I would agree that they would make large profits at the expense of the pilgrims. Every Israelite, rich or poor, who had reached the age of twenty, was obligated to pay a half shekel as an offering too Ha-Shem (Hebrew for god, meaning by default too the sacred treasury.)This tribute was in every case to be paid in the exact Hebrew half shekel. At Passover everyone in the world who was an adult male and wished to worship at the Temple would bring his "offering" or purchase a sacrificial animal at the Temple. Since there was no acceptance of foreign money with any foreign image (do to the ban on images under Torah law) the money changers would sell "Temple coinage" at a very high rate of exchange and assess a fixed charge for their services. None of this however changes the fact that Jesus or Joshua had no authority to act in the criminal Manner that he did. It would be like you walking into a Church treasury and taking the money too toss out the door or a back for that matter. Because that is what the money changers were, a form of bank. Thus it was an economic system that the religious/Civil authorities allowed. No matter what else happened Jesus still accosted human beings with a potentially deadly weapon; he could have taken other steps if he felt that what they were doing was wrong. Thus it shows to me and many, many other people his brutality and possibly insane behavior. Lastly the death of Jesus on the cross (on which the Romans executed the worst criminals) amounted too nothing more then the death of a violent criminal and not the grace of any God.

Adam