Description
A small table was used by people for conducting money transactions. This was most likely a table at which someone could sit, not a low table where people reclined to eat (see Table for eating).
Translation
When Jesus confronted the moneychangers in the Temple (MAT 21:12; MRK 11:15; JHN 2:15), he literally overturned the tables where they were transacting business. Just as the English word “bank” comes from a word for table or “bench,” so also in Greek the word trapeza came to mean a place for financial dealings. In LUK 19:23 the master asks the servant why he had not put the money “on a table.” Some translations have “in[to] the bank” (RSV, GNT), while others say “on deposit” (NIV, REB).