ich
forbade the encroachment of Gentiles on pain of death. Round this outer
court ran marble colonnades, richly ornamented and supported by four
rows of pillars, and roofed with cedar, affording ample shade to the
traders.

There were not only cattle-dealers and sellers of pigeons, but also
money-changers; for every Jew had to pay to the Temple treasury an
annual tax of half a shekel, and this tax could be paid only in the
sacred currency. No foreign coin, with its emblem of submission to an
alien king, was allowed to pollute the Temple. Thus there came to be
need of money-changers, not only for the Jew who had come up to the
feast from a remote part of the empire, but even for the inhabitant of
Palestine, as the Roman coinage had displaced the shekel in ordinary
use.

There might seem, therefore, to be room to say much in favour of this
convenient custom. At any rate, it was one of those abuses which, while
they may shock a fresh and unsophisticated mind, are allowed both
because they contribute to public convenience and because they have a
large pecuniary interest at their back. In point of fact, however, the
practice gave rise to lamentable consequences. Cattle-dealers and
money-changers have always been notorious for making more than their own
out of their bargains, and facts enough are on record to justify our
Lord calling this particular market "a den of thieves." The poor were
shamefully cheated, and the worship of God was hindered and impoverished
instead of being facilitated and enriched. And even although this
traffic had been carried on under careful supervision, and on
unimpeachable principles, still it was unseemly that the worshipper who
came to the Temple seeking quiet and fellowship with God should have to
push his way through the touts of the dealers, and have his devotional
temper dissipated by the wrangling and shouting of a cattle market. Yet
although many must have lamented this, no one had been bold enough to
rebuke and abolish the glaring profanation.

Jesus on entering the Temple finds Himself in the midst of this
incongruous scene--the sounds and movements of a market, the loud and
eager exclamations of competing traders, the bustle of selecting one
animal out of a flock, the loud talk and laughter of the idle groups of
onlookers. Jesus cannot stand it. Zeal for the honour of His Father's
house possesses Him. The Temple claims Him as its vindicator from abuse.
Nowhere can He more appropriate