The Gospel According to John: 2:12-25
When worship is hindered.
COURT OF THE GENTILES The outer court of the temple where Jesus taught, where sacrificial animals were sold, and where the “cleansing of the temple” incident took place.
Introduction
The Court of the Gentiles was one of several courts attached to Herod’s temple. The first-century historian Josephus mentions four courts:
1. The outer court was open to all people, foreigners included; only menstruating women were refused admission.
2. The second court was open to all Jews and, when uncontaminated by any defilement, their wives.
3. The third court was limited to male Jews who were clean and purified.
4. The fourth court was limited to priests robed in their priestly vestments.
The sanctuary was entered only by the ruling priests, clad in the appropriate apparel (Josephus, Against Apion, 2.8 §104; Evans, Mark, 171).
The Court of the Gentiles was the outer court that surrounded the inner sacred courts (Utley, Beloved Disciple, 27; Grassmick, “Mark,” 157). Although “Court of the Gentiles” is a later name not found in Josephus, the New Testament, or Middoth (Votaw, “Temple,” 176), the book of Revelation refers to “the outer courtyard … given to the Gentiles” (Rev 11:2 NET). This court was where buying and selling of sacrificial animals took place, probably as a service for all pilgrims coming to Jerusalem to sacrifice (Blum, “John,” 279). The temple area as a whole is estimated to have been able to hold about 75,000 people (Meyers and Strange, Archaeology, 52).
On its east side, the Court of the Gentiles had a 49-foot-wide covered walk called the Porch of Solomon or Solomon’s Portico (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12); the roof was supported by two rows of pillars with a height of 39 feet (Josephus, Jewish War, 5.5.2 §190, 192; Charlesworth, “Introduction,” 14).
The Court of the Gentiles and Restricted Areas
Various measures were taken to limit Gentiles’ access to the inner areas of the temple. Josephus reports that between the Court of the Gentiles and the inner sanctuary “there was a partition made of stone all round, whose height was three cubits” (Josephus, Jewish War, 5.2 §§193; see Abel, Grammaire, 18, on the vacillation between δ, d; and τ, t; in the Greek δρύφακτος, dryphaktos; or τρύφακτος, tryphaktos, which are usually translated as “partition” or “balustrade”). The inner courts were on an elevated area “ascended to by fourteen steps from the first court” (Josephus, Jewish War, 5.2 §§195; Bickerman, “Warning Inscriptions,” 387; Votaw, “Temple,” 177). Signs were placed on the stone barrier near the stairs leading up to the inner sanctuary, warning non-Jews not to enter the area (Josephus, Jewish War, 6.2.4 §124–25; Josephus, Antiquities 15.11.5 §417; Bickerman, “Warning Inscriptions,” 387, 389). Two complete tablets written in Greek have been found that read: Μηθένα ἀλλογενῆ εἰσπορεύεσθαι ἐντὸς τοῦ περὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τρυφάκτου καὶ περιβόλου (Mēthena allogenē eisporeuesthai entos tou peri to hieron tryphaktou kai peribolou). Ὅς δἄν ληφθῇ (Hos dan lēphthē), ἑαυτῶι αἴτιος ἔσται διὰ τὸ ἐξακολουθεῖν θάνατον (heautōi aitios estai dia to exakolouthein thanaton, “No alien may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue”; Bickerman, “Warning Inscriptions,” 388; Clermont-Ganneau, “Stèle,” 177–78). The inscription does not give any indication as to the legal procedure, whether it refers to “death at the hands of heaven,” death by lynching, or death following prosecution (Bickerman, “Warning Inscriptions,” 394–95). From Josephus we know that Roman law allowed the Jews to execute any Gentile who entered the inner sanctuary (Josephus, Jewish War, 6.2.4 §126).
Money Changer. Ancient profession which undertook many of the services performed by the modern banker, particularly in the area of exchanging the currency of one country or province into that of another, or of exchanging small coins for coins of greater value or vice versa. Naturally a fee was charged for such a service.
Coinage as such does not go back beyond the 7th century BC. In earlier periods pieces of silver were weighed out in payment for commodities (Gn 20:16; 37:28; Jgs 17:2). Once the standardized coin was adopted in Asia Minor the idea was copied in other lands, but since coins differed from country to country equivalents had to be worked out by the money changers.
The need for such procedures was particularly important in Palestine, where every adult male Jew had to pay a half-shekel offering (Ex 30:11–16). Jews from various countries who came to pay this sum might bring a variety of types of coinage. Temple authorities had to authorize a coin appropriate for the purpose. This was the silver Tyrian half-shekel or tetradrachma (cf. Mt 17:27, where Peter was told to pay the temple tax for Jesus and himself with the coin he found in the mouth of a fish). The Mishna states (Sheqalim 1:3) that money changers operated in the provinces on the 15th of the month of Adar (the month before the Passover) to collect this tax. Ten days before the Passover the money changers moved to the temple courts to assist Jews from foreign countries.
Jesus encountered the money changers in the temple courtyard when he “cleansed the temple” (Mt 21:12, 13; Mk 11:15, 16; Lk 19:45, 46; Jn 2:13–22). The reason for this action has been a matter of debate. Worshipers needed to procure the half-shekel to pay their tax. But they needed also to purchase birds, animals, or cake offerings in some cases. This wholesale activity in buying and money-changing seemed inappropriate in the temple precincts, which constituted a sacred area (cf. Mk 11:16), although Jesus evidently approved the payment of the temple tax as such (Mt 8:4; 17:24–26; Mk 1:44; Lk 5:14). There is also the possibility that the charge made by money changers and by those who sold sacrificial birds and animals was exorbitant whether for their own profit or for the profit of the temple authorities. Such operations could be carried on at a suitable distance from the sacred area so that the haggling and noise associated with such activities in an eastern setting did not unnecessarily disturb the prayer and the offering of sacrifices carried on in the temple courts (cf. Jer 7:11).
See MONEY AND BANKING; COINS.