Grin and Bear It
Though not a big Jesus fan, I must admit to a near religious support of the Bears, a support that is marred by two recurrent problems:
So it came to me: Why not drive the beer sellers out of the stadium?
Sadly, there are a couple of reasons: (a) they have a history there, (b) they are there legally, (c) they serve a legitimate function, and (d) any attempt by me to throw them out would result in me getting severely pummeled by the combined might of the police, security guards, and fan base. Bottom line: thank God for TV because it ain't happening!
The "Temple Tantrum"
Those who read the story about the 'money changers' typically have neither the background nor the inclination to visualize what is being suggested. They fail to realize that the Temple was massive, in fact far larger that Soldiers Field. They do not understand, much less consider, the critically important role played by the money-changers and, indeed, the rest of the Temple infrastructure. They certainly don't take into account the fact that both Roman and Jewish guards would have been on hand and unwilling to entertain lawless disruptions. Read, for example, the following by Paula Fredriksen:
Though not a big Jesus fan, I must admit to a near religious support of the Bears, a support that is marred by two recurrent problems:
- They're not very good.
- The stadium experience is not very pleasant.
So it came to me: Why not drive the beer sellers out of the stadium?
Sadly, there are a couple of reasons: (a) they have a history there, (b) they are there legally, (c) they serve a legitimate function, and (d) any attempt by me to throw them out would result in me getting severely pummeled by the combined might of the police, security guards, and fan base. Bottom line: thank God for TV because it ain't happening!
The "Temple Tantrum"
Those who read the story about the 'money changers' typically have neither the background nor the inclination to visualize what is being suggested. They fail to realize that the Temple was massive, in fact far larger that Soldiers Field. They do not understand, much less consider, the critically important role played by the money-changers and, indeed, the rest of the Temple infrastructure. They certainly don't take into account the fact that both Roman and Jewish guards would have been on hand and unwilling to entertain lawless disruptions. Read, for example, the following by Paula Fredriksen:
Bottom line: thank God for apologetic creativity because it ain't happening!Further, since 1988 I have learned more about the Temple, both from studying E.P. Sanders Judaism: Practice and Belief, and from my time in Israel. Sanders provides approximate measurements that give a sense of the sheer size of the place: the total circumference of the outermost wall ran to almost 9/10ths of a mile; twelve soccer fields, including stands, could be fit in; when necessary (as during the pilgrimage festivals, especially Passover) it could accommodate as many as 400,000 worshipers.
I have trouble visualizing space from numbers. It was not until I started walking around the Temple Mount that I began to understand how huge the Temple area specifically its outermost court, around the perimeter of which, beneath the protection from sun or storm offered by the stoa or the Royal Portico, "those who sold" could be found must have been. Its very size shrank the significance of Jesus putative action, and prompted the question: If Jesus had made such a gesture, how many would have seen it? Those in his retinue and those standing immediately around him. But how many, in the congestion and confusion of that holiday crowd, could have seen what was happening even, say, twenty feet away? Fifty feet? The effect of Jesus' gesture at eye-level would have been muffled, swallowed up by the sheer press of pilgrims. How worried, then, need the priests have been?
- see From Jesus to Christ