Corruption In The Jewish Temple

Unlike pagan religions, Judaism only had one temple, and the Jewish Temple’s significance centered around Judaism’s central tenets: there was only one true God, Yahweh, also known as Elohim, and they alone were his “chosen people,” as seen by the fact that he chose to dwell in their Temple, in their capital city of Jerusalem. (The Roman Empire – proudly polytheistic and secure in their belief that Rome, not a city in rural Judea, was the cultural center of the known world – most disliked these tenets as projecting a smug superiority at best, and at worst threatening the stability of the empire if, by some chance, they spread. ) While the Temple represented the core beliefs of Judaism that united the various decentralized Jewish cities and tribes,

After his unconventional arrival in Jerusalem, riding a donkey surrounded by cheering crowds, Jesus’ first act is to forcibly expel the “all who were selling and buying in the temple…and overturn the tables of moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves,” presumably people who were purchasing animals to sacrifice and merchants who were selling those animals, as well as the Temple personnel who collected the Temple tax. He condemns what he sees as rampant corruption, proclaiming, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’” The second part of his declaration references Jeremiah 7:11, which in context is a statement about the hypocrisy of the people who sin continually, offer sacrifices, and then continue to sin – but Jesus’ phrasing implies that the building itself has been tainted by the people’s sinful practices. In that same chapter of Matthew, Jesus states, “Therefore 1 tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom,” and a few chapters later, he points to the Temple buildings and declares that “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Jesus not only condemns the Temple as corrupt outright, because by asserting the Jews are the Jews are no longer solely God’s chosen people, he indirectly challenges the Temple’s symbolic importance. His prophetic indication of the Temple’s destruction serves to further affirm that