Jesus Cleansing the Jerusalem Temple: More Details to Learn and Meditate!

 Many of you might have heard or read the incident as given in a few passages in the gospels of the New Testament Bible that describe briefly about the public act of Jesus Christ in which he used some kind of physical force against the money changers and traders inside the Jerusalem temple. 

Is there a need to cleanse your temples now?

Many bible scholars and Christian theologians keep discussing this and giving us their views, versions and scholarly findings about this incident which is now well known as the act of cleansing of the temple.

As the gospel authors wrote about these from what they had learnt in later years, there could naturally be some mismatch here and there about the true nature of the incident, though the intentions of the biblical authors cannot be disputed.

But fortunately, now we have the detailed chronology of events written down for us by a more authoritative group of authors. When I read from this new book, I get the feeling of moving back in history to the times of when this incident really happened. 

According to this new book (my favorite book of life guidance) this incident happened on the Monday, the 3rd April, AD 30. 

For those of you who might be a little inclined to know more, I am reproducing* the relevant passages from this book with a little bit adaptation to render it somewhat simplified:

Early on this Monday morning, Jesus and the apostles assembled at the home of Simon in Bethany, and after a brief conference they started their journey to Jerusalem. The twelve were strangely silent as they journeyed on toward the Jerusalem temple; they had not recovered from the experience of the preceding Sunday when Jesus surprised them by riding the donkey on the streets. They were expectant, fearful, and profoundly affected by a certain feeling of detachment growing out of the Master’s (Jesus’) sudden change of tactics, coupled with his instruction that they were to engage in no public teaching throughout this Passover week.

It was about nine o’clock on this beautiful morning when these men arrived at the temple. They went at once to the large court where Jesus so often taught, and after greeting the believers who were awaiting him, Jesus mounted one of the teaching platforms and began to address the gathering crowd. The apostles withdrew for a short distance and awaited developments.

A huge commercial traffic had grown up in association with the services and ceremonies of the temple worship.

There was the business of providing suitable animals for the various sacrifices. Though it was permissible for a worshiper to provide his own sacrifice, the Jewish religious customs required that this animal must be free from all defects.

This was to be certified by and interpreted by official inspectors of the temple.

Many times worshippers had experienced the humiliation of having their supposedly perfect animal rejected by the temple examiners. It therefore became the more general practice to purchase sacrificial animals at the temple, and although there were several stations on near-by Olivet where they could be bought, it had become the accepted practice to buy these animals directly from the temple’s own animal shelters.

Gradually there had grown up this custom of selling all kinds of sacrificial animals in the temple courts. An extensive business, in which enormous profits were made, had thus been brought into existence. Part of these gains was reserved for the temple treasury, but the larger part went indirectly into the hands of the ruling high-priestly families.

This sale of animals in the temple prospered because, when the worshiper purchased such an animal, although the price might be somewhat high, no more fees had to be paid, and he could be sure about the intended sacrifice not getting rejected on the ground of possessing any blemishes. At one time or another, systems of exorbitant overcharge were practiced upon the common people, especially during the great national feasts. At one time the greedy priests went so far as to demand the equivalent of the value of a week’s labor for a pair of doves which should have been sold to the poor for a few pennies. The kin of the high priests had already begun to establish their bazaars in the temple precincts, those very merchandise marts which persisted to the time of their final overthrow by a mob three years before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple some years later.

But trading in sacrificial animals and sundry merchandise was not the only way in which the courts of the temple were corrupted.

At this time there was fostered an extensive system of banking and commercial exchange which was carried on right within the temple precincts.

And this all came about in the following manner: The Jews coined their own silver money, and it had become the practice to require the temple dues of one-half shekel and all other temple fees to be paid with this Jewish coin.

This regulation necessitated that money-changers be licensed to exchange the many sorts of currency in circulation throughout Palestine and other provinces of the Roman Empire for this orthodox shekel of Jewish coining.

