Why were there money changers in the Temple?
Pastors often declare these people were making an outrageous profit by selling sacrifices in the Temple, on the analogy of the vendors at an airport or sports arena. Since they had a captive market, they were free to price-gouge. However, “There is no evidence the animal merchants and money-changers or the priestly authorities who allowed them to use the outer court were corrupt companions in graft” (Carson, John, 179). While Jesus calls the Temple a “den of thieves” in the Synoptic gospels (Matt 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46), that is not the charge here. Jesus cites Scripture to condemn the merchants in the Temple courts, but it is not because of excessive profiteering.
The term used in John 2:14-15 is ἱερόν and refers to the whole Temple complex, while the word used in John 2:19 is ναός, referring to the Temple building. The sellers are not “in the Temple” since they would have no access beyond the Court of the Men. Selling was restricted to the court of the Gentiles, a much larger area. Köstenberger therefore suggests the main point of Jesus’s attack is that the sellers were taking up the only area of the Temple where the Gentiles could worship (Köstenberger, John, 106). I am not sure how many Gentiles came to Passover to worship and not is certain the sellers took up the entire area, The Court of the Gentiles was 300×450 meters (slightly less than 1000×1500 feet for the American reader); larger than the size of four football fields. Was the whole area one gigantic flea-market? This seems unlikely, although at Passover the area would have been extremely crowded.
Jesus disrupts the sellers by overturning tables and driving animals away. He “pours out” the coins, using the verb ἐκχέω, normally associated with the pouring out of blood during a sacrifice (in the LXX, Exod 25:6, for example). In Rom 3:15, for example, Christ’s blood is poured out for us, but in Acts 2:17-18, 33 and Titus 3:16 the Holy Spirit is “poured out” on God’s people.
He makes a whip and drives animals out of the court. Since the Temple authorities did not permit weapons in the Temple courts, this is an improvised whip. Jesus used the whip to drive animals, not the merchants. Raymond Brown suggested Jesus made the whip from rushes used for bedding animals.
To explain his actions, Jesus alludes to several texts from the Hebrew Bible in his condemnation of the sellers in the Temple (Zech 14:21, Mal 3:1, 3, Psa 69:9). Jesus quotes Psalm 69:9, “zeal for the house of the Lord” in order to explain his violent response and the defilement. (See this post on the meaning of zeal in the New Testament.)
The allusion to Zech 14:21 is more subtle. In the coming eschatological age, the Temple will be either rebuilt or purified and there will be no need for “merchants.” Several observations are important for understanding Jesus’s allusion to this text. First, Zechariah has the future restored Temple in mind, not the present “second Temple.” All the nations will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. Second, word translated “merchants” in Zechariah 14:21 could be translated as “Canaanites” (as in the NIV 2011, but not the ESV). The name Canaanite means something like merchant and in the verse’s context it seems likely the original point was there will be no need to sell sacrificial animals since every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be equally pure as the Temple Mount. Third, this is the final line of the prophecy of Zechariah, it is the “finale” of his prophecy of the coming ideal age. Canonically, Malachi 3:1-3 is not far removed from this text in the Hebrew Bible.
By alluding to these verses, Jesus is announcing the beginning of the new age of the Messiah. The vendors must leave the Temple since the time is coming when they will not be needed. Jesus’ action at (a coming) Passover will solve the problem of sin and render these sacrifices superfluous.
Jesus is not condemning the Temple or the sacrificial system in this protest, he was looking forward to a coming time when the Temple will be ultimately purified, when all of Jerusalem and Judah are “holy to the Lord. The object of this action in the Temple authority which condoned (and perhaps profited) from economic activity in the Temple courts.
If I am right here, then Jesus’s actions are similar Jeremiah 7. The prophet protests against a dangerous misunderstanding of the Temple. And like Jeremiah, the Temple aristocracy will pay close attention to Jesus as a threat to the central symbol of Jewish faith in the first century.
But is there an economic edge to this protest? Beyond the theological symbolism, does Jesus have something to say about the use and abuse of money at the Temple? What are some contemporary ramifications of Jesus’s condemnation of the money changers in the Temple?
What about the capitalization of the silver shekel?
