He said the sponsors were money changers in the temple of sport.
money changers in the temple
idiomThe corruption of something sacred or high-minded by commercial greed.
Origin
The scene is the cleansing of the Temple, recorded in Matthew 21:12 and vividly in John 2:14–16. Jesus finds the Temple courts full of traders and money changers — men who exchanged ordinary coin for the special currency required for offerings, often at a profit — and drives them out, overturning their tables and declaring that a house of prayer has been made a den of thieves.
It is one of the few moments of open anger attributed to Jesus, and its target is the intrusion of profit-seeking into a place meant to be set apart from it.
In English money changers in the temple stands for exactly that intrusion: the takeover of something sacred, idealistic, or public-spirited by commercial interests, and the sense that greed has defiled ground that ought to have been kept clean of it.
Critics accused the university of letting money changers into the temple, turning a place of learning into a brand to be sold.
The old members watched the takeover with dismay, convinced that the new owners were money changers in the temple, valuing the historic club only for the property it sat on and indifferent to everything that had made it worth preserving.
The betrayal, trial and crucifixion.
- 01
wash your hands of it (idiom)
To publicly refuse any further responsibility for something or someone.
- 02
thirty pieces of silver (idiom)
A contemptible price paid or accepted for an act of betrayal.
- 03
doubting Thomas (idiom)
One who requires proof before believing.
- 04
a cross to bear (idiom)
A heavy, ongoing personal burden or difficulty that one must carry.
- 05
a Judas kiss (idiom)
An act of betrayal disguised as friendship or affection.
- 06
a crown of thorns (idiom)
An honour or position that brings suffering rather than glory.