Money-changer
Money-Changer
( Mat 21:12; Mar 11:15; Joh 2:15). According to Exo 30:13-15, every Israelite, whether rich or poor, who had reached or passed the age of twenty, must pay into the sacred treasury, whenever the nation was numbered, a half-shekel as an offering to Jehovah. Maimonides (Sheeial. cap. 1) says that this was to be paid annually, and that even paupers were not exempt. The Talmud exempts priests and women. The tribute must in every case be paid in coin of the exact Hebrew halfshekel, about 151d. sterling of English money. The. premium for obtaining by exchange of other money the half-shekel of Hebrew coin, according to the Talmud, was a (collybuis), and hence the money-broker who made the exchange was called . The collybus, according to the same authority, was equal in value to a silver obolus, which has a weight of 12 grains, and its money value is about 11d. sterling. The moneychangers () whom Christ, for their impiety, avarice, and fraudulent dealing, expelled from the Temple, were the dealers who supplied half-shekels, for such a premium as they might be able to exact, to the Jews: from all parts of the world, who assembled at Jerusalem during the great festivals, and were required to pay their tribute or ransom money in the Hebrew coin; and also for other purposes of exchange, such as would be necessary in so great a resort of foreign residents to the ecclesiastical metropolis. The word (trapezites),which we find in Mat 25:29, is a general term for banker or broker, so called from the table () at which they were seated (like the modern bank, i.e., bench). SEE EXCHANGER.
Of this branch of business we find traces very early both in the Oriental and classical literature (comp. Mat 17:24-27 : see Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. on Mat 21:12; Buxtorf, Lex. Rabbin. col. 2032). Smith. 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 (Gen 23:16), might have been such as was approved of by competent judges, whose business it was to detect fraudulent money if offered’ in payment. The Hebrew word , socher’, signifies one who goes about from place to place, and is supposed to answer to the native exchange-agent or money-broker of the East, now called shroff. SEE MERCHANT.
It appears that there were bankers or money-changers in Judaea, who made a trade of receiving money in deposit and paying interest for it (Mat 25:27). In the Life of Aratus, by Plutarch, there is mention of a banker of Sicyon, a city of Peloponnesus, who lived 240 years before Christ, and whose whole business consisted in exchanging one species of money for another. SEE CHANGER OF MONEY.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Money-changer
(Matt. 21:12; Mark 11:15; John 2:15). Every Israelite from twenty years and upwards had to pay (Ex. 30:13-15) into the sacred treasury half a shekel every year as an offering to Jehovah, and that in the exact Hebrew half-shekel piece. There was a class of men, who frequented the temple courts, who exchanged at a certain premium foreign moneys for these half-shekels to the Jews who came up to Jerusalem from all parts of the world. (See PASSOVER) When our Lord drove the traffickers out of the temple, these money-changers fared worst. Their tables were overturned and they themselves were expelled.