fees had to be paid, and he could be sure the intended sacrifice would not be rejected on the ground of possessing real or technical 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 "sons of Annas" 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 temple itself.
But traffic in sacrificial animals and sundry merchandise was not the only
way in which the courts of the temple were profaned. 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: During the Asmonean dynasty 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 but twice as thick. By the times of Jesus the priests had
also been exempted from the payment of temple dues. Accordingly, from the
15th to the 25th 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. At this time the Sanhedrin itself held its regular meetings in a chamber surrounded by all this babble and confusion of trade and barter.
