Why did Jesus cast out money changers from the temple? Was it because of buying and selling? And why did he call them thieves?

Question

Why did Jesus cast out the money changers from the temple? Was it simply because of buying and selling? And why did he call them thieves? Does this mean that we can not sell or fundraise in the church?

Matthew 21:12-17 12 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Answer 1

I think you have answered your own question by quoting the words of Jesus of Nazareth.

The house of God is a place of prayer, not a place of commerce and money. And where such things are, such is the condition of human nature that thievery will never be absent.

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes. [Romans :10-18]

Answer 2

Jesus drove out the moneychangers (and those who sold sacrificial doves) as a dramatic demonstration of his opposition to corruption in the Temple. He was not alone in this. Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls shows that the Qumram movement (the Essenes) were strongly opposed to Temple corruption and awaited a Priestly Messiah to lead in its purification. The Zealots and many of the Pharisees also opposed Temple authorities, as the Sadducean priesthood collaborated with the Romans.

Was it because of buying and selling?

No, not in itself. Buying and selling of sacrificial animals was essential to the Temple's operation, especially for those who made pilgrimages from afar. But if the commerce were corrupt then yes. General buying and selling in the area is another question, about which little is known. To understand more deeply it is important to know that Jesus was quoting the prophet Jeremiah here, and his "den of thieves" referred to much more than monetary issues.

Jeremiah 7

9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? I, too, am watching, says the Lord.

And why did he call them thieves?

Like Jeremiah, Jesus was speaking of the Temple authorities in general, not only the moneychangers and dove-sellers. Thus, "den of thieves" refers to many kinds of sins, of which corruption in buying and selling was only one example. The moneychangers were a symptom of a deeper problem that reached to the highest level of the Temple as an institution. By striking the moneychangers, Jewish struck at the financial foundation or the entire institution and its leaders.

Conclusion: Buying and selling within the Temple courts was kosher (meaning "proper" or lawful), but fraudulent practices of any kind would constitute a kind of thievery. Moreover, the quote from Jeremiah shows that Jesus probably considered other things besides financial corruption in his denunciation of the Temple as a "den of thieves."

Answer 3

Was it because of buying and selling? And why did he call them thieves?

Not specifically; so, no. And, because monopolistic practice (control of the customer) is a form of stealing.

Let me illustrate in today’s terms. Let’s say you go to a church meeting and you bring a check to put in the offering. But, the church doesn’t take checks. In the lobby there’s a person who has contracted to cash the checks, though he doesn’t actually cash them. He exchanges them for a voucher--the church only accepts these vouchers. Now, here’s the thing: He charges a 25% fee to do this. You’re stuck because the church will only accept the voucher, but it’s going to cost you 25% to do that. What would you say? You’d say, “That’s stealing!” And you’d be right.

In other words, the money that people brought to the temple bore the image of the world’s rulers. And so, it was not allowed to be used to pay the temple tax. The temple tax was required in order to have your sacrifice processed. Thus you had to exchange Caesar’s money for God’s money. One need only to trace the cycle of Caesar’s money to money-changers to temple-coins to Sadducees (Priest officials) and back to money-changers; and the evidence of corruption is obvious. I don’t have the evidence to support the following, but my guess is there was profit to the Sadducees, too, in selling the temple-coins back to the money-changers. There had to be a cycle. As they say, "Follow the money."

There’s a very loud contrast in the text that I think speaks only quietly to us who are so detached from the context of the 1st CE of Jerusalem. Right in the middle of this narrative about the temple cleansing we have this statement (NASB20):

And those who were blind and those who limped came to Him in the temple area, and He healed them.

Why is that plopped there? Perhaps this is related to a statement not more than a few dozen or so sentences later: Matthew 22:21:

Then pay to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.

It’s very likely that the blind and lame would be too poor to even pay the temple-tax. So, they couldn’t afford to offer any kind of sacrifice. Socially, religiously, personally, this was utterly disastrous for these people. There's a strong contrast between the money-changers and the hopeless. These are two groups of participants in this narrative. And Jesus is interacting with both of them in very different ways. Is he the examplar of "render to God what is God's?"

These two stories, temple-tax and poll-tax, appear to bracket several parables that clearly show that the leadership of the time have become so utterly corrupt that judgment was inevitable.

Why did Jesus cast out money changers from the temple?

Because the money changers practiced customer-controlling, wealth-redistributing, pecuniary activities that oppressed people, especially and obviously those who were too incapacitated to pay. We have a couple ready-at-hand examples of that today which are beyond the scope of BH to mention. However, the parables between Matthew 21:10 and 22:22 speak to what resolves such corruption, both then, and today.

