The money changers

[Sexton Blake]

Ever since I first heard this story it never seemed right.

 

Some things never change.

 

There is a place where people change money and maybe borrow money, so lots of money about.

 

Which would mean guards to make sure a gang of thieves do not just burst in and steal the lot from them.

 

The guards would have heavy clubs and knives and such and with the claim of he tried to steal from us, and backed up by all the other money changers, would not be shy about bashing heads and severely beating up anyone who gave them trouble.

 

So Jesus goes into their temple and runs riot among them, overturning tables and throwing their money everywhere as he rants and rages at them.

 

Real world. He would probably have died from the beating they gave him, and if anything was left of Jesus, soldiers would have dragged him away and thrown him into prison.

[mwc]

     The temple could only accept a certain sort of denarius.  I'm not going to look it up but the bible describes it and as a result it became the only sort they would accept.  The problem became that the only one that could be used came from Tyre and it was too high value (it was a double as I recall).  All other currency would not work.  So you had to exchange your currency for this denarius and then the tax would be paid from this.  It was kind of silly.

 

     Now, the temple complex was very large.  Imagine something the size of a football field (pick your type).  The money changers would be somewhere off to the side and the temple itself sort of off-center near the middle.  The field itself would have multiple entrances/exits.  The idea that a single person could somehow dominate the entire area is unreasonable.  Sure they might flip a table or two but after that they'd be out of luck especially using their clothes as a whip to keep people at bay.

 

     Also, yes, the temple had a guard and they would have been on the scene fairly quickly to arrest him.

 

          mwc