Abraham received the
coins from Thares (i.e., Terah), and bought a
field with them from the people of Jericho;
Joseph was also purchased with them (” his
etiam Joseph est emptus ab Ismahelitis”); then
they came into Pharaoh’s treasury, and then into
the treasury of the Queen of the Arabs, who gave
them to Solomon. When Nebuchadnezzar pillaged
the Temple, he took them along to Babylon,
where they were given as pay to the soldiers of
the kingdom of Saba; the kings of Saba sent
them with the three Magi as a gift to Jesus.
During the Flight into Egypt, they were hidden in
a cave (according to the German version of the
legend, they were lost on the way to Egypt), and
then found by an Armenian astrologer, who gave
them to the Temple
In a 1968 article, Erica Reiner summarizes Godfrey of Viterbo’s story of the wanderings of Judas’ thirty pieces of silver: “Abraham received the coins from Thares (i.e., Terah), and bought a field with them from the people of Jericho; Joseph was also purchased with them (” his etiam Joseph est emptus ab Ismahelitis”); then they came into Pharaoh’s treasury, and then into the treasury of the Queen of the Arabs, who gave them to Solomon. When Nebuchadnezzar pillaged the Temple, he took them along to Babylon, where they were given as pay to the soldiers of the kingdom of Saba; the kings of Saba sent them with the three Magi as a gift to Jesus. During the Flight into Egypt, they were hidden in a cave (according to the German version of the legend, they were lost on the way to Egypt), and then found by an Armenian astrologer, who gave them to the Temple.”
Somehow, in the process, the silver turned to gold.
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