Money Changers(exchangers)
Summary
Money changers were dealers in currency who operated within the temple courts, exchanging foreign coins for the Hebrew half-shekel required for the temple tax, until Jesus drove them out for making God's house 'a den of thieves.'
☩Their Function
The money changers (Greek kollubistes) were dealers in small coins who set up tables in the court of the Gentiles. Their primary business was supplying foreign Jews with the Hebrew half-shekel required for the yearly temple tribute, in exchange for the various currencies they brought from distant lands. Since every Israelite over twenty was required to pay this offering, and foreign coins bearing pagan images were unacceptable for sacred purposes, the service of the money changers was practically necessary. They charged a commission (kollubos) for their exchanges, typically about one and a half pence.
☩Jesus' Cleansing of the Temple
Jesus twice cleansed the temple of these merchants—once at the beginning of His ministry and once during His final week in Jerusalem. He overturned their tables and drove them out with a whip of cords, declaring 'My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.' The rebuke indicates that the money changers were not simply providing a legitimate service but were practicing extortion and taking unfair advantage of those who had traveled far to worship. Their presence in the sacred precincts transformed the temple courts into a place of commerce rather than devotion.
References
- 1.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Money Changers," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).
- 2.F. N. Peloubet & M. A. Peloubet (ed.), "Moneychangers," in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Porter & Coates, 1884).
- 3.George Morrish, "Money-changers," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).
- 4.John Kitto, "Money Changers," in A Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, vol. II (Mark H. Newman, 1845).