The Sacred But Corrupt Jewish Temple, part 1

The Sacred but corrupt Jewish Temple.

When good and evil are mixed together in a social institution, then evil/oppression are disguised and legitimated.  For example:

*The necessary but often oppressive American criminal justice system.
*The necessary but often exploitive American financial system.
*The excellent but often exploitive American healthcare system.
*The spiritual but highly segregated American church.

The Sacred Jewish Temple: A Cosmos (evil social order) Social Institution

Juan Mateos:

"The high priests were the official representatives of religion and worship who had charge of the temple, the religious and political center of Israel. . . .  The temple received gifts (Mark 7:11) and abundant alms, above all from the rich (Mark 12:41), not to mention the livestock market for the sacrifices and the currency exchange (Mark 11:15).  All this turned the temple into a great commercial racket administered by the high priests. . . . The Pharisees had immense authority over the people.  In spite of all their observance of religious rules, the Pharisees loved money and exploited the simple folk under the pretext of piety (Matthew 23:25-28; Mark 12:40; Luke 1:39; 16:14)."

Donald Kraybill makes these comments about the holy city of Jerusalem:

"We have seen the spectacular beauty of Jerusalem as Judaism's highest religious peak.  It also towered above the rest of the country in social and economic prestige.  An elite aristocracy called Jerusalem their home.  This included the chief priests of the temple hierarchy, wealthy landowners, merchants, tax collectors, and the Sadducean Party.  Men of wealth who could live off the rent from their estates, skilled artists, clever traders, and poets all migrate toward the metropolis which housed the temple."

Because of the high taxes which forced them to mortgage their property to pay these taxes, peasant farmers were losing their lands.  Many of these properties became temple property.  Kraybill comments:

"Within a few decades, small and middle-sized plots of land had disappeared, whereas the properties owned by the temple and the imperial crown grew beyond proportion. . . .  Driven to misery, many peasants abandoned their land and joined bands of robbers that survived by pillage."

The temple was the center of religious life for the 500,000 Jews living in Palestine and the three and a half million Jews in the Roman Empire.  The temple was huge, covering 26 acres.  It was magnificent; the gold and silver made it look like a snowcapped mountain from the nearby countryside.  "There was so much gold in the temple that after its destruction and plunder in AD 70 the province of Syria was glutted with gold reducing its value by half."  The temple was also "the seat of Jewish power and influence.  Here resided the high priest . . . and the 70-member Sanhedrin, the final and ultimate Jewish authority in religious, political, and civil affairs."

William Barclay comments about the temple:

"Sacrifical victims could be bought outside the Temple, but a victim to be fit for a sacrifice must be without spot and blemish.  The Temple authorities had appointed inspectors to examine the victims.  If the victim had been bought outside the temple, it was quite certain that the inspectors would find a blemish, and the pilgrim would be compelled to buy his offering at the official Temple shops where victims had already been inspected.  This again sounds like a public service, but there were occasions when a pair of pigeons would cost as little as five new pence outside the Temple and as much as seventy-five new pence inside the Temple."

Barclay continues:

"Three things infuriated Jesus about this.  First, the whole business was a ramp [racket] in which the pilgrims were being ruthlessly fleeced.  Jesus' action was first of all a blow for social justice.  Second, the huckstering and the bargaining and the arguing must have made the place a pandemonium in which any kind of prayer or meditation or worship was quite impossible.  Third, the whole business was taking place in the Court of the Gentiles, the only part of the Temple into which a Gentile might come.  This meant that, in the one place where it was open to the Gentile to worship, worship was impossible.  The action of Jesus was a blow for social justice, a scathing rebuke of irreverence, a defense of the rights of the Gentiles."

Luke's description of the cleansing of the Temple is stated rather mildly (19:45-47):

"Then he entered the temple area and began driving out those who were selling.  'It is written,' he said to them.  'My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers.'"

The chief priests come on the temple scene for the first time in Luke and Jesus challenges their power and authority.  They pointedly ask Jesus, "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things?"  Then in the Temple Jesus tells a parable directed at the chief priests.  Not only in the physical cleansing of the Temple but also in his teaching in the Temple, Jesus directly confronted the evil leadership of the Temple.

In fact, Jesus took over the Temple for a few days.  In a deceptively mild statement, Luke's first sentence following the cleansing is, "Every day he was teaching at the temple . . . all the people hung on his words."

The chief priests stood helplessly by in a rage plotting to kill Jesus as he took over 'their' Temple, teaching against them and teaching about the kingdom of God.  Two whole chapters in Luke document the nature of Jesus' teaching in the temple.  This section closes with another mild understatement considering the enormous significance of these events at the Temple:

"Each day Jesus was teaching at the temple . . . and all the people came early in the morning to hear him at the temple."

In Matthew, it is likely that most, if not all, of chapters 21:12 - 23:39 took place in or near the Temple.  Apparently the seven woes directed to the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees took place in the Temple.  Jesus used the strongest possible words to condemn the whole corrupt religious system and especially the leaders of that system.