The profits from these sources were enormous. It has been calculated that the annual income de- rived from money-changing can hardly have been less than £8000-£9000, while the sale of pigeons is specially referred to as furnishing alone a large annual income. These profits appear to have been largely, if not entirely, appropriated by the priests. Certain booths are frequently mentioned as belong- ing to the 'sons of Hanan' (Annas), and ajipear to have existed until 'about three years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when they were de- stroyed. Besides the mere fact that the Temple was made a house of merchandise (Jn 'J'"), many passages in the Rabbinical writings appear to indi- cate that the Temple market was notorious for dishonest dealings, upon which passages it has been
• This was often the case during Christ's lifetime (see Mk 8=1 gJ'J, Lk !)«_ Jn 3111 etc. etc.).
! obtained for any animal
444
DENAKIUS
DENIAL
remarked {Speaker's Com. in loc.) that the spaces in the court were probably let out to traffickers at an exorbitant rate. The remembrance of this state of things gives new force to the quotation from Jer 7" here used by our Lord.
Josephus (o. Apion. ii. 24) writes : * The Temple ought to be common to all men, because He is the common God of all ' ; but, far from its being thus, it had become the possession of a few. * Ye gather together here money and animals, as robbers collect their boot}' in their den * (Fritzsche, quoted \>y Lange).
Those who ought to have been the first to teach others the sacredness of the place h<ad seized upon it, as robbers would seize some den or cave in the mountains, in which they might maintain their unity for the purpose of spoil. See, further, art. Temple in vol. ii.
LiTEiiATiRE. — Edersheim, Life and Times of Jems the Messiah, also The Temple, etc. ; Parrar, Life of Christ ; Deren- bourg. Hist, de Pal. ; and the Comm. ad loc.
J. B. Bristow. DENARIUS.— See Money.
DENIAL.— The verb apvetixeai, ' to deny,' is used in contrast with hp-oXoryelv, 'to confess' (Mt 10^'-'- II Lk 12"-, where a-n-apvelaeai is also employed ; ef. 2 Ti 2!-, where apvelcrBai is used specially of the verbal denial of Christ, due to fear of suffering). As confession of Christ (wh. see) is the outward expres- sion of personal faith in Him, so denial of Him is (1) the withholding, (2) refusing, or (3) withdrawing such confession. In the first of these categories are included those who, like some members of the Sanhedrin (Jn Ii''-), believed on Christ, but did not confess Him ; in the second, those who did not believe on Him, and as a natural result did not confess Him ; and, in the third, those who have confessed Him, but, through fear of men, deny Him in times of persecution. It is the tliird class to which reference is made in Mt 10^^ ' Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Open dis- avowal u't faitli in Christ ('before men') is taken as a clear indication of the offender's attitude towards Him, and eventuates in his e.\clusion from the blessings of the perfected kingdom in heaven. Such disavowal must be deliberate and persistent, and is to be distinguished from a momentary lapse of personal weakness, like that of Simon Peter, which by timely repentance became the means of strengthening his character, and enabling him to strengthen others (Lk 22'-). In the narrower and stricter sense, therefore, denial means public apos- tasy from faith in Christ, the guilt of which is visited with a punishment in exact correspondence with it.
1. The discourse in which the great warning against denial is found (Mt 10""^), and which was addressed to the Twelve in \'iew of their Apostolic mission after the Resurrection, evidences its lateness by the serious situation depicted, in which exposure to the severest forms of persecution is contem- plated, including punishment in the synagogues, arraignment before Gentile tribunals, and death itself. It must belong at earliest to the period of growing opposition, and has been assigned to as late a date as the close of tlie ministry. The Second Evangelist pliues u ].uitii)ii of it in the eschatological discourse >].cikrii nii Olivet to the four disciples on the Wedne^duy or Thursday of Passion-week (Mk 13'''"). Christ no doubt fore- told almost from the outset of His ministry that His disciples would be exposed to reproach and obloquy (Mt 5"'-), but the first intimation of serious opposition synchronizes with the first plain intima- tion of His own death ( Mk 8"'- ). It was in prospect of the undisguised hostility awaiting them in con- nexion with their Apostolic mission that Christ cautioned His disciples against the danger of denial.
If He .suffered death for claiming to be the ISIessiah (ilk U^'"*''), it is evident tliat those who afterwards proclaimed Him as such must run the risk of sharing a fate like His.
2. Due stress must be laid on the fact that the object of denial is the person of Christ, not simply His message or His words, which in any case derive their ultimate authority from His person. It is admitted that ' His earlier demand that men should fulfil the condition of participation in the Kingdom of God by repentance and trust in the message of salvation, became narrowed down afterwards to the demand that men should unite themselves to Him as the Messiah, and cleave fast to Him in trust' (Wendt, Teaching, ii. 308). But the force of the con- cession is quite destroyed by the further represen- tation that ' union to the person of the Messiah is nothing else than adherence to the message of the Kingdom of God brou-ht by Him' (p. 310.) This is to reduce the persi III of t lie Messiah to a compendi- ous formula for Hi.~ iiie liin-^-, .imi imioies the fact that, afterthegreat « oni,.~-ioii all a -aiea riiilippi, Christ grounded on ills .Me--ia!i>liip a claim to absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice (Mk 8^^'-). Devotion to Himself is henceforward made the supreme test of discipleship, and tlie withdrawal of such devotion seals the doom of the offender here- after. We are in a region where jjersonal relations and obligations are everything ; wliere the injury done by denial is not measured by the rejection of a message merely, but by the wound inflicted on One who has rendered unparalleled services.