Money Changers
Money Changers [1]
It is mentioned by Volney that in Syria, Egypt, and Turkey, when any considerable payments are to be made, an agent of exchange is sent for, who counts paras by thousands, rejects pieces of false money, and weighs all the sequins either separately or together. It has hence been suggested that the 'current money with the merchant,' mentioned in Scripture , might have been such as was approved of by competent judges whose business it was to detect fraudulent money if offered in payment. It appears that there were bankers or money-changers in Judea, who made a trade of receiving money in deposit and paying interest for it . Some of them had even established themselves within the precincts of the temple at Jerusalem , where they were in the practice of exchanging one species of money for another. Persons who came from a distance to worship at Jerusalem would naturally bring with them the money current in their respective districts, and it might therefore be a matter of convenience for them to get this money exchanged at the door of the temple for that which was current in Jerusalem, and upon their departure to receive again that species of money which circulated in the districts to which they were journeying. These money-changers would, of course, charge a commission upon all their transactions, but from the observation of our Savior, when he overthrew the tables of those in the temple, it may be inferred that they were not distinguished for honesty and fair dealing: 'It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves' .
