife because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.
They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith. Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men to join him.
The five Philistine kings said to her: Entice Samson into telling you why he is so strong and how we can overpower him. Tie him up, and make him helpless. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
He said to his mother: When someone stole those eleven hundred pieces of silver from you, you put a curse on the robber. I heard you do it. Look, I have the money. I am the one who took it. His mother said: Jehovah blesses you. He gave the money back to his mother. She said: To keep the curse from falling on my son, I myself solemnly dedicate the silver to Jehovah. It will be used to make a wooden idol covered with silver. Now I will give the pieces of silver back to you. read more. He returned them to his mother. She took two hundred of the pieces of silver and gave them to a metalworker. The metalworker made an idol, carving it from wood and covering it with the silver. It was placed in Micah's house.
Micah said: Stay here with me. Be my adviser and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year along with some clothes, and your food.
Threaten the beast that is among the cattails, the herd of bulls with the calves of the nations, until it humbles itself with pieces of silver. Scatter the people who find joy in war.
So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.
I said to them, If it is good in your sight give me my wages, if not forget it. So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
I said to them, If it is good in your sight give me my wages, if not forget it. So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter, the amount they paid me. I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in the house of Jehovah.
Jehovah said to me, Throw it to the potter, the amount they paid me. I took the thirty pieces of silver, and threw them to the potter, in the house of Jehovah.
Moses and Elijah appeared, and they were talking to him.
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces. They were very afraid.
When they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone what they saw, until the Son of man has risen from the dead.
He asked them: What are you willing to give me to deliver him to you? They paid him thirty pieces of silver.
Suppose a woman with ten silver coins loses one of them. What does she do? She lights a lamp and sweeps her house. She looks carefully everywhere until she finds it. When she finds it she calls her friends and says let us celebrate. I am happy I found the lost coin.