I think there is also something more to the idea and reality of “The Lord [who] Is There.” (Ezk. 48:35)
Brandon, I am not sure what you are talking about, since the Jews were not permitted to mint their own coins. They did so during the revolt, but that is not until 66, and to be honest, I am not sure that they did mint coins during that revolt. I am pretty sure the coins I have seen are form the Bar Kokhba revolt, AD 132-135.
What were you thinking of? (By the way, great to hear from you, even if it is a cryptic comment on shekels!)
P Long, I love you sir. I’m glad to hear from you. My response comes from an sweet documentary called The Money Masters: How International Bankers Gained Control of America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXt1cayx0hs (*see minute 11:00 in video). My fiance’ said she also herd from a sermon that the king had built his house next to the temple and his pagan “influence” had crept into the temple?…this is such an interesting passage. Btw is this your blog?
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Jesus attack me when i met him and he hurt me and some angels did too
Today we had an auction in our gym which is attached to the sanctuary. A person questioned, ” isn’t. this buy and selling in the temple and isn’t it forbidden”.
While I agree that a large part of the temple clearing had to do with Gentile worship and the prophetic allusion that Jesus will be the future temple, I also believe that the economic edge had a part in it as well. Jesus says the money changers made it a “den of thieves” (Mark 11:17), certainly invoking the idea that there is something economical going on in this situation. Kostenberger says “in part, Jesus is opposing the subversion of religious worship into commerce” (Kostenberger, 61). I don’t believe Jesus’ problem was so much that they were overcharging temple worshipers for their sacrifices, but rather that the Temple was selling anything at all. The bringing of a sacrifice to the temple was a huge part of Jewish tradition and was necessary for a Jew to be in right relations with God. A Jew would have to find a spotless lamb, perfect in every respect, and since these sheep were considered perfect, they were wanted for reproduction purposes. It cost a lot for a Jew to have to give up something that they want and give it to God, what it means to sacrifice something. When they introduced the selling of sacrifices in the Temple, it took away much of the heart behind the sacrifice; it became something that they did because it was tradition, rather than being an act of worship that the giver was sacrificing they wanted. It doesn’t carry the same weight or meaning when it becomes convenient for you.
Another large reason for Jesus’ righteous anger was the injustice to the Gentiles that came to worship. God said that “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7). The temple was just as much a place of gentile worship as it was Jewish worship. But the money changers made it more difficult for Gentiles to worship in the temple. These merchants were set up in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place in the temple Gentiles were allowed to enter. To have the commotion of merchants trying to sell sacrifices going on around you as you pray and worship God would make it very difficult to do so. Kostenberger says that it was turning “the temple into a Jewish nationalistic stronghold, where Gentile worship was obstructed rather than facilitated and encouraged” (Kostenberger, 61). Instead of trying to foster an atmosphere where Gentiles could worship God in a proper way, they effectively destroyed any chance at creating that kind of relationship with them. And it is not like the Gentiles could worship elsewhere because the temple was considered the only place that proper worship could occur, and that court was the only place they could go. So the merchants in the temple went against God’s desire for His temple, prompting Jesus’ righteous anger.
Aside from the theological symbolism of the abuse and money use in the temple Jesus’ righteous anger was geared towards them because the Temple was a place of worship. The Temple was not to be used as a house to sell things out of and take advantage of, as Cole said above it was there so the Israelites and Gentiles could worship God. It was there for everyone to have that privilege though they could only go to certain parts of it, that was still its purpose. With the all the merchants set up and the crowds that flooded the place trying to buy their lamb on time for the official sacrfice made; Christ was mad, and rightfully so because that was not the temples intention. Not only were they selling in the place of worship, they were, they were going against the commands; unlike today where we can just go to the church down the road they unfortunately did not have the option of doing that. The moneychangers were ruining the peace the temple offered as well. Going off of the use of the money, the changers did not intend on giving that money to God they were going to keep it for their own selfish use, which is beyond me when you are selling things in the House of God. I mean the only reason why there are there in the first place is to give a sacrfice to God. Often people would tithe money over to God, yet in this case they were only using it for their purposes. The only way Jesus could get their attention was to flip the tables, so that everyone would stop and see what they are doing and how foolish they are acting. Jesus would hope they realized that they disobeyed Gods command and what He wanted them to use the temple for its initial is not what they were doing.
Yes, indeed I think there was an economic edge to the merchants and money changers who were stationed in the temple court. As discussed in class, the temple was the hub where all nations meet to pay debts, exchange money, and participate in the activities of the temple. Having that much foot traffic in one area would certainly grab the attention of merchants and vendors. Not to mention Jesus’s outburst happened during the days in preparation for the Passover in the temple. It could have been that the vendors and merchants were benefiting greatly from a festival that honors Gods act of provision and deliverance (Kostenberger, 77). Jesus was offended by what he saw and understood that the merchants and vendors had a wrong understanding about the temple. For Jesus, the use or abuse of money had no place in the house of God and went against His motives behind the temple. As Kostenberger explains, God had a specific desire for his temple and it was for the temple to be called a house of prayer for all the nations (Kostenberger, 75). However, the activities that were transpiring in the temples were changing the meaning behind the name God had giving his temple. The temple was well on its way in becoming an economical hotpot for trade before Jesus stepped in.
I really liked your post and what you had to say in it. even today people want a primetime spot to start growing their business. and sometimes we see these companies sponsoring church events or youth events. it can bring its positives and negatives and in todays day and age people are craving money and power so I think its a good thing to reflect on and start to notice these things going on in the church today as well.
Money and its proper use, it seems like more than anything else in the Bible, is highly misunderstood. This example, along with of course 1 Timothy 6:10, is often cited to accuse the Christian religion as condemning money. But of course, particularly the Timothy passage, is clearly misinterpreted–and even often misquoted. The “love of money is the root of all evil”, but most individuals conveniently omit the verb “love” to make their point. Even within Christianity, people consider the above passage in John, where Jesus turns over the tables of the moneychangers, as God’s judgement on people who attempt to profit from church functions and take advantage of the generosity of church attendants. However, I do not believe that Jesus was concerned with the fiscal framework of the merchants in the temple; he was agitated that they were perhaps inhibiting the Gentiles from entering into worship. By all means, the merchants, selling sacrifices to make the life of the worshippers more convenient on the Passover, were not corrupt or greedy people. They were merely doing their job, albeit at the expense of some Gentile worship–which is precisely what provoked Jesus. Moreover, Jesus was also making a point–perhaps looking ahead to the confrontation with the religious elites of the city–that He was going to fulfill the sacrificial system and that there would be no need for it. Perhaps Jesus was vexed by the utter futility of man trying to atone for his own sins by mere animal blood–especially considering that He was thinking about the time when He was to shed His own blood for the same purpose. Nevertheless, before interpreting this passage as an outrage at the greediness of man, it is wise to look into the allusions and implications Jesus was obviously communicating.
Reading this article there was a couple good points that I didn’t think about in this story. As Jesus talks much about the temple in his ministry he is then looking forward to a time in the world where the temple will finally be back to being pure in the sight of God compared to the sinful and corrupt temple it is now. Although Jesus is the Messiah and the “New Temple” he still can’t stand to see the temple being disgraced and used as a place of exchanging money and animals for sacrificing. With that the coming time is Passover which in this time Jesus would go to be crucified taking away of all the consequences of sin thus no longer needing to go make sacrifices and not needing to go to the temple to have a pure sacrifice. Another idea that struck me was the idea that Jesus spread out the coins and money he said a word that meant “poured out” this is unique because in the old testament there was many sayings from the prophets that Christ’s blood shall be poured out. Although these are different meanings for each I still find it interesting that Christ has poured out everything and cleaned out everything to make us perfect in the sight of God.
I like what you brought up with the economic side of Jesus’ rage. Was this more than just Jesus being upset about them setting their stage inside the temple? I want to say that there could have very well been some sort of economic side to why Jesus had done this. If we know about what Jesus says about making the temple a holy place, and presenting it as sacred, we know that setting the temple up like this is a complete disgrace. I do like what Jesus calls the temple when he approaches it and sees the money changers. The Bible records the words ‘den of thieves’, a phrase used to describe somewhere people who would steal and hangout are at. This is what he used to describe the temple, a place where we know is supposed to be sacred and holy. I think I am more concerned with the fact that people were gathering to sell stuff in the temple. This was the problem in my opinion, and I don’t think that it had much to do with anything else. The temple should not have been used as a place of “shopping” if you will. It is a place of worship, and should be used so.
I like what you said about how Jesus’ purpose was to purify the temple.
I can imagine Jesus coming into His father’s house and seeing people dishonor it by selling sheep, cattle and doves.
Today, we do not have markets with animals and so this can be hard to relate too or understand.
So I asked God to give me clarity.
I got a picture in my mind of me going to my parents house.
I am walking up to the front door and envisioning in my mind already what it is going to be like.
I can already smell the warm chocolate chip cookies in the oven, fruit on the center island and fuzzy blanket on almost every couch.
A smile appears on my face, as I recall all the lovely, pure-hearted people that have gathered in my house.
As I open up the door my face grows hot as I see a different image than in my mind.
There are a lot of strangers here, who I don’t know.
They have money in their hands and they are wearing black clothes.
As I am about to speak, I realize just how loud that they are.
My stomach drops, as I see that the strangers in my parents house.
They are taking my dad’s watch, belts, shirts and other precious positions that belong to him.
A righteous anger stirs within me.
What are they doing in my father’s house and with my father’s things?
I then begin to grab my Dad’s things out of the thieves hands and shout,
“This house is to be pure!
This house is to be holy!
This is my Father’s house!”
The reason why I share this, is to make the story more understandable.
This story also shows the reason why Jesus drove the animals away,
flipped the tables of the money changers and raised His voice.
Jesus cares deeply about purity.
He longs for His Father’s house to be pure and holy.
He desires for His Father’s house to be honored.
Therefore, we are to do the same.
We are to honor our relationship with God.
I really enjoyed this read. I find that very often people use this passage of scripture to say that God lost his anger. and in some ways, if you were to just read this passage with no background of who Jesus is you may think that Jesus lost his anger as well. but we know from scripture that Jesus is God incarnate, or God raped in flesh. God cannot sin. We as Christians would say that when Jesus was clearing out the temple that he did not lose His anger. Jesus had sovereign anger at this time. And we can explain that by saying that Jesus did that to declare that this was the coming messiah.
I definitely Like Köstenberger’s reasoning to, and not just because I like his name. I like his reasoning because if the money changers, and people selling animals for sacrifice right in the outer part of the temple where the gentiles could worship. This makes a lot of sense to me why Jesus did not want this to happen. Jesus came into the world to make way for people groups like gentiles, and really so everyone could worship Jesus, as lord. This story does not make me question Jesus for having righteous anger or pushing people’s stuff over, it makes me love Jesus even more because he came and made away for me to worship Him.
I found this post very intriguing. I do not believe that Jesus was protesting the economy I believe he was just stating the facts that what was taking place in the temple was wrong. The temple was meant to be a holy place where God was worshipped. Everything was supposed to be clean and holy and money really is the opposite of clean. Jesus had righteous anger towards the money changers because they were defiling the temple of God.
Jesus had a right to get angry based on the wrongdoing of the money changers. On top of that Kostenburger thinks that this money changing was taking place right in the outer temple where the Gentiles were supposed to worship. How could they worship if the temple was being defiled like that? They could not and so Jesus took a righteous stand for them so that the temple as a whole could be holy and so that the gentiles’ place of worship was not taken over. Many Critics would point to this and say that Jesus sinned here because he got angry but really quite the opposite happened. He had righteous anger for the wrongdoings of the money changers.
The story of Jesus charging the temple and clearing it remains one of my all-time favorite stories in all of the gospels. The way Jesus displays righteous anger in the most perfect way is an amazing display of humanity as a believer makes Jesus even more relatable as his fully-human self is on display. The reality of Jesus clearing the temple I believe comes down to the disrespect of the holiness and sacred nature of the temple and what it represents. While the people money changing and using the temple as a marketplace is bad, what they were doing wasn’t necessarily the main point of contention for Jesus. It was their heart behind it. The people were doing their business in the temple, in this sacred place. They could’ve been playing a pick up game of pickup football, the fact that they were doing anything dishonoring gave Jesus that righteous anger. Perhaps it was fact that these money changers took a step further led Jesus to clear the temple , to show an example to us and His disciples of how having reverence and the heart of God is always essential. Jesus is all about incredible lessons and metaphors, and I truly believe the incident at the temple is no exception.
To me personally, after reading that the area reserved for non-Jew worshippers was the area being used and crowded by money-changers, I have found an interesting perspective as to why Jesus may have been “flipping tables,” as some say. Long states, “Selling was restricted to the court of the Gentiles, a much larger area. Köstenberger therefore suggests the main point of Jesus’s attack is that the sellers were taking up the only area of the Temple where the Gentiles could worship” (para 2). This, to me, shows the importance of non-Jewish worshippers to Jesus, and that all were invited to the temple to worship him. The Gentiles tended to be rejected by many Jewish figures, those with power and otherwise, and were not as welcomed by some Jews to enter into the family of God. I would theorize that because the area of the court that was reserved for Gentiles was being occupied for money-changers, it did not allow room for Gentiles to come to the temple for worship. I would say that Jesus may have been upset that Gentiles were restricted by the placement of the moneychangers, and wanted to express his point that practicing Gentiles were as “worthy” as practicing Jews. Kostenberger states, “By conducting their business in the temple complex, however, these individuals disrupted the worship of non-Jewish God-fearers” (2023). As I stated before, the money-changers were taking up the space for the non-Jewish worshippers to inhabit within the temple court, which, from my understanding, would cause Jesus to get rid of their placement so that the Gentiles would once again have somewhere to worship God.
From what I have gathered by reading this blog post and other sources on top of John 2:13-25 is that Jesus had righteous anger towards the people selling things in the Temple courtyard. (Side note: I had never realized that Jesus was actually in the courtyard of the Temple. I had always imagined Jesus triumphantly kicking the doors down, flipping over tables, and whipping the moneychangers out of the Temple. Obviously this idea is wrong, but hey cut me some slack.) Anyway, I think the point of Jesus performing these actions was partly because of the economical aspect of money being exchanged in the temple, but more importantly because of the Gentile’s worship and an allusion to the prophecy in the Old Testament. The money changers in the courtyard were taking up the only area where the Gentile’s were allowed to worship God. This would make me mad enough to flip the tables over alone, but there is also the aspect of the prophetic allusions that were written about so splendidly in this blog post. All this being said, I do not believe that Jesus’ main problem was people being overcharged by the money changers in the temple, but it was the fact that the Gentiles had no place to worship properly because of the overcrowding. Jesus saw this, and so perfectly and justly, He cleared them out.
I believe that Jesus was upset at the money changers because of their actions. They took the place of worship for Gentiles and turned it into a worldly place. Instead of it being a spiritual and Godly place for believers they turned it into a place for profit and greed. In the Temple they created a market place where they sold animals for sacrifices. The animals were sold to make money and were not perfect sacrificial animals. When Jesus came and saw this He got angry because the people were focused on shopping and not on prayer and their need to sacrifice to cover their sins. The Temple is supposed to be a place to get away from sin and be with God. The Gentiles could only go into the court of Gentiles which is where they created the “market” making it nearly impossible to get away from the distraction of sin and be with God personally. The Temple is God’s House and they brought distractions into it. I think Jesus attacked the money changers because they were going against God’s Word in His every own House.
I find it hard to justify simply making a statement about the way the temple will be handled in the days to come as grounds for disruptively inhibiting worship and sacrifice. If Jesus just wanted to declare that things would be different in the future, He probably would have just pointed out to His disciples that the money changers would soon be done away with and allowed that dispensation’s system to continue on uninterrupted. His violent response indicates to me that there was something fundamentally wrong with the money changers and the animal sellers conducting business in the temple complex.
The issue that I think got Jesus so worked up is that the temple was a place set aside to worship God as His symbolic house among mankind. Everyone that was there ought to have been fully focused on worshiping Him and making sure that they could approach Him untainted by sin. The presence of the money changers and animal sellers distracted from the temple’s purpose. They looked at what went on in the temple and saw not a reminder of God’s presence, holiness, and the seriousness of their own sin, but instead saw a chance to make money.
I think Jesus felt the same indignation you would get if you threw your son a birthday party and someone started selling birthday hats and streamers to the guests at the foot of your driveway. You would be perfectly justified in removing them from your property because they had just insulted your son by brazenly distracting the party-goers from celebrating your son’s birthday and indicating that him turning another year older was cause for a business and not for a celebration. God is a jealous God who desires for nothing else to take precedence over Him. Anything and anyone that tries to compete with Him for attention in His house needs to be prepared for a hasty and less-than-honorable expulsion from the premises.
