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
and to Sarah he hath said, 'Lo, I have given a thousand silverlings to thy brother; lo, it is to thee a covering of eyes, to all who are with thee;' and by all this she is reasoned with.
And Midianite merchantmen pass by and they draw out and bring up Joseph out of the pit, and sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty silverlings, and they bring Joseph into Egypt.
and Israel saith, 'Enough! Joseph my son is yet alive; I go and see him before I die.'
and fined him a hundred silverlings, and given to the father of the damsel, because he hath brought out an evil name on a virgin of Israel, and she is to him for a wife, he is not able to send her away all his days.
then hath the man who is lying with her given to the father of the damsel fifty silverlings, and to him she is for a wife; because that he hath humbled her, he is not able to send her away all his days.
and they give to him seventy silverings out of the house of Baal-Berith, and Abimelech hireth with them men, vain and unstable, and they go after him;
and the princes of the Philistines come up unto her, and say to her, 'Entice him, and see wherein his great power is, and wherein we are able for him -- and we have bound him to afflict him, and we -- we give to thee, each one, eleven hundred silverlings.'
and he saith to his mother, 'The eleven hundred silverlings which have been taken of thine, and of which thou hast sworn, and also spoken in mine ears; lo, the silver is with me, I have taken it;' and his mother saith, 'Blessed is my son of Jehovah.' And he giveth back the eleven hundred silverlings to his mother, and his mother saith, 'I had certainly sanctified the silver to Jehovah, from my hand, for my son, to make a graven image, and a molten image; and now, I give it back to thee.' read more. And he giveth back the money to his mother, and his mother taketh two hundred silverlings, and giveth them to a refiner, and he maketh them a graven image, and a molten image, and it is in the house of Micah.
And Micah saith to him, 'Dwell with me, and be to me for a father and for a priest, and I give to thee ten silverlings for the days, and a suit of garments, and thy sustenance;' and the Levite goeth in.
Rebuke a beast of the reeds, a company of bulls, With calves of the peoples, Each humbling himself with pieces of silver, Scatter Thou peoples delighting in conflicts.
And I buy her to me for fifteen silverlings, and a homer and a letech of barley;
And I say unto them: 'If good in your eyes, give my hire, and if not, forbear;' and they weigh out my hire -- thirty silverlings.
And I say unto them: 'If good in your eyes, give my hire, and if not, forbear;' and they weigh out my hire -- thirty silverlings. And Jehovah saith unto me, 'Cast it unto the potter;' the goodly price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty silverlings, and cast them to the house of Jehovah, unto the potter.
And Jehovah saith unto me, 'Cast it unto the potter;' the goodly price that I have been prized at by them, and I take the thirty silverlings, and cast them to the house of Jehovah, unto the potter.
and lo, appear to them did Moses and Elijah, talking together with him.
While he is yet speaking, lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and lo, a voice out of the cloud, saying, 'This is My Son, -- the Beloved, in whom I did delight; hear him.' And the disciples having heard, did fall upon their face, and were exceedingly afraid,
And as they are coming down from the mount, Jesus charged them, saying, 'Say to no one the vision, till the Son of Man out of the dead may rise.'
'What are ye willing to give me, and I will deliver him up to you?' and they weighed out to him thirty silverlings,
'Or what woman having ten drachms, if she may lose one drachm, doth not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and seek carefully till that she may find? and having found, she doth call together the female friends and the neighbours, saying, Rejoice with me, for I found the drachm that I lost.