the Gentiles to the Temple. We know from Josephus that by the year A.D. 66 the Zealots refused all gifts of
the Gentiles to the Temple. According to Mishnah Shekalim 1:5, only sacrifices which could be vowed or
brought as free-will offerings were accepted from Gentiles, giving the priests the option of accepting gifts
from non-Jews for Temple repairs or upkeep (Arakhim 6a, Maimonedes Matnot Arayim 8:8).
The Shammiaite priest‘s ruling on vows would enable the Zealot priests to refuse and even pocket the
money, since these offerings were not specifically marked for sacrifice. The Gentiles offered many gifts. This
was evident from Josephus (Wars 5:17), who records that the altar was ―universally venerated by Greeks
and barbarians‖. We see how this would have angered Y‘shua (Matt 21:12, 13; Mark 11:15-17), since it was
the priest‘s job to accept all gifts and forward them for the intended purpose (Shekalim 6:5, 6). It was at the
moneychanger‘s tables that the Zealot priests would have diverted the Gentile offerings. We can see this
more in what Y‘shua said to the moneychangers as He quoted them Isaiah 56:7 and Jer 7:11. The
Damascus Document gives more evidence of why those like the Essenes disliked the Temple in Jerusalem
when it talks about ―not defiling themselves by laying on hands which had been vowed or devoted to YHWH
or on the property of the Temple‖.
According to the Mosaic Law, you had to come to the Temple and bring a sacrifice. This sacrifice had to be
without spot or blemish. It was the job of the ones who were in charge of the Temple to inspect the sacrifice
to see if it was without spot or blemish. There was an inspection fee for having your animal checked and the
money went into the pockets of Annas the High Priest. Invariably, if you did bring your own sacrifice,
somehow they managed to find something wrong with it. So, if your sacrifice was disqualified, you had two
options. First, if you lived in Jerusalem, you could go home and get another one. But, if you lived in the
Galilee, a three-day journey from Jerusalem, this was impossible. So you had to resort to the second option.
This second option was rather convenient, because over in the corner of the Temple compound was a whole
bunch of sheep that already had the Sadducees ―Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval‖. They had already
been inspected and certified to be without spot or blemish. All you needed to do was buy one. But, these
sheep were sold at high-inflated prices, and the money also went into the pockets of Annas. Also, it was not
unusual for an animal that was previously disqualified to end up among these after the previous owner had
left. Amazingly, the spot or blemish had disappeared.
―And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up‖. (John 2:14-
17)
This is a quotation from Psalm 69:9, a Messianic Psalm. The Hebrew translation is more graphic: ―The zeal
for Your house will cause My destruction‖. This will be literally fulfilled because of what Y‘shua does here and
again about three years later. The whole group of Sadducees will be against Him and they will seek His
death because of what He did in the Temple compound. It is important to emphasise here that it was a
very small group of the Jews (Sadducees mostly) that caused His death. The bulk of the Jewish
populace actually accepted Him as the Messiah, as we shall see later on.
(18) Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou
doest these things?
(19) Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
(20) Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three
days?
(21) But he spake of the temple of his body.
(22) When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto
them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said‖. (John 2:18-22)
At this point the Sadducees demand a sign and He gives them a rather cryptic one. They understand Him to
mean that he is threatening the physical Temple. The Temple He is speaking of, of course, is the Temple of
His body. We are told that later the Jewish populace did the same thing. Three years before the destruction
of the Temple in 70 A.D., Josephus tells us that the populace of Jerusalem swept into the Temple
compound, overthrew the tables, and chased the animals out of the compound.
The Temple was being commercialised. Instead of being a place of worship, contemplation, mediation, with
everything focusing on a holy YHWH and the way of atonement He provided through the sacrificial system,
the priests who were in charge of the Temple had allowed it to become more like a Middle Eastern Shuk - a
loud, noisy, crowded Bazaar where profit was the most important thing.
In fact, both the Jewish historian Josephus and the Rabbis both mention the greed, wastefulness and
luxurious lifestyles of the Priests who were in charge of the Temple at this period of time. ―The bazaar of the