In the year 33 AD Jesus came to Jerusalem. The city was packed with pilgrims who had come for the celebration of the Passover. It has been estimated that they numbered 300,000 to 400,000. Jesus visited the temple. He saw a courtyard filled with livestock, merchants, and money changers, who exchanged the standard Greek and Roman money for Tyrian shekels. The money changers received a profit, of which a solid share likely were collected by the high priests on behalf of Pontius Pilate. I assume that, with the enormous masses of visitors, the profits from the money changing must have been massive. According to the gospel of Matthew: "Jesus went into the house of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Jesus's actions most likely prompted the authorities' decision to later have Jesus arrested. 6/13

Jesus informed his disciples during the Last Supper that one of them will betray him. When they asked who it would be, according to the gospel of John, Jesus said: “It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” He then dipped a piece of bread in a dish and handed it to Judas, identified as the “son of Simon Iscariot.” After Judas received the piece of bread, “Satan entered into him.” 7/13