Thirty silver pennies in a fundamentally religious and Catholic work

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

For what it's worth, in The Return of the Shadow (HOME), an early draft of the scene where Merry is compensated for his ponies' loss has him receiving twenty silver pennies, 'less the cost of their food and lodging'. The price of the ragged beast bought in Bree was six.

That as opposed to LOTR, where Ferny's price was twelve, and Butterbur added another eighteen.

If thirty was really intended by Tolkien to mean something from the start, why the change?

Exodus 21:32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, its owner will pay the price -- thirty shekels -- to their master, and the ox will be stoned.

the pony Bill was a slave, wretched and ill-used. It is only natural that Samwise "stoned" the ox Bill Ferny with a well-thrown apple.

One can make any asinine allegory or allusion one wishes. If we're going to lift biblical passages and throw them against a wall to make them stick -- and it's entirely reasonable to think that Tolkien knew this passage -- it would seem that this line from Exodus is far better suited to make such an allusion, and more than likely just as wrong.