Quote:the moneychangers were there properly, as were the offerings-sellers. Both were essential to the smooth operation of the Temple,
Yes, but again R-C, this would have been known to jews. But 'mark' is the first gospel and the others are derived from it and mark, according to the scholarship from non-fundie types is that the work was written in Greek to a gentile audience in an area which had been under Roman rule for quite some time...possibly Antioch seat of the governor of Syria. Those citizens might well have reacted to the concept of "money changers" as usury and as X-P said right off the top, just as a little more anti-jewish propaganda meant to separate xtians from jews in Roman eyes.
