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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   21703 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 14, 2024

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Sometimes to "be Christlike" means associating with undesirables. Sometimes it means humbling yourself by washing the feet of your guests. Sometimes it means beating the shit out of a shady money changer in the temple square, and sometimes it means having a specific hill that you are not only ready but willing to die on.

And yet the only public messaging, including this, is about the first two.

They may lobby to ‘beat the shit’ out of money lenders, but inevitably it just means taxing the wealthy or “Wall Street” more to pay for welfare programs of dubious efficacy. The problem with Jesus is that by his present reputation (I will avoid the debate about whether it was his actual character, although the evidence is not uncompelling) he really just was a populist, he was the Bernie Sanders of his day. Sadly we can’t quantify the economic effects of kicking the money lenders out of the temple (presumably they were there for a reason, perhaps its centrality and large size improving access to and the efficiency of credit markets), because for the most part only Bernie’s Jesus’ narrative survives in that event.

They were money changers. They exchanged Greek and Roman coins for Tyrian Shekels that could be accepted as Temple tax payments. He also chased out people selling animals for sacrifice.

Money lending at interest between Jews is explicitly forbidden in Mosaic law and the idea that it would be allowed at the Temple is ridiculous.

He wasn't a Bernie Sanders railing against money lenders, because he wasn't railing against money lenders, and his whole society hated them.

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