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JESUS THE MESSIAH |
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His Life and Times |
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No. 38 The Cleansing of the Temple
It has been said that Mary sort-of understood, but did not really understand Jesus. There seems fresh evidence that immediately after the marriage of Cana, she and the disciples either went with Him, or followed Him, to Capernaum. This city ultimately became 'His own city' during His stay by the Lake of Galilee. We don't know if He went back to Nazareth. It may have been that His brothers joined Him in Capernaum, while His sisters were probably married and may have remained at Nazareth. We know much about Capernaum from New Testament history, and also from the writings of Josephus, the historian. There were many vile insinuations made about it by the Rabbis that connected the city with heresy. This was probably pointing to the Christianity that had sprung up there because Jesus had a marvelous ministry there and did many miracles. At the time Jesus lived there, the city was probably pretty new. We know from antiquity that its synagogue had only been built a short while before He got there. Already it had become an important city, though, and had a garrison of soldiers there to protect it from attack. The city was situated on the Sea of Galilee, and had beautiful weather. One could see the snow-capped Mount Hermon in full view in the north from a distance. The land was very fertile there, with the plain of Gennesaret close by for different kinds of agriculture. There was also a lively spring which came from the Nile, and it was abundant with fish. All of these things must have made Capernaum one of the most delightful places in that area. The Rabbis called it 'Gardens of Princes.' The town lay on the northwest shore of Galilee, only two miles from where the Jordan River came into the lake. The Lake itself was about 12 miles long and 6 miles across. It was 600 to 700 feet below the level of the Mediterranean and was prone to sudden violent storms because of the terrain on either side of it. It was somewhere here that Jesus miraculously fed the five thousand. It was on this lake that Jesus calmed the ferocious storm that almost sunk the boat of the disciples. He also came to them walking on the water at a different time. Capernaum was nestled in a bay along the Sea. There were more than seventeen bays that stretched along a distance of six miles in that immediate area. It is sad to think that all its houses, shops, and industries are gone. Now there is scarcely one stone left standing on another to show where the once bustling city was. Everything is in ruins except the white Synagogue in which Jesus taught. There is enough of it left to measure its dimensions and trace its fallen pillars. This time, though, Jesus was only in the city for a few days. The Passover had already started in Jerusalem and He needed to be there. It is thought that this Passover must have taken place in the spring (about April) of 27 A.D. The preparations for it had started a month before, with the roads and bridges being repaired and the sepulchres being whitened so that the pilgrims would not accidentally makes themselves unclean as they were going to get purified. Many of the people also would select this one out of the three great annual feasts for the tithing of their flocks and herds. This had to be done two weeks before the Passover, so the roads had to be ready for all the heavy traffic. Then there was the appearance of the 'money-changers'. They opened their stalls on the 15th of Adar, which was a month before the feast. There is no doubt that they were given the authorizations that they needed to open their businesses. They set up early because all Jews and proselytes, with the exception of women, slaves and minors, had to pay the annual Temple-tribute which was half a shekel. This was considered a sacred standard and everyone just knew what they had to do. Many of the priests claimed exemption from the tax on the grounds that according the Leviticus 6:23 every offering of a priest was ordered to be burnt, and not eaten. The Temple-tribute offerings were paid for as the two wave loaves and shewbread, and were afterwards eaten by priests. Hence, they argued that their payment would be incompatible with the Scriptures on the matter. The Temple-tribute had to be paid in exact half-shekels of the Sanctuary, or ordinary Galilean shekels. The money-changers really had to be proficient in their work, because at this time there were many different types of money that were being circulated - Palestinian silver and copper coin, Persian, Tyrian, Syrian, Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman. They set up their stalls from the 15th to the 25th of Adar in all the towns in the country outside of Jerusalem. Then on the 25th, the pilgrims started coming into the city of Jerusalem and the stalls in the country were closed. After the 25th, the money-changers set up their stalls within the precincts of the Temple. Everybody except priests that refused to give their money, brought in their goods that were to be sacrificed. The money-changers made their fare by having a fixed charge for changing out the different kinds of money. A person got a break on the extra charge if they were paying for a poor person that could not otherwise pay the money. This must have brought them immense revenue, because not many of the people had the exact coin that was needed for the occasion. Also, a vast number of Jews from other countries came to Jerusalem during the feast, and we can probably assume that they did not have the right kind of money with them. There were also many things that one needed to buy that were needful for the feast. A fair estimate of the vast money that exchanged hands at this great feast was that the annual Temple Tribute bought in about 75,000 £ and the money changers received around 8,000 to 9,000 £. (There is no longer the money currency of the pound, because now it is called Euro. According to the exchange rate today, the Temple Tribute would amount to $95,241.28 in Dollars, and the share of the money-changers would have been up to $11,429.07.) There would have at all times been extreme wealth in the treasury of the Temple, but at feast times it would have been even greater. One can imagine that it must have been bedlam around the Temple area. There was the weighing of the coins brought, deductions for loss of weight, and probably much arguing, disputing, and bargaining going on so that the average person did not feel that he had 'been taken' by the money-changers. When Jesus made His accusations against them, it was the terrible truth that they had made His Father's House just a place of business. Through the hands of the money-changers would also pass the immense votive offerings of foreign Jews to the Temple. In fact, they probably translated all business matters connected with the Sanctuary at this time of the Great Feast. It is hard for us to imagine the vast amount of wealth that would have been in the Temple-treasury. We can get some idea about it, that even when there had been earlier attacks with money gotten from the Temple, the value of the gold and silver which Crassus (54 BC) carried from the Temple-treasury amounted to the enormous sum of two and a half millions sterling. It is not known whether the Temple money-changers transacted other banking business, such as loans or bank drafts. All these were common transactions at the time, but we don't know if they did these transactions in the Temple during the feast times. The continuation of this subject will be in the next text. For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site www.cathydeaton.com There are other articles of interest there also. This text has been taken from the book Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah written by Alfred Ederhseim. This book has been used by permission.
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