They Sold Me Out

Does this song have an anti-semitic reference? Why “shekels”?

Why shekels? Because Christ was “sold out” for a few silver shekels to Judas Iscariot, one of his closest friends, one of the twelve apostles. Van Morrison often includes references to Christianity in his lyrics.

In this case I think he is drawing a comparison of himself, being sold out by friends and record companies, to Christ being sold out by Judas.

Listen to a Van Morrison song like “Big Time Operators” and you get a sense of his dislike for the sleaziness in the music industry.

In his song “New Biography” Van grumbles about “so called friends who claim to have, known me”. He’s always complaining about inaccurate newspaper stories and unauthorized biographies that get the facts wrong.

“They Sold Me Out” could also be referring to these so called friends that have profited by saying that they “knew” Van Morrison. Who knows.

I think that it is wrong to suggest that the song is anti-semitic because it uses the word “shekels”.

There are a number of references to jesus in the lyric. After he was crucified the romans divided up Jesus’ robes by casting lots. The greatest story ever told was a movie about jesus. “My own people did it to me probably refers” to the pharisees tricking to mob into calling to Pilate for the execution of jesus. He probably used shekels rather than “pieces of silver” for the sake of the meter.

I did a Google on this song because I did get an anti-semitic feel from it. Perhaps Van is just using this as a metaphor for his own situation, as suggested above. I can see how one could find the tune somewhat offensive due to the heavy use of shekels in the lyrics. Just my take on the tune.

George wrote this song in reference to the capture and murder of Christ… then the theft of his personal belongings by the very people who vowed to follow and love Him. His reference to Shekels is made, since one of the forms of currency, at that time, was a shekel.

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