Sacrifices in the Temple

by ssn587 3 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  ssn587

  Read in the book the "jesus papers"pg 44 something to the that rome had judes paying 40 talents of silver a year into their treasurry and that non-jews gave offering at the temple for just such. and it alludes to daily sacrifices done or performed for Caesar and Rome. Does anyone have any information on this?

  also Was there such a thing a temple currency, when it came to cleaning the temple, and the fact that they had money changers there, was it because the Roman Coins having Caesar's image upon it being tatamount to idolatry if used in the temple. Haven't come across this before just sort of always assumed it was "cleansed" of animals and money changers because of the goods exchanged for money (I guess temple money) that pissed Jesus off. and the fact that it a profit was being made from people there to worship Yahweh/Jehovah.

  Any and all help will be much appreciated. tks in advance.
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  cameo-d

  quoted from: "Christs' Assault on Blood Sacrifice"

  Several hundred years after prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea had denounced the sacrificial slaughter of animals, Jesus carried out what is euphemistically called the Cleansing of the Temple.

  It was just before Passover and he disrupted the buying and selling of animals that were being purchased for slaughter.

  And because Christian scholars and religious leaders continue to ignore biblical denunciations of that bloody worship, they also try to obscure the reason for Christ's assault on the system.

  They have done this by focusing on the moneychangers, although they were only minor players in the drama that took place.

  It was the cult of sacrifice that Jesus tried to dismantle, not the system of monetary exchange.

  In all three gospel accounts of the event, those who provided the animals for sacrifice are mentioned first: they were the primary focus of Christ's outrage.

  
  
  [Jeremiah] had hurled the same accusation at the people of his own time, almost six hundred years earlier. He said it while standing at the Temple entrance, after he had already warned the people "do not shed innocent blood in this place."

  And when Jeremiah said God's house had been turned into a den of robbers it could not have had anything to do with moneychangers--they did not exist in his time.

  Both Jesus and Jeremiah were indignant about the violence of sacrificial worship, not the possibility of petty theft by moneychangers.

  It was the violence of the system, the killing of innocent victims in the name of God, that they were condemning.

  The moneychangers operating in the time of Jesus were driven out of the Temple because they were taking part in the process of sacrificial religion, not because they may have been cheating the pilgrims.

  It is ridiculous to claim that the religious leaders of Christ's time would have plotted his death because he undermined the function of the moneychangers.

  Nor would the crowd have been "amazed at his teachings" if Jesus was simply telling them to make sure they were not short-changed when they purchased Temple coins.

  What the people were amazed at was his condemnation of animal sacrifice; it had been hundreds of years since that kind of condemnation had been heard in Jerusalem. And it would not be allowed.

  You can read more here:http://www.thenazareneway.com/holy_week/assault_on_blood_sacrifice.htm
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  BluesBrother

  http://www.bible-history.com/gentile_court/TEMPLECOURTJesus_and_the_Temple.htm

  The Money Changers The word "moneychanger" means money-banker or money-broker. They would make large profits at the expense of the pilgrims. Every Israelite, rich or poor, who had reached the age of twenty was obligated to pay a half shekel as an offering to Jehovah into the sacred treasury. This tribute was in every case to be paid in the exact Hebrew half shekel. At Passover everyone in the world who was an adult male and wished to worship at the Temple would bring his "offering" or purchase a sacrificial animal at the Temple. Since there was no acceptance of foreign money with any foreign image the money changers would sell "Temple coinage" at a very high rate of exchange and assess a fixed charge for their services.
  
  The judges, who sat to inspect the offerings that were brought by the pilgrims, were quick to detect any blemish in them. This was expensive for the wealthy pilgrims, not to say how ruinous this was for the poor who could only offer their turtle-doves and pigeons. There was no defense for them or court of appeal, seeing that the priestly authorities took a large percentage on every transaction.
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  Narkissos

  Here's a search track for some reading on the topic: http://www.google.fr/search?hl=fr&q=Tyrian+money+temple+tax&meta=&aq=f&oq=