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confronted the priests at the temple during the time when multitudes of people had come there to celebrate the holy festivals. He interrupted the activities of the money changers and those who were selling the animals for the sacrifices, and accused the priesthood of turning the house of God into a den of thieves. This could have caused some of the worshippers to become disillusioned, and might have even resulted in loss of income for some. The pride, ego and arrogance of the priests, along with their corrupted and materialistic system, had been delivered a significant blow.
The Jewish religion before the Christian era was fundamentally an ethno-national entity grounded in the land of Israel. The worship structure was not thought of as a 'path to God in the way that we today might think of spirituality. Rather, the priesthood and temple rituals were a surviving remnant of the ancient cultic expression of a people who already considered themselves to have been chosen by God. The sacrificial system was viewed from within Judaism as a response of obedience, and understood to be the only means of making atonement for the sins of the people who were already members of a relationship bound by covenant. Worship was essentially mediated through the priestly functions, fairly similar to the ancient Indian Brahminical system of ritual and sacrifice.
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