Moneychangers
The moneychangers were not involved in nickel and dime purchases where you could tip over a table and send change rolling on the floor. The Greek word for “moneychangers” was kollubistes[1] ,which was a word for a small coin or “clipped amount”. Kollubistes had to do with the commission charged by the holders of these lucrative offices on the left hand side of the Judean government.
These commissioned moneychangers took a portion of the collected contributions of the people in the form of a commission. This commission had grown to become what we would call a large share or porterhouse cut.
The tribute could exceed 7,600,000 denarii in that one month. The money-changers were allowed to charge a silver meah, or about one-fourth of a denar. Their cut on this one event could be 950,000 denarii, worth more than $9,000,000 today. “Thus the immense offerings … to the Temple passed through the hands of the moneychangers.”[2]
Understanding who the money-changers were as government officials and what it meant to be fired from their lucrative commissioned position in the national treasury brings the motivation of crucifying Jesus into a new and revealing light.
“All these [which were] chosen to be porters in the gates [were] two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their set office.” 1 Chronicles 9:22
The king had appointed these offices from the elected choices of the people. They were not elected as we often think of it today, but were reckoned by their genealogy, which dealt with their family units, or “generations”, not their lineage. The word “villages” is normally translated “court” and is based on their positions as servants of the tens and hundreds. Even though David and Samuel ordained them to their set offices, they had no authority to elect them. The king and high priest, as overseers, could reject those holding their specific positions, but they could not appoint their own cohorts, crowd, and cronies.
Without perfect people, it could not be a perfect system; but it was a godly balance. There was separation of Church and State, meaning that the giving of charity and the enforcement of law did not mix. There was a balance of power in the hands of the people.
“And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.” Mark 12:41
Jesus was the king and had been observing the practices in the public treasury[3] for some time. The words ”over against” were from katenanti, which was a metaphor meaning “before one, i.e. he being judge”. He had already begun to instruct men within the royal treasury in John 8. There are a number of misconceptions concerning what is taking place and where it all took place within that text.
“Jesus … came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught” them. John 8:2
There are numerous words translated into “set” in the New Testament including kathemai, epitithemi, paratithemi, histemi, duno, anakeimai, anapipto among others, but the words “sat down” in John 8:2 is kathizo, which is defined, “to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one.”[4]
From the book Thy Kingdom Comes
Footnotes
- ↑ “kollubistes, (i.q. a. a small coin, cf. Clipped; b. rate of exchange, premium), a money-changer, banker: Mt.xxi. 12; Mk. Xi. 15; Jn.ii. 15.” Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, page 353.
- ↑ New Unger’s Bible Dictionary
- ↑ Gazophulakion a repository of treasure, especially of public treasure.
- ↑ 2523 kathizo another (active) form for 2516; AV-sit 26, sit down 14, set 2, be set 2, be set down 2, continue 1, tarry 1; 48 1) to make to sit down 1a) to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one 2) intransitively
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