Please help me understand this...

[patlao]

Hello can anyone please help me understand any Hebraic context/background/culture about this verse.

Matthew 21

v12 "Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out all the people buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves.

v13 He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

My questions are?
1. What is Yeshua's reason why He drove all the people who are buying and selling animals if it is the custom of jew that time?
2. Why is there money changers? Are they different to those who sell doves?
3. I understnad this happened in the temple if this are in the temple is it true that the Pharisees using it for business?
4. Is it true that when people give their sacrifices to the temple and when the Pharisees check it and received it they returning it to be sold again so that they have portion of the sold animals?
5. What is meaning when Yeshua said this qouted from Jeremiah 7:11
"...but you have turned it into a den of thieves!”

Thank you so much in advance for helping me to understand this passage! Shalom!

[alon]

John gives a bit more information:

John 2:13-17 (ESV) The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Psalm 69:9 (YLT) For zeal for Thy house hath consumed me, And the reproaches of Thy reproachers Have fallen upon me.

“Zeal for your house will consume me.” That explains why He did it. Also note that He took the time to find materials and then fashion a scourge, or whip. This was premeditated, not just a fit of anger.

Next we need to deal with the misconception that the Pharisees were in charge. They were not. The Sadducees, though a far smaller party were backed by the Romans, and they were the ruling party in the Temple. It was also they, not the Pahrisees who had Jesus killed. Jesus Himself was a Rabbi, which means He was a Pharisee. All the arguments He had with Pharisees were in-house arguments. At that time one did not argue religion and politics (which were one and the same then) with others outside your own sect. There was no point, as they had their rules and you sect had their own. The Pharisees get a bad rep because of those arguments, but this is one of the sad misunderstandings we were left with from a church that was for the most part willfully ignorant when it came to things Jewish.

Livestock for sacrifices were supposed to be sold in the Court of the Gentiles only, not in the Temple proper (another common misunderstanding) nor in the main courtyard. We are not told anywhere I am aware of whether they had spread out and encroached where they should not. However since Passover was close at hand, there would have been many more there, so that is a possibility; but it would be unfounded speculation to say it was so. However from what Jesus did we can surmise that the moneychangers and sellers were making obscene profits. And that would be a problem.

Talmud, treatise Shekalim: "It is an affirmative precept of the law, that every Israelite should give half a shekel yearly: even the poor, who live by alms, are obliged to this; and must either beg the money of others, or sell their clothes to pay half a shekel; as it is said, 'The rich shall give no more, and the poor shall give no less.’" … "They sat in the cities, with two chests before them; in one of which they laid up the money of the present year, and in the other the money of the year past. They sat in the Temple with thirteen chests before them; the first was for the money of the present year; the second, for the year past; the third, for the money that was offered to buy pigeons," &c. They called these chests trumpets, because, like trumpets, they had a narrow mouth, and a wide belly.” … "How much is that gain? At that time when they paid pence for the half shekel, a kolbon [or the fee that was paid to the moneychanger] was half a mea, that is, the twelfth part of a penny, and never less. But the kolbons were not like the half shekel; but the exchangers laid them by themselves till the holy treasury were paid out of them.”

So the money for the Temple went in a chest, but the payment to the moneychangers was laid on the table. When Jesus overturned the tables then, the money for the Temple was not spilled, only that of the moneychangers. The half-shekel for the Temple was for maintenance, and did not go to the priests.

The sellers of sacrifices and the moneychangers, when they were dealing fairly provided a service. This way no one had to bring their own sacrifice from all over Israel. They bought it there, at the Temple. And the moneychangers were like agents of the Temple, contracted out to collect the Temple Tax, and probably exchange money, or break large coins into smaller denominations so the people could conduct business. I am not absolutely sure what all their function was. However had these men been conducting their business fairly and by the rules of the Temple, then a fair Messiah would not have driven them out. Apparently they were not, because He said they had turned His Father’s House into a den of thieves.

If I understand what you are saying in question #4, the answer is no. Again, the Pharisees were not in charge, but they did have priests in Temple service. Had anyone been doing that, it would have been told both to the Beit Din (ruling body, judges) and probably to the people.

Hope that helps.

Dan C 

[patlao]

Wow, this is so clear and enlightening Thank you so much I learned a lot. Thank you I really appreciate the hebraic context of the passage this explains very well. Thank you so much for the answer


Shalom!