John 2:13-25 Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers

Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.

While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.

In this passage, we see Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. The money changers offered an essential service in the temple because people could not purchase animals for sacrifice without exchanging their money for 'temple money'. The reason they had to convert their money is because inflation in Jesus' time was a problem. The currency was made out of silver. So if people wanted to make more money, instead of mining more silver, they would add some other type of metal to the coin. The result was a lower and lower quantity of silver in each coin. To address this problem the temple used coins that were made out of pure silver. This way the temple would not be affected by inflation. Jesus was likely crucified because of this actions at the temple.