"Money changers": are certain people who sat in the temple at certain times, to receive the "half shekel", and sometimes change the money for it to themselves. It was a custom for every Israelite, once a year, to pay half a shekel towards the temple charge and service, based on the orders given by God to Moses in the wilderness during the numbering of the Israelites, to take half a shekel out of everyone twenty yearsof age and older, rich or poor, though this does not seem to be designed as a perpetual rule. However, it became a fixed rule, and was annually paid. Every year a public notice was given in all the cities in Israel, that the time of paying the half shekel was nearing, so the people will be ready with their money, for everyone was obliged to pay it, as stated, Notice being thus given, "on the fifteenth day, "tables" were placed in the province, or city, and on the twenty fifth they sit "in the sanctuary". The same is related by Maimonides. This gives a plain account of these money changers, their tables, and their sitting in the temple, and on what account. These exchangers had a profit, called "Kolbon", in every shekel they changed. This "Kolbon" gives the name "Collybistae" for these exchangers in this text. The large gain must amount to a great deal of money. They seemed to work within the frame of law when Christ overturned their table, unless it should be objected, that this was not the time of their sitting, because that happened a few days before the Passover, which was in the month Nisan, whereas the half shekel should be paid in the month Adar until the twenty fifth of Adar. Moreover, these men had other business, such as money exchange, especially at such a time as the passover, when persons came from different parts of world to attend it; and might want to exchange their foreign money for current money.
Verse 13
Citing from ; Cross reference: ;
Authority of Jesus questioned (21:23–27)
Verses 24–27
Allison notes that "this section is less about Jesus... or John the Baptist| the Baptist than it is about the chief priests and elders, characterising these as less spiritually aware and perceptive than the multitudes over whom they preside, and moral cowards driven by expediency.
Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (21:33–46)
Verse 43
Protestant biblical commentatorHeinrich Meyer notes that "Jesus is not here referring to the Gentiles, as, since Eusebius’ time, many... have supposed, but, as the use of the singular already plainly indicates, to the whole of the future subjects of the kingdom of the Messiah, conceived of as one people, which will therefore consist of Jews and Gentiles, new Messianic people of God", the "holy nation" addressed as such in. The phrase "the fruits of it" means "the fruits of the kingdom".
