Jesus and the money changers

[Aractus]

The Temple was 35 acres filled with livestock, vendors and money changers. There were also many Roman guards scattered around. Just to give you an idea, 35 acres is about the size of 26 American football fields.

Why would there be Roman guards inside the temple? How would they even be allowed in? We're not talking about the whole temple, we're talking about an area near the East wall close to the entrance where the entrance was. In the very next verse it says "and the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them" - hence this is where the unclean can come, and Jesus is now occupying the space that the money changers did. This is in contrast to what the Pharisees taught which is that the unclean didn't need to come to the temple, even though it was of course not forbidden for them to come under OT law, although entering into the further chambers of the Temple wasn't allowed. Thus we know that the unclean could come to the temple, but weren't required to as taught by the Pharisees and so what likely happened was that the space that the unclean were allowed to enter was being occupied by the money-changers.