Template: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
Jesus walked into the national bank, the gazophulakion or “the royal treasury,” and by laying a string whip across their shoulders, according to the ancient tradition of His kingly office, simply fired these corrupt employees. As King, He was able to turn over their lucrative appointments to more worthy officers elected by the people, who now supported His reign as King by the thousands.[3] The people had again been taught the ancient ways by men like John, Jesus, and His faithful followers, who had been demonstrating the way of God, making it straight again.
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[4] 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.”[5]
From the book Thy Kingdom Comes
To understand how the Church handles things like banking accounts, we need to understand the full purpose, function, and nature of the Church. In the days of Rome, just as today, the transfer of funds from one place to another produced a need for what has become known as Banks. In Herod’s Temples the Royal Treasury stored large capital reserves managed by the ministers for the benefit of the people. The tables of the money changers were actually a part of this national “bank”[6]or royal treasury,[7] even receiving a compelled offering.[8]
Things in the Kingdom of God had changed since the day of Moses.
“These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.” John 8:20
The word treasury is from gazophulakion, meaning “the royal treasury” and “guarded vault or chamber.” It contained millions of dollars in silver, deposited in large chests which held the collected contributions of the citizenry for the running of the government, and to support the common welfare.
Even Diana’s temple at Ephesus was nothing more than a world bank built by the commitment of over 127 different nations who deposited funds in their vault. It was the most secure depository in all the Mediterranean, and also invested in lucrative commercial and social enterprises on an international basis.
Ephesus, and the temples of Herod under the administration of the Pharisees and Sadducees, indulged in practices which Moses and Jesus opposed. As the Messiah, He spoke against the Corban of the Pharisees with its social entitlements and compelled offerings. They were storing up silver and gold within a central government[9] to provide the benefits of social security, but allowed an exercising authority over the people in the gathering of those contributions. This centralized power tempted and corrupted the ministers, and subverted the word of God by taking away the charitable choice exercised by 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, the anointed King, was setting policy for the repository of the public treasury. The words ‘over against’ were from katenanti meaning “before one i.e. he being judge”. He was instructing men within the royal treasury in John 8. “Jesus … came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him; and he sat down, and taught them.” There are many words in the Bible translated into ‘set’ but in John 8:2, “sat down,” which is from “kathizo,” meant: “to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one.”[10]
These are specific words of authority.
Jesus desired charity and forbade benefactors who exercised authority. When there were serious needs among the people during Claudius’ reign, instead of calling upon Caesar,[11] it was the Church who provided assistance to the people by way of the ministry of Barnabas and Saul.[12]
The Church service to the living body of Christ in the modern world must be as real as that Church of the first century. We must be as concerned about other congregations as we are about our own in an effective and world-wide way.
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
- ↑ Acts 2:41, “...three thousand souls.” “...men was about five thousand.”
- ↑ 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
- ↑ The word for “table” of the moneychangers which Jesus overthrew is the same word for “bank” in Luke 19:23 In the Greek today the word trapezia still means bank. Bank is from the Italian banca meaning bench.
- ↑ Gazophulakion a repository of treasure, especially of public treasure.
- ↑ Salome- Alexandra (about 78 BC), that the Pharisaical party carried an enactment by which the Temple tribute was to be enforced at law. Alfred Edersheim’s book The Temple. See Thy Kingdom Comes, The Hasmonean Appeal.
- ↑ Deuteronomy 17:17 “... neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
- ↑ kathizo another (active) 1) to make to sit down 1a) to set, appoint, to confer a kingdom on one 2) intransitively
- ↑ Acts 11:28 “And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”
- ↑ Deuteronomy 19:15 “... at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established. Luke 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Matthew 11:2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, Luke 19:29 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called [the mount] of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,”
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