In fact, looking at the picture above, I have come to realize the artist (Carl Bloch) who drew the above had noticed the aforementioned details and had been very careful in producing his painting. I will attempt to illumine with what has been shown to me.
The accounts given to us in Matthew and Mark (emphases mine):
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21: 12-13)
"And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons." (Mark 11:15)
The gospel writers, I believe, would not insert details for no reason. Luke does not mention the pigeons but both Matthew and Mark do.
Why is that detail so important? To understand this, we will have to go back to the book of Leviticus to fully grasp the heinousness and madness that was ongoing at the temple.
The excerpt from Leviticus 5:1-7 is quoted below:
“If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity; or if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether a carcass of an unclean wild animal or a carcass of unclean livestock or a carcass of unclean swarming things, and it is hidden from him and he has become unclean, and he realizes his guilt; or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt; or if anyone utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that people swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and he realizes his guilt in any of these; when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed, he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.
“But if he cannot afford a lamb, then he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering."
For purifying after childbirth Leviticus 12:8:
"And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.”
For those with leprosy in Leviticus 14:
"And he shall offer, of the turtledoves or pigeons, whichever he can afford, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, along with a grain offering."
The Jewish customs had strict laws regarding sin offerings. What was on display at the temple was an economy and a market for these sacrifices. Thus instead of scouring high and low for the sacrifices, it was available for buying and selling right at the doorstep of the temple. But we must not stop there. The fact that pigeons were on sale, means that the target customers of the sacrifice sellers were those who were dirt poor. There were no lambs on sale for example because the rich could afford it. They didn't need the sacrifice sellers but the poor were at the mercy of the prices set by the sacrifice sellers.
The customs were enacted for the Jewish person to be "right with God". The sacrifice sellers knew that the Jewish person, no matter how poor, needed to perform the custom. Extortion was on full display by taking advantage of the poor person by selling pigeons at a very high rate.
Jesus drove out the money-changers and pigeon sellers and uttered the famous line: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Den of robbers and yet which segment of society were they robbing - not the rich but the poor. Those who were already struggling to get by and yet they were being robbed.
Truly what happened that day at the temple was extremely heinous - one that turns the Jewish sacrificial system into an extortionist economy that devours the poor.
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