complete verse (Matthew 26:15)

Following are a number of back-translations of Matthew 26:15:

  • Uma: “He said to them: ‘If I hand-over Yesus into your hands, what will you give me?’ They counted thirty silver coins and gave it to him.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “He said to them, ‘How much money will you give me if I hand over Isa to you.’ They paid him thirty pieces hard money, real silver.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “He said to them, ‘How much will you pay me if, through me, Jesus is handed over to you?’ And they counted out thirty pieces of silver, and they gave them to him.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “and he said, ‘How-much can you give-me -as-wages if I turn-over Jesus to you?’ And they counted-out thirty silver-coins as his wage.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “He said, ‘What will you give to me if I help you to arrest Jesus?’ He immediately had counted for him the sum of thirty in their money.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “He said: ‘How much money do you want to give me so that I will turn Jesus over to you?’ he said. The priests then gave him thirty monies of silver.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on Matthew 26:15

If I deliver him: the verb deliver (Good News Translation “betray”) is commented on at 4.12, where Revised Standard Version translates the passive form as “had been arrested.” Some translations have “help you arrest him” or “deliver him to you so you can arrest him.” Sometimes it is more natural to reverse the order of the sentence: “If I help you arrest Jesus, what will you give me?”

Since this is the opening of a new section, Good News Translation specifically identifies him as Jesus.

Paid (so also New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible) is translated by two verbs in Good News Translation: “counted … gave” The Greek verb itself has a number of different meanings, and it may possibly be used in the sense of “offered” or “agreed to pay” (Luther 1984; Phillips, Barclay “settled with … for”), as the New English Bible footnote indicates.

Only Matthew mentions thirty pieces of silver (Good News Translation “thirty silver coins”) as the price of betrayal. The amount is not significant, and it was probably determined by Zechariah 11.12 (“So they paid thirty pieces of silver as my wages”). According to Exodus 21.32, this is also the amount which the owner of a bull had to pay a person whose slave had been killed by the bull. One scholar notes that in New Testament times inflation was such that “the sum was worth only about a tenth as much.”

The amount of money given to Judas, thirty pieces of silver, was not in itself important, as we pointed out above, but there is some value in retaining the form, since it does tie this amount in with the Zechariah reference. Translators should not try to convert this to modern currencies such as pounds or francs, but if a literal translation is unacceptable, they can say “thirty pieces of money made from silver.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .