Psalm 69:6-12
John 2:13-22
Acts 21:27-36
John records Jesus as saying, “stop turning my father’s house into a market,” but Matthew, Mark, and Luke put it more bluntly when they write that Jesus said that they have made his house into a robber’s den.
The market for the animals was set up in the Court of the Gentiles which was the outermost area of the temple compound. It was here that Gentiles who wanted to worship the Hebrew God were allowed to gather. They were not allowed any further into the temple by threat of death. There were signs up in all languages telling the penalty of the entering and Rome had given permission to the Jewish leaders to carry out the punishment.
Acts 21 tells us about the riot that Paul began when he went beyond the court of the Gentiles. They beat him to a bloody pulp and tossed him out of the temple gates where he was them put in prison. You would think by that story that the Jews were very serious about their temple, but then, in our text today, we are shown that their concern for their temple was more about show than sanctity.
All males were expected to bring an unblemished sacrifice. They could bring it from home, but there were judges at the temple that inspected the animals for blemishes and, if they found the animal unworthy, they would refuse the sacrifice. So, even if they brought one from home, it could very likely be refused and if they didn’t bring it from home, they had to purchase one to offer and every person over the age of 20 had to pay a half shekel to enter the temple beyond the Court of the Gentiles.
Foreign coins were not acceptable. The temple tax and the purchase price of the animals had to be paid in Tyrian silver. Roman coins had images of the Emperor or other pagan deities on them. So, the temple leaders would not accept Roman money because they thought it was idolatrous. The people coming to temple would exchange their money for a lump of silver to pay for the offering and animals.
Between animal sales and money exchange, there was the opportunity to make big bucks and that is exactly what certain priests did.