Reply #26: There were two options. [View All]

One if you could afford it; I don't recall what that was.

The other was a dove. You'd have to go and buy one--or get somebody to buy you a bird--and present it to the priest on duty. He'd examine you, pronounce you clean, and offer the dove on your behalf. Rather a bloody system, and no free rides--just reduced fares for the poor. Leprosy was about the only ailment for which a priest's examination and some animal sacrifice was stipulated; a backwater of the OT law that I know about only because Jesus expected that it be observed when he was alive.

The money changers were at the Temple for a reason. There was a lively trade in livestock and birds at the Temple in Jerusalem, esp. at holy day festivals. People would come from all over, the traders accepted a limited number of currencies, and so the money changers changed money for would-be sacrificers.