Now, on of the more fun narratives to visualize is John 2:15-16 which is where Jesus goes all Indiana Jones, makes himself a whip, and beats the heck out of the moneychangers and pigeon sellers. The narrative makes it appear that Jesus is the hero of the story, and many justify his brutality against innocents.
What do I mean by innocent?
Well, for one thing, the Temple was, for the most part, a religious slaughterhouse when it wasn't being a place for people to bring money as required by their religious tenants. People had to bring goats, sheep, and other animals for sacrifices.
One of these animals was what is called a "turtledove", which is basically a Middle Eastern pigeon. For example, women who gave birth, after a designated amount of time, would have to bring pigeons to be sacrificed. And as anyone who has lived in a big city knows, catching pigeons isn't easy. So the people in charge permitted pigeon sellers to be in the general courtyard so the ladies could buy their pigeons to give to the priests who were waiting a short distance away.
The other task in the Temple was to collect money for a census at the designated times. The head of each household would have to bring a half-shekel of silver for every member.
Now just imagine that it's almost Passover. You have your sheep or goat to be slaughtered, and are standing in line with 10,000 other guys with their own sheep. It's been hours. You're hungry. A local is hawking food, so you buy something. Another is hawking drinks, so you buy one of those. Another is selling gifts for the wives, so you buy one of those.
And after 6 or 7 hours in line, you finally see the end in sight. And then you realize that you don't have exact change. You have more than enough, but you need 5 silver half shekels, not a single 3 silver shekels of weight.
So what do you do? Do you go back home with your sheep? Or do you pay the exorbitant prices to the guys hawking up and down the line?
The Jewish leadership saw that as a problem, because people would get angry and have a bad experience overall. So, with the drawing of lots, they set up official changing booths where the moneychanger would charge a nominal/acceptable fee and the priesthood would get a cut, and the Jews were happy.
And in walks Jesus and goes ballistic.
And that claim is that he fulfilled a messianic prophecy by doing so as noted in Psalm 69:9 (for Christians) or 69:10 (for Jews). Yes, there is a different numbering system that usually overlaps, except when it doesn't.
So what is Psalm 69:10 say? Here's the KJV version:
"For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen unto me."
It's not too bad. Although the Hebrew word "קנא" isn't "zeal", but "jealousy". So a better way of reading this is "It is because of the jealousy of your house that I suffer, that I an consumed, those who cannot abide you turn to me with their abuse.
This psalm is about someone who is hated, not because they deserve it, but they suffer because, while God cannot be attacked and abused, His follower can.
If you read the rest of the verses that immediately follow this one, it is someone who is in anguish, not attacking. He fasts, wears a sackcloth, mourns about what is going on, but takes the abuse anyway.
And this Psalm has absolutely no connection to the angry whipping zealot in John 2:15-16, who attacked his fellow Jews, not because they were abusing him or his God, but because they were simply trying to make a living in a way that was permitted.
Style: "Non-sequitur, not fulfilled, it's an ironic choice. Jesus didn't fulfill it."
Here is the meme used:
No comments:
Post a Comment