PAPER 173: Section 1.
Cleansing The Temple
P1888:4, 173:1.1 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 fact remained that this animal must be free from all "blemish" in the meaning of the Levitical law and as interpreted by official inspectors of the temple. Many a worshiper had experienced the humiliation of having his 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 vogue to buy these animals directly from the temple pens. 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.
P1888:5, 173:1.2 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 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.
P1889:1, 173:1.3 
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.
P1889:2, 173:1.4
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.
P1889:3, 173:1.5
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.
P1890:1, 173:1.6
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,
while at the same moment the air was rent by the
bellowing of a drove of some
one hundred bullocks which was being driven from one section of the animal
pens to another. As Jesus paused, silently but
thoughtfully contemplating
this scene of commerce and confusion, close by he beheld a simple-minded Galilean,
a man he had once talked with in Iron, being ridiculed and jostled about by
supercilious and would-be superior Judeans; and all of this combined to produce
one of those strange and periodic uprisings of indignant emotion in the soul
of Jesus.
P1890:2, 173:1.7
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.'"
P1890:3, 173:1.8
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 you never
read, `Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings has 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.
P1890:4, 173:1.9
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 nonplused. They did not know how
to accomplish his death, for they greatly feared the multitudes, 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.
P1890:5, 173:1.10
This surprising act of Jesus was beyond the comprehension of his apostles.
They were so taken aback by this sudden and unexpected move of their Master
that they remained throughout the whole episode huddled together near the
speaker's stand; they never lifted a hand to further this cleansing of the
temple. If this spectacular event had occurred the day before, at the time
of Jesus' triumphal arrival at the temple at the termination of his tumultuous
procession through the gates of the city, all the while loudly
acclaimed by
the multitude, they would have been ready for it, but coming as it did, they
were wholly unprepared to participate.
P1891:1, 173:1.11
This cleansing of the temple discloses the Master's attitude toward commercializing
the practices of religion as well as his
detestation 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 ecclesiastical power. Shrewd, wicked,
and designing men are not to be permitted to organize themselves for the exploitation
and oppression of those who, because of their idealism, are not disposed to
resort to force for self-protection or for the furtherance of their laudable
life projects.