From: John 2:13-22
The Cleansing of the Temple
[13] The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to
Jerusalem. [14] In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and
sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. [15] And
making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out
of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and
overturned their tables. [16] And he told those who sold the pigeons,
"Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house
of trade." [17] His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for
thy house will consume me." [18] The Jews then said to him, "What signs
have you to show us for doing this?" [19] Jesus answered them, "Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." [20] The Jews then
said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you
raise it up in three days?" [21] But he spoke of the temple of his
body. [22] When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples
remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and
the word which Jesus had spoken.
Commentary:
13. "The Passover of the Jews": this is the most important religious
feast for the people of the Old Testament, the prefiguring of the
Christian Easter (cf. note on Mt 26:2). The Jewish Passover was
celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan and was followed
by the festival week of the Azymes (unleavened bread). According to the
Law of Moses, on those days every male Israelite had to "appear before
the Lord God" (Ex 34:23; Deut 16:16)--hence the pious custom of making
a pilgrimage to the temple of Jerusalem for these days, hence the crowd
and all the vendors to supply the needs of the pilgrims; this trading
gave rise to abuses.
"Jesus went up to Jerusalem": by doing this Jesus publicly shows that
he observes the Law of God. But, as we shall soon see, he goes to the
temple as the only-begotten Son who must ensure that all due decorum
is observed in the House of the Father: "And from thenceforth Jesus,
the Anointed of God, always begins by reforming abuses and purifying
from sin; both when he visits his Church, and when he visits the
Christian soul" (Origen, "Hom. on St John", 1).
14-15. Every Israelite had to offer as a passover sacrifice an ox or a
sheep, if he was wealthy; or two turtle-doves or two pigeons if he was
not (Lev 5:7). In addition he had to pay a half shekel every year, if
he was twenty or over. The half shekel, which was the equivalent of a
day's pay of a worker, was a special coin also called temple money (cf.
Ex 30:13); other coins in circulation (denarii, drachmas, etc.) were
considered impure because they bore the image of pagan rulers. During
the Passover, because of the extra crowd, the outer courtyard of the
temple, the court of the Gentiles, was full of traders, money-changers
etc., and inevitably this meant noise, shouting, bellowing, manure etc.
Prophets had already fulminated against these abuses, which grew up
with the tacit permission of the temple authorities, who made money by
permitting trading. Cf. notes on Mt 21:12-13 and Mk 11:15-18.
16-17. "Zeal for thy house will consume me"--a quotation from Psalm
69:10. Jesus has just made a most significant assertion: "You shall
not make my Father's house a house of trade." By calling God his Father
and acting so energetically, he is proclaiming he is the Messiah, the
Son of God. Jesus' zeal for his Father's glory did not escape the
attention of his disciples who realized that what he did fulfilled the
words of Psalm 69.
18-22. The temple of Jerusalem, which had replaced the previous
sanctuary which the Israelites carried around in the wilderness, was
the place selected by God during the Old Covenant to express his
presence to the people in a special way. But this was only an
imperfect anticipation or prefiguring of the full expression of his
presence among men--the Word of God became man. Jesus, in whom "the
whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Col 2:9), is the full presence
of God here on earth and, therefore, the true temple of God. Jesus
identifies the temple of Jerusalem with his own body, and by so doing
refers to one of the most profound truths about himself--the
Incarnation. After the ascension of the Lord into heaven this real and
very special presence of God among men is continued in the sacrament of
the Blessed Eucharist.
Christ's words and actions as he expels the traders from the temple
clearly show that he is the Messiah foretold by the prophets. That is
why some Jews approach him and ask him to give a sign of his power (cf.
Mt 16:1; Mk 8:11; Lk 11:29). Jesus' reply (v. 20), whose meaning
remains obscure until his resurrection, the Jewish authorities try to
turn into an attack on the temple--which merits the death penalty (Mt
26:61; Mk 14:58; cf. Jer 26:4ff); later they will taunt him with it
when he is suffering on the cross (Mt 27:40; A 15:29) and later still
in their case against St Stephen before the Sanhedrin they will claim
to have heard him repeat it (Acts 6:14).
There was nothing derogatory in what Jesus said, contrary to what false
witnesses made out. The miracle he offers them, which he calls "the
Sign of Jonah" (cf. Mt 16:4), will be his own resurrection on the
third day. Jesus is using a metaphor, as if to say: Do you see this
temple? Well, imagine if it were destroyed, would it not be a great
miracle to rebuild it in three days? That is what I will do for you as
a sign. For you will destroy my body, which is the true temple, and I
will rise again on the third day.
No one understood what he was saying. Jews and disciples alike thought
he was speaking about rebuilding the temple which Herod the Great had
begun to construct in 19-20 B.C. Later on the disciples grasped what he
really meant.
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.