Taking the pieces of silver may need to be expressed as “picked up (or, gathered) the pieces of silver.”

The treasury the priests referred to was the Temple treasury, the financial resources of the Temple. If there is no good direct translation, translators may have to use a short description, such as “put it with the money that belongs to the Temple.”

The them refers to the pieces of silver, but it is sometimes more natural to say “this money.”

Good News Translation inverts the order of the two clauses contained in the dialogue of the chief priests, thereby allowing the causative clause since they are blood money to come first. This results in a more logical and more easily understood arrangement.

Good News Translation retains the literal phrase blood money because of the anticipated play on words (see “Field of Blood” in Matthew 27.8). However, for many languages it will be impossible to speak meaningfully of blood money. One may then wish to translate the phrase otherwise (for example, “money received because a person was killed” or “the price of a man’s life,” as in Barclay) and follow it with a footnote, indicating the play on words. The principle referred to by the priests probably derives from Deuteronomy 23.18, which forbids that money earned through prostitution be accepted in the Temple treasury. Here the law is expanded to include any “unclean” money.

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 .