Hi,

What is the connection or significance between Joseph being sold for 20 pieces and Jesus being sold for 30 pieces of silver?

Gen 37:28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.
Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
Mat 26:15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

ybic,
T____

Hi T____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

What is the connection or significance between Joseph being sold for 20 pieces and Jesus being sold for 30 pieces of silver?

The first thing I will do is point out the spiritual significance of the three symbols of these two separate stories.
The first symbol is the silver itself. Silver spiritually signifies atonement or redemption. Here are just a few verses to make that point:

Exo 30:15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel [ of silver], when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. [ Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver]
Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
Mat 26:15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Here is the first link to a more in depth seven part study on this metal: http:// iswasandwillbe. com/ Base_ Metals_ In_ Scripture_ Silver_ A_ Neg. php
Two is the number which spiritually signifies witness, and three is the number which spiritually signifies the process of being judged.
See these links for more information on the spiritual significance of the numbers two and three. Here is the link for the number two:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ witness. php
Here is the link for the number three:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/ completion. php
So twenty and thirty, being multiples of two and three, are simply amplifications of those numbers, and will be shown to be just that in regards to your question about the spiritual significance of the twenty pieces of silver for Joseph, and the thirty pieces for Christ.
The Old Testament, from its very beginning, prophesied and witnessed to a time when God would dwell within mankind. At first He talked with mankind, and He was ‘in them’ only in the sense that he is in all things, but He did not “dwell with them” because their ‘heavens had not yet been cleansed, and they were not converted:

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves [ you and me] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The Old Testament, and all the events that took place in the Old Testament, simply witnessed to [ twenty witnesses to thirty] and are types of the spiritual judgment of this world within us as these clay vessels, which judgment did not even begin until after Christ came to judge this world:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

So the “judges” of ancient Israel had no way of judging according to the “but I say unto you” words of a ‘reformer’ they had never come to know and whose words they had never heard. Everything about the entire economy of ancient Israel was therefore nothing more than a type and a shadow; a witness to the coming words of Christ, and that is exactly what we are told:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

So that is why Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver. His story serves as a witness to, and a type of, Christ and His Christ.
On the other hand, this is why Christ, and we in Him as His Christ, are sold and crucified for thirty pieces of silver:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

There was no spiritual judgment, not spiritual grace, and there was no spiritual Truth in the law of Moses or in the Old Covenant. As the apostle Paul points out, if there were, “then Christ is dead in vain”.

Joh 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

So twenty pieces of silver for Joseph witness to the fact that a new covenant is coming, and the process of that judgment begins at the coming of Christ and His Truth (Jer 31:31; Joh 1:17), and thirty pieces of silver are the symbol of the beginning of that process of judgment.
I hope these scriptures serve to answer your question about the spiritual significance of 20 pieces of silver for Joseph and the thirty pieces of silver for Christ.

Your brother in the Christ,
Mike >