The temple head tax, payable by all except women, slaves, and minors, was one-half shekel, a coin about the size of a ten-cent piece (that existed in the US in the early 1920s) but twice as thick. By the times of Jesus the priests had also been exempted from the payment of temple dues. Accordingly, from the 15^th to the 25^th of the month preceding the Passover, accredited money-changers erected their booths in the principal cities of Palestine for the purpose of providing the Jewish people with proper money to meet the temple dues after they had reached Jerusalem.

After this ten-day period these money-changers moved on to Jerusalem and proceeded to set up their exchange tables in the courts of the temple. They were permitted to charge the equivalent of from three to four cents commission for the exchange of a coin valued at about ten cents, and in case a coin of larger value was offered for exchange, they were allowed to collect double. Likewise did these temple bankers profit from the exchange of all money intended for the purchase of sacrificial animals and for the payment of vows and the making of offerings.

These temple money-changers not only conducted a regular banking business for profit in the exchange of more than twenty sorts of money which the visiting pilgrims would periodically bring to Jerusalem, but they also engaged in all other kinds of transactions pertaining to the banking business. Both the temple treasury and the temple rulers profited tremendously from these commercial activities. It was not uncommon for the temple treasury to hold upwards of ten million dollars while the common people languished in poverty and continued to pay these unjust levies.

In the midst of this noisy aggregation of money-changers, merchandisers, and cattle sellers, Jesus, on this Monday morning, attempted to teach the gospel of the heavenly kingdom. He was not alone in resenting this profanation of the temple; the common people, especially the Jewish visitors from foreign provinces, also heartily resented this profiteering desecration of their national house of worship.

As Jesus was about to begin his address, two things happened to arrest his attention. At the money table of a near-by exchanger a violent and heated argument had arisen over the alleged overcharging of a Jew from Alexandria.  At the same moment the air was filled by the bellowing of some one hundred bullocks that were being driven from one section of the animal pens to another.

To the amazement of his apostles, standing near at hand, who refrained from participation in what so soon followed, Jesus stepped down from the teaching platform and, going over to the lad who was driving the cattle through the court, took from him his whip of cords and swiftly drove the animals from the temple. But that was not all; he strode majestically before the wondering gaze of the thousands assembled in the temple court to the farthest cattle pen and proceeded to open the gates of every stall and to drive out the imprisoned animals.

By this time the assembled pilgrims were electrified, and with uproarious shouting they moved toward the bazaars and began to overturn the tables of the money-changers. In less than five minutes all commerce had been swept from the temple. By the time the near-by Roman guards had appeared on the scene, all was quiet, and the crowds had become orderly.

Jesus, returning to the speaker’s stand, spoke to the multitude: “You have this day witnessed that which is written in the Scriptures: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers.’

But before he could utter other words, the great assembly broke out in hosannas of praise, and presently a throng of youths stepped out from the crowd to sing grateful hymns of appreciation that the profane and profiteering merchandisers had been ejected from the sacred temple. By this time certain of the priests had arrived on the scene, and one of them said to Jesus, “Do you not hear what the children of the Levites say?” And the Master replied, “Have not you ever read, ‘Out of the mouths of babies had praise been perfected’?” 

And all the rest of that day while Jesus taught, guards set by the people stood watch at every archway, and they would not permit anyone to carry even an empty vessel across the temple courts.

When the chief priests and the scribes heard about these happenings, they were dumfounded.

All the more they feared the Master, and all the more they determined to destroy him. But they were perplexed. They did not know how to accomplish his death, for they greatly feared the people, who were now so outspoken in their approval of his overthrow of the profane profiteers.

And all this day, a day of quiet and peace in the temple courts, the people heard Jesus’ teaching and literally hung on his words.

This cleansing of the temple discloses the Master’s attitude toward commercializing the practices of religion as well as his disapproval of all forms of unfairness and profiteering at the expense of the poor and the unlearned.

This episode also demonstrates that Jesus did not look with approval upon the refusal to employ force to protect the majority of any given human group against the unfair and enslaving practices of unjust minorities who may be able to entrench themselves behind political, financial, or religious power.

Shrewd, wicked, and designing men are not to be permitted to organize themselves for the exploitation and oppression of those simple kind of good, peace loving people.

My dear reader, did this narrative give you any impetus for learning more? 

[* From Paper-173 of the Urantia Book]