Answer 4

There is no simple answer to your question because there is more than one reason for Jesus' actions.

To identify the main motivation of the Messiah, we have to compare your quote from Matthew with the parallel text in the Gospel of Mark 11:

15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said,“Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Aha, the temple was designed to be a house of prayer for all nations. Jesus quotes here from Isaiah 56:

1 This is what the Lord says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the one who does this— the person who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps their hands from doing any evil.” 3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. 6 And foreigners who bind (join) themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Sovereign Lord declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”

Isaiah prophesied here about the time in the future when the temple of JHVH will be for all nations. On top of that, a eunuch would become a member of Israel, and a foreigner would become a priest. Keep in mind that according to the law of Moses, a eunuch couldn't become an Israelite due to the fact that he was missing the body part necessary to be circumcised during the act of conversion, Deuteronomy 23:

1 No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Likewise only the Levites from the clan of Aaron were allowed to become priest. The verse ”foreigners who bind (join) themselves” is a word play of the name of Levi, the third son of Jacob, Genesis 29:34:

And she conceived again and bore a son and said, “Now this time my husband will be joined to me because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named Levi.

It would be impossible to become a priest for anyone else than the descendant of Aaron under the law of Moses.

Jesus, quoting from Isaiah, declares that the fulfillment of the prophecy is near. Remember also that Christ is the true temple, and the structure built by Solomon in Jerusalem was a shadow and a physical picture of a spiritual reality (John 2:21).

If you look at the plans of the Herod's temple, there is only one area that could be used as a market. It had to be the outer courts, known as the courtyards of the gentiles. The only place where gentiles were allowed to enter had been transformed into a noisy and smelly marketplace full of animals. How could one pray in a place like this? I am convinced that this was the number one reason for Jesus' anger.

https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Herod_Great_Temple_POST.jpg

The second scripture from which Jesus was quoting was Jeremiah 7. The famous sermon against the authorities ruling the first temple, Jerusalem, and the whole kingdom of Judah. You should see both scenes in the same light, with the same kind of accusations.

The robbers feel safe in their dens, protected from justice and punishment. The authorities of the time of Jeremiah were using the temple in the same way. As a cover and justification for their own sins and corruption.  As long as we have the temple of the LORD, we are safe, and He will forgive us for all our misconduct, they thought. They were obviously wrong and misjudged God's character. When the Babylonians came, the divine protection was lifted, and they were allowed to destroy the place.

The priests and authorities of Jesus' times were making exactly the same mistake. So the cleansing of the temple could be interpreted as the same type of warning as Jeremiah's sermon. But we know that the new rulers had learned nothing from the past events.

As a rule of a thumb, a quoted verse from the OT usually hyperlinks to a larger section of a text rather than the exact quote. So casting out the money changers together with the sellers and their animals links to the last section of Jeremiah 7:

21 “ ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors.’

Jesus reminded the priests who were in control of the sacrifices and the market in the temple that God has no pleasure in them. His desire is the obedience of his people, not the blood of the animals.

The last but not least is the issue of the money. The official currency used in the temple at that time was a pagan Tyrian shekel. It bore the image of pagan deities but was accepted because of its purity and the right weight of silver.

"The shekel, with the laureate head of Melqarth-Herakles (a pagan deity) on the obverse and an eagle (a graven image) on the reverse, averaged 14.2 gm in weight and contained at least 94 per cent silver. These coins were minted in Tyre between 126/125 BC and 19/18 BC. After the Roman government closed the Tyre mint, these coins continued to be minted at an unknown mint, probably in or near Jerusalem, from 18/17 BC until AD 69/70. The Jewish coin makers continued to strike coins with the image of Melqarth-Herakles and the eagle. This was contrary to the clear teachings of the Word of God (Ex 20:3, 4: Dt. 4:16-18; 5:8). Yet the rabbis declared that the Tyrian shekels were the only legal currency that was acceptable in the Temple (Hendin 2001:420-29; 2002:46, 47). The rabbis decided that the commandment to give the half-shekel Temple tax, with its proper weight and purity, was more important than the prohibition of who or what image was on the coin." https://biblearchaeology.org/research/divided-kingdom/3646-the-tyrian-shekel-and-the-temple-of-jerusalem

"Melqart was possibly the Ba‘al found in the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible, specifically in 1 Kings 16.31–10.26) whose worship was prominently introduced to Israel by King Ahab and largely eradicated by King Jehu." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melqart