I’ve wondered lately whether the tipping point for Caiaphas that sealed his determination to have Jesus executed came when Jesus invaded the Temple grounds & upset the moneychangers’ tables & drove out the livestock merchants while charging, “My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!”
Think of it, Jesus hit Caiaphas where it hurt, in the pocketbook. Those changing money & selling sacrificial animals no doubt had to to pony up some serious dough for the privilege of doing so within the Temple complex & that surely meant that Caiaphas & his cronies got their cut.
Yes, people could buy elsewhere but once inside the Temple environs they were a captive market & besides the high priests had probably forbidden foreign money transactions anywhere else.
So...even in ancient Jerusalem, just follow the money. Thoughts?
Plausible theory.
Tourist trap set up, last place to buy.
Think of it, Jesus hit Caiaphas where it hurt, in the pocketbook. Those changing money & selling sacrificial animals no doubt had to to pony up some serious dough for the privilege of doing so within the Temple complex & that surely meant that Caiaphas & his cronies got their cut.
Yes, people could buy elsewhere but once inside the Temple environs they were a captive market & besides the high priests had probably forbidden foreign money transactions anywhere else.
I was making similar comments to a friend at a Bible College just last week. I find it odd that Jesus was not charged with some kind of civil crime (theft?) for disrupting the moneychangers' business, but I do not know what civil laws were like for first-century Jerusalem under the Roman occupation.