Not a thread about religion, just historical/monetary commentary. This just occurred to me: Judas played snitch/informant,selling Jesus for the infamous 'thirty pieces of silver'. The identity of the silver in question was not recorded but has been speculated as the Tyrian Shekel. http://archaeology.about.com/od/biblicalarchaeology/ig/Dead-Sea-Scrolls/Tyrian-Shekel.htm Each Shekel weighs approximately 14 grams (0.45 troy ounce) and is known to be ~95% purity (archeological assay of dug-up coins). Approximately 13.5 ounces of silver. So Judas betrayed Jesus for about... approx. US$506...wouldn't pay for a family's fortnightly groceries today. Assuming silver maintained it PPP over 2200 years, would've been worth about the same back then too. Don't know what any of you think about Jesus, but seems awfully low to sell out someone you followed - for years. EDIT: Performed arithmetic incorrectly due to writing that part at 0545. Edited conclusions altered by this. EDIT2: Constant PPP assumption throughly tranced (mining tech. > low supply > high value), it doesn't seem like a lowly sum to sell out for anymore.
It think the amount he asked for was because upon one of the collections they recieved 30 pieces of silver. Judas wanted to keep and use it to change the hearts of man, Jesus told him they did not need silver to change the hearts of man and told him to give it all to the poor, which he did with resentment.
Not sure how you come up with 77.9 oz of silver. 30 pieces of silver @ 14 grams works out at less than 14 ozs This guy really sold out cheap.
And now Lady Gaga is singing songs of praise for Judas ! How strange and disgusting ! - and i am not even Christian.
Lady Gaga is a skank. Her popularity is a further sign that the world has gone to hell in a hand basket.
I think you'll find in some other parts of the new testament which relates this story, that an arable farm could be purchased for 4 pieces of silver. That would mean that 30 pieces of silver could buy 7 farms with change left over. If you consider what 7 farms is worth today (assume a farm to be 1-4 acres) then you'll realise that the sum wasn't so paltry after all.
Anything remotely related to Lady Gaga is disgusting -_- Never understood why crap like that gets popular or mainstream, sheeple ffs!
Not a lot has come out from the discovery on the dead sea scrolls and the panel that was nominated have been strangely silent since. There are allegations of infighting and controversy. There are also claims of the finding of the Gospel of Judas and Mary Magdalene. There is a suggestion that Judas did not betray Jesus as we are lead to believe. Judas was thought to be Jesus' best friend and that he was asked to do this by Jesus as a delliberate act in order to "free the spirit from the flesh". Controversial i know.
All the documents are out and its been published - no in fighting no nothing - dead sea scrolls are all out and available to read in english. As for the gospel of judas etc, nobody really considers them authentic except guys who are not schollars or internet nuts. The value is the historical snap shot of what was going round. Some one jibed to me once Judas invested in silver, and thats such bull dust, he was a theif and stole money from the group's purse, but it wasnt his idea to betray Jesus for money, it was offered and he said yes. He really betrayed Jesus because he was disilusioned and felt lied to by Jesus, Judas knew he was the messiah, but judas wanted Jesus to be a conquering messiah not a suffering servant. But yeah silver to a pesant at that time would have been worth more to them back then. Coin was the currency of people who had wealth to store. But coin could be taxed so, many people invested in spices, purfumes etc - to 'hide' their savings.
Yeah, he really did sell out cheap. Prov. 28:21 "To show partiality is not good, but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong."
Lady Gaga is about as un-mainstream as it gets. She came out of nowhere and had a style unique to her self. And this coming from a pop-music hater! Atleast she is original and not scared to have a go at those who need it!
The prophet Joseph ( son of Jacob (pbut)) was fished out of a well and sold for a paltry sum of silver coins to merchants on the way to Egypt.
I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Israel, and even went to see where they were found (at the Dead Sea). Amazing preservation of original manuscripts. Fantastic historical evidence. You can view them here: http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html
How about the story of Jack and the beanstalk ?. It teaches our kids that its is alright to steal gold if you think you can get away with it. Or is that just merely called bartering up lolz.
jack sells "sacrifices" a cow and goes up into the sky to the land of the giants - steals gold from one of them who wants to eat him for dinner a condensed version of human history and the annunaki right there
According to the bible: Judas didn't ask for 30 pieces silver, he asked the religious leaders and the high priests "what will you give me for turning him over?" and they agreed on 30 silver pieces. So it seems he may not have had an amount in mind. You could say, he was flexible.
30 Shekels 14 grams a piece = 420 grams or around 13.5 ozt = todays money $472 but in ancient terms 6 grams (1 Dinarius) a day was the salary for a Roman guard or legionnaire so that equates to 70 days pay. However....that was considered a fortune back then. Silver currency only existed to serve the elite military of the day. Can you imagine using 70 days pay ($18K) to buy three houses in Sydney, a new luxury car & a private education for the kids ?
