When Jesus found moneylenders and trade being conducted in the tem-
ple, this was because the temple in Jerusalem collected a tax (domestically,
as well as from Jews living in Diaspora). A large amount of money flowed
through it (Kautsky 1925:271). Because of this temple tax, the Jerusalem
priesthood’s wealth grew tremendously (Kaustky 1925:276). This is why Jesus
was upset about the moneylenders in the temple:
And Jesus entered the temple of God and drove out all who sold and bought
in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the
seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house
shall be called a house of prayer ’; but you make it a den of robbers. (Matthew
21:12–13; see also Mark 12:15 and Luke 19:46; John 2:14–15)Jesus, like Amos, thought that the moneylenders took unfair advantage of
the poor and that the temple should not be a “house of trade” ( John 2:16).
Jesus thought that, under the conditions it was conducted, engaging in trade
and money lending was a form of robbery.
Jesus led an uprising against the Jewish priest class who exercised a theoc-
racy (albeit a puppet one) through the temple in Jerusalem (Nietzsche 1968:149).
One of Jesus’ major conflicts was with the Pharisees. The Pharisees, who have
their origins in the Maccabeean revolt, were the heirs of the priesthood in
the time of Jesus (Weber 1952:385; Abraham, 1992:253). Under the Romans,
there was a proliferation of Jewish sects. Three of them mentioned by Josephus
are the Pharisees, Saducees and Essenes (Antiq. 13.5.9). The Pharisees were
intellectuals of upper-class origin, influenced by Hellenism, who inherited
the rationalism of the prophets (Weber 1978:824; Kautsky 1925:297; Duncan
and Derrett 1985:354; Schiper 1959:257).
Jesus stood in opposition to the Pharisees; he accused them and the scribes
of being “the sons of those who murdered the prophets” (Matthew 23:31).
He called them lovers of money (Luke 16:14). The Pharisees and scribes, in
turn, accused Jesus of breaking the tradition. They said that he desecrated
the Sabbath by feeding the hungry and healing the sick on the day of rest.
Jesus, in response, called them hypocrites (Matthew 15:1–7; 23:13). Because
of this conflict, “the Pharisees took counsel against him, how to destroy him”
(Matthew 12:14; see also 3:6). They (along with the chief priests) sent officers
to arrest him ( John 7:31). Jesus’ conflict with the Pharisees was of the prophet
with the priests.
While Jesus attacked the Pharisees and Sadducees, he did not criticize the
Essenes (Matthew 16:1–12; 22:23–46; Luke 6:31; 11:42–44). It is the love-
216 • Warren S. Goldstein