Munster in 30 Artworks, No 24: The Judas Coin (Dekadrachm of Syracuse), Limerick
Munster in 30 Artworks, No 24: The Judas Coin (Dekadrachm of Syracuse), Limerick
Most people know Judas Iscariot as the poster boy for betrayal. In the last week of Jesus’s life, after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Judas arranged with the authorities that he would give him away by kissing his cheek in the garden at Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Jesus was consequently seized by an angry mob, charged with subversion and masquerading as a king, and sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Judas’s betrayal was all the more shocking as he was one of the twelve apostles, and had long been one of Jesus’s closest followers. According to the Gospel of Matthew, he was paid thirty pieces of silver for his duplicity. However, he was soon filled with remorse, and returned the reward before dying by suicide. The authorities considered it inappropriate to return the blood money to the treasury, using it instead to purchase the Potter’s Field, where strangers whose bodies went unclaimed would henceforth be buried.