The account of Jesus in the temple is a very interesting event that had taken place, as it help to show a more Human side of Jesus displaying his anger. Will we ever truly know where this anger was placed or directed at? No we won’t as only Jesus would, we can only speculate. With that being said, I would think that while Jesus was not only just alluding back to the texts in the Old Testament, but also that He was angered at the acts going on at the temple. While the text in John doesn’t distinctly say that He was angered, the actions He took seem to lean into the fact that He was angered. When Jesus was doing these things, it seems logical to me, that while He was frustrated, He also took the opportunity to allude to the Old Testament texts, as everything Jesus did during His ministry was on purpose. I also think that there was a large economic reason that played into these actions, as in Matthews account of the story, Jesus said that they are making it a den of robbers, (Matthew 21:12-13 NIV). The Den of robbers seems to imply that they were able to get away with economic acts that they shouldn’t have, like raising the prices of the goods or livestock they were selling so that they could prosper more. All in all, while this account alludes to passages in the Old Testament, I personally believe that Jesus had a righteous anger as to what was happening economically, and made sure to use the opportunity to show He was God.
I believe 100% that Jesus has an issue with the abuse of money at the temple. He himself in scripture refers to how the love of money is the root of all evil, and I think the key to remember is that money itself is not evil, but the love of it. When we love something we pour into it, we invest our time and energy into it, but what Jesus desires and wants from us is just us. I also can not imagine the jealousy that Jesus felt in that moment watching his own children worship something above him in his own temple, his holy place. He just wants our undivided attention, and by the money changers in the temple, they were not giving their full attention to Jesus, they were giving it to their selfish desires, for their own pleasures and gain. We can apply this story to our own lives by asking ourselves, do we respect the sabbath? Do we put the Lord above all other things? Are we worshipping money or other things above him? Our attention and desires of our hearts need to be completely centered on the one that provides physically, mentally, and spiritually.
When reflecting on Jesus flipping the tables in the Temple there is a lot to look at in all the Gospels, John tells again a little bit of a different story than the rest. When looking at the location of where these individuals are selling I think it displays a heart posture of the Jews towards the Gentiles. The tables were set up in the Court of the Gentiles, a place where “non-Jewish God-fearers” worshipped (ESVSB p 2023). By placing the trading tables up here it is disrupting their, the Gentiles, worship of God. As stated in the blog, we do not know exactly how many Gentiles would have been in the Temple during Passover time but I still think this location reflects the Jew’s heart posture. We see a lot of evidence throughout the New Testament that reflects how Jews felt about Gentiles. We see in Galatians 2:12 that Peter has previously been eating with Gentiles and Jews, but then when men came from James he withdrew. This could be due to many reasons, but at the end of the day, it reflects that he could have been thinking of the Gentiles as second-class citizens because they did not follow Jewish laws (ESVSB, p 2247). So reflecting on this and many other passages, many in the book of James, we see the posture of the Jews towards the Gentiles. So the picking of the location for the trading market could be a slap in the Gentile’s face that the Jews did not take their worship seriously. This made Jesus upset because it was their place to worship the Father, but it was being overrun and overlooked.
The cleansing of the Temple by Jesus holds both theological and economic significance, and it addresses issues related to the use and abuse of money within a religious context. In the Gospel accounts, Jesus condemns the misuse of the Temple for economic gain. The money changers and those selling sacrificial animals had turned a place of worship into a marketplace. This act symbolizes the corruption of religious practices and the loss of reverence for the sacred. As you mentioned, Jesus’s actions parallel the prophetic tradition of figures like Jeremiah, who criticized the Israelites for their misplaced trust in the Temple and their belief that religious rituals could excuse unethical behavior. Jesus’s actions echo this prophetic tradition by challenging the distortion of true worship. In essence, Jesus’s condemnation of the money changers in the Temple goes beyond theological symbolism; it addresses issues of economic exploitation, ethical conduct, and the integrity of religious practice. These timeless lessons continue to resonate in today’s world, challenging individuals and religious institutions to ensure that faith and finances are used in ways that honor both God and humanity.