Jewish tradition tells us that the money-changers (Matthew 22:17-21) were licensed by the high priests, the authorities at Jerusalem. Without any doubt, Annas and his family figured prominently among them, and most of the high priests profited very well for the business conducted by the money-changers and those who sold animals for sacrifice inside the Temple compound.
Writing about the Temple-tax, we find that the rabbis recorded:
On the first of Adar proclamation is made with regard to the shekels… on the fifteenth of this month [Adar] tables are set up in the provinces and on the twenty-fifth in the Sanctuary [Babylonian Talmud; Megilah 29a-b].
From this excerpt, we are able to understand that the money-changers’ tables for the Temple-tax were set up throughout Judea and Galilee on the 15th day of the 12th month (Adar) in the Jewish calendar. Therefore, it had to be during this ten day period (i.e. between the 15th and the 25th of Adar) that Peter was asked, if Jesus intended to pay the Temple-tax (Matthew 17:24-27). So, when Jesus cast out the money-changers from the Temple compound, it had to have been between the 25th of Adar to the 15th of Nisan (Passover Day), because that was the time the Temple-tax was accepted at the tables of the money-changers inside the Temple compound.
The Jewish authorities, the high priests of that day, were largely, if not totally corrupt. Josephus tells us that Annas, the high priest, was a great hoarder of money and was not above using it to bribe others to accomplish his own ends. Moreover, he stole the tithes due to other priests in order to add to his wealth. Notice Josephus’ record of the latter life of Annas:
“…for he was a great hoarder up of money: he therefore cultivated the friendship of Albinus, and of the high priest [Jesus], by making them presents; he also had servants who were very wicked, who joined themselves to the boldest sort of the people, and went to the thrashing floors, and took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence, and did not refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. So the other high priests acted in the like manner, as did those his servants, without any one being able to prohibit them; so that [some of the] priests, that of old were wont to be supported with those tithes, died for want of food.” [Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.2]
Notice that it was Annas who initiated this type of behavior, after which the other corrupt high priests followed his example. Speaking of these same things, the later rabbis wrote:
Our Rabbis taught: At first they used to place the skins of sacrifices in the chamber of Beth Ha-Parwah. In the evening they used to divide them among the men of the paternal division,[1] but men of violence used to seize [more than their due share] by force. So they enacted that they should divide them every Sabbath eve, so that all the ‘wards’ came and received their portions together. Yet the chief priests still seized [them] by force… [Babylonian Talmud; Pesachim 57a]
Moreover, the Talmud also records the general attitude the Jewish people who lived in the first century AD had toward their authorities:
Abba Saul b. Bothnith said in the name of Abba Joseph b. Hanin: ‘Woe is me because of the house of Boethus; woe is me because of their staves![2] Woe is me because of the house of Hanin (i.e. Annas the high priest), woe is me because of their whisperings![3] Woe is me because of the house of Kathros,[4] woe is me because of their pens![5] Woe is me because of the house of Ishmael the son of Phabi,[6] woe is me because of their fists! For they are High Priests[7] and their sons are [Temple] treasurers and their sons-in-law are trustees and their servants beat the people with staves.’[8] [Babylonian Talmud – Pesachim 57a; — footnotes in the excerpt, parenthesis mine]
Although the text doesn’t reveal much about what Jesus said, every day, while he was in Jerusalem and within the Temple complex, Jesus taught the people (Luke 19:47), but his enemies, who were the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem, the scribes, Pharisees and the Sadducees, sought a reasonable cause to arrest him (Luke 19:48) without causing a revolt among the people, who were very attentive to what Jesus taught.
The Jewish authorities had a vested interest in rejecting Jesus. They profited in this world’s goods through abuse of their offices. The people, however, had no vested interest in rejecting Jesus. Therefore, they willingly heard him. It took subtlety and intimidation by the Jewish authorities to get them to reject Jesus later.
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[1] The priests were divided into ‘wards’, each ‘ward’ officiating a week at a time in the Temple; these were further subdivided into paternal divisions, of which each officiated one day in the week.
[2] With which they beat the people.
[3] Their secret conclaves to devise oppressive measures.
[4] Supposed to be identical with GR. **, Josephus, Antiquities XX, 1, 3.
[5] With which they wrote their evil decrees.
[6] He himself was religious and held in high repute, as is seen below (v. also Par. III, 5; Sot. IX, 5; Yoma 35b), but he did not restrain his sons from lawlessness; in the passage of Josephus too, already cited, reference is only made to his children.
[7] The High Priesthood by this time was a source of great political power. Once a man became a High Priest he retained much of his power, and perhaps his title too, even if he was deposed; hence there were often several High Priests at the same time; v. Halevi, Doroth, I, 3, p. 445, n. 30; pp. 633f; 718.
[8] For this passage cf. Josephus, Antiquities XX, 8,8.
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