Facilitating the Collection of the Temple Tax. Jews could pay the annual temple tax during their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.220 Those who made the journey brought coins from their host countries and accumulated during travel. Moneychangers facilitated the collection of the temple tax 219 Moneychangers did more than just exchange currencies. They functioned as bankers and financiers, supplying credit, safekeeping others’ money, paying interest on money held by them, and acting as a channel of payment between two parties or business partners (Betlyon, “Coinage,” 1:1086; Z. Safrai, Economy of Roman Palestine, 291–92, 293–95). Hanson and Oakman caution against overemphasizing the role of moneychangers as the bankers of the ancient world: “The need to convert between the various systems led to the prominence of money changers, whose ‘tables’ (the Greek word trapezai is often translated misleadingly as ‘bank’) offered only rudimentary banking functions by our standards” (Palestine, 114). 220 Though its institution is attributed to Moses (Exod 30:11–16; cf. Exod 38:25–26; 2 Chr 24:6, 9), the temple tax was established in the post-exilic period to defray the costs of public sacrifice, which before the exile had been paid for by the king (Ezek 45:17–25). Generally, the temple tax was collected within a given community and then delivered to Jerusalem on its behalf (m. #eqal. 2:1; cf. Matt 17:24). Jews brought their contributions to regional storehouses from which trustworthy people would deliver them in bulk to Jerusalem (Spec. Laws 1.78; Ant. 14.110–13; 18.311–313; cf. m. #eqal. 2:1; 2 Chr 24:8–11). According to the Mishnah, in the temple for collecting the temple tax and other offerings were thirteen money chests (1*&$23*&40), one of which was for “New Shekel dues” (for the present year) and another of which was for “Old Shekel dues” (for those who owed the previous year’s tax payment) (m. #eqal. 2:1; 6:5). The Mishnah maintains that money chests for collecting the temple tax were also located in the provinces (m. #eqal. 2:1). M. #eqal. 7:1 describes in detail what to do when money is found between the various chests in the temple. If this was a persistent problem, it reflects the reality that the temple was a place through which considerable amounts of currency circulated. by changing coins into Tyrian shekels, the only coinage acceptable for paying the temple tax. They also took pledges from those not paying the tax that year (m. #eqal. 1:3).221 Moneychangers met the pilgrims before they reached the temple, set...
