Hi everyone. We're continuing to move through
the gospels, looking at the Gospel, reading from the daily
mass. And we're doing a verse by verse
exegesis of the scriptures, really diving in and seem
seeing. If we can work out what the
original meaning intended by the author was today.
We're looking at John chapter two verses. 13 to 25.
Just before the Jewish Passover. Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And in the temple, he found people selling cattle and sheep
and pigeons and the money changers sitting at their
counters. They're making a whip out of
some cord. He drove them all out of the
temple, cattle and sheep as well scattered.
The money changers coins knocked their tables over and said to
the pigeon sellers, take all this out of here and stop
turning my father's house into a market.
Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture Zeal for
your house will devour me. The Jews intervened and said
what sign can you show us to justify what you have done?
Jesus answered destroyed this sanctuary.
And in three days, I will raise it up.
The Jews replied. It is taken 46 years to build
this Sanctuary. Are you going to raise it up in
three days? But he was speaking of the
sanctuary that was his body. And when Jesus rose from the
dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they
believed the scripture and the words he had said.
During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover, many believed in
his name when they saw the signs that he that he gave.
But Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them.
He never needed evidence about any man.
He could tell what a man had in him.
So a fairly famous passage. Most of us are pretty familiar
with Jesus cleansing the temple, but this is John's version of it
and it has a few differences. So as always we want to start by
thinking about the context. What has happened just before
this. So Jesus has just done the
Miracle at the wedding in Cana. So it's very early in his
ministry and we have here today Jesus, cleansing the temple.
Now, there's an identical or almost identical.
Seen in the synoptic gospels. And in the synoptic gospels,
Matthew, Mark and Luke. The saying of Jesus cleansing.
The temple happens in the last week of Jesus life when he's in
Jerusalem, here in John's version, It's placed right at
the start of Jesus ministry. So, there's a debate among
Scholars about whether this is the same incident as what's
recorded in the synoptic gospels.
Or did Jesus cleanse the temple twice once at the start of his
ministry as we have here in John or?
And then once later in the last week of his life and really
Scholars, even conservative orthodox.
Was a kind of divided about which option is the best one
because there's Arguments for and against each option.
So I'll briefly go through the two different views and as
Catholics, we are free to accept.
Whichever one makes the most sense to us, wherever the let
the evidence leads us. We can go with that
interpretation. So the first interpretation will
be the Jesus did this twice on two separate occasions.
So in this case, John, is being chronological.
He's really telling us that Jesus cleanse the temple at the
start of his ministry. Now, keep in mind.
Mind that John, the Apostle would know because he John the
author I should say, would know, because he's one of the
Apostles. So maybe he is trying to convey
that Jesus did this early in his ministry as well.
One argument for this would be that the date given for the
temple building, which is later in the passage.
Remember how later in the passage they say it is taken 46
years. Well, that date certainly fits
better with this being early. In Jesus ministry.
Not late in his Ministry and we'll talk about that.
But the other option would be, that Jesus John knows that Jesus
did this later in his life in the last week of his ministry,
but he's chosen to place it early in his gospel, for
theological reasons. Maybe the point, John is trying
to make early in his gospel here, is that Jesus is bringing
about a new covenant. That supersedes, the old
Covenant. And certainly this story shows
that maybe he wants his readers to hear this story first so that
they're set up theologically for the rest of his gospel.
Maybe John is highlighting that. God.
The father is the source of all of Jesus, Authority and Mission.
Maybe his place this scene at the start of his gospel to help
set the scene for all of the future controversies between
Jesus and the Jewish leaders. And think about it, if Jesus had
actually done this early in his life.
If he really had cleanse the temple early on, it would have
likely meant the Jewish authorities would have, arrested
him straight away and he would not have lasted a further three
years. So that will be one argument for
considering this to be the same event as lady in his life, but
you're free to go with wherever the evidence leads you to.
We get to verse 13 now and it says just before the Jewish
Passover, so the Passover occurs.
Every Spring and it commemorates Israel's rescue from Egyptian
slavery and this is an important time marker because in John's
gospel, three times. It says Jesus went up to the
Passover on three separate years.
So when you add up all these little indicators in the Gospel
of John, it's from this basically that we work out,
Jesus ministry, lasted about three years.
So here, this is the first out of the three, so perhaps this is
the first year of Jesus ministry, although, of course,
that depends on whether you think it happened that the
cleansing Of the temple happened earlier and later or just later.
So he goes up to Jerusalem for the temple.
And in fact, in the Gospel of John, Jesus spends the vast
majority of his time in Jerusalem.
It's about 80% of the time, all Jews had to go up to Jerusalem
for the Passover, and he's going there From Galilee.
So he's moving From Galilee to Jerusalem for the Passover, and
he goes to the temple, which is where you'd spend a lot of your
time. If you were going up there for
the Passover, right? While you were in Jerusalem,
once a year, you would spend quite a bit of time.
The temple. The Temple, of course, is the
center of Jewish life. The Jews believe that God, dwelt
in the temple. It was always very busy.
Particularly during Passover. The temple was divided into
various compartments and quarters and the scene we're
looking at today occurs in the outer Court sometimes called the
Gentiles Court Gentiles could come into the outer Cordon
worship, but they couldn't go into the inner court.
So we're in kind of the outside Courtyard, bit of the temple
here. Now, because it was the I pass
over the whole area. This whole outer core will be
filled with people and we know from history that there's so
many people that they were only given entrance to the temple in
successive waves and here in the outer Court.
We find people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons.
Now, this was actually a required Market.
You did need people to sell these animals because part of
the Jewish law require people to sacrifice these animals.
Some people particularly those who are traveling were unable to
acquire. By their own animals to
sacrifice before coming to the temple.
So they actually needed people to provide them with cattle and
sheep and pigeons. And during Passover, in
particular, a pilgrim, would present a lamb to be sacrificed.
And then often there were these other animals involved in the
sacrifices to. So it makes sense that they
would have markets to sell these animals, because if you're a
faithful Jew you need access to these animals before you go into
the temple. We also have here Money Changes
sitting at their counters or At their business.
Now, what's going on here? Well, in order for a do to pay
the temple tax, which was required.
They needed to use a certain type of currency.
They needed Jewish currency, but most people in this culture use
different currencies in their daily life, they'll use Greek or
Roman currencies and those currencies carried the images of
foreign Kings and there were considered to be Blasphemous.
So you weren't allowed to put Roman or Greek coins into the
Jewish temple collection area. That was not allowed.
It was considered Judges, so again, you would have to go and
transfer your Gentile currency for the Jewish currency before,
you can pay the temple tax. So, that's why you needed people
at the money changing tables. Now, it's likely, though, even
if this ministry was necessary, probably, the people there were
taking more money than what was required.
There were probably extorting people.
The issue Jesus has your is not the fact that they are doing
these things that they are selling animals.
All that they're doing money, changing that was actually
fairly necessary. The issue he has, is where
they're doing it. It's happening in the temple out
of court. That's supposed to be where the
Gentiles can come and pray and worship.
But people had set up their stalls in the area, which was
supposed to be for worship. So, Jesus gets very angry and he
says things like stop turning my father's house into a market,
probably the people. There were also inflating the
process and making money off it. So verse 15, making a whip out
of some Accord. He drove them all out of the
temple, cattle and sheep as well.
So Jesus literally makes a whip here.
This is the angriest. We see him in any of the
gospels. Now, what's his intention?
Here he is. Intention is not to make a
public scene really, what he's trying to do is just to get the
merchants out of the temple. So that others can come back in
and worship. He wants to clear out the people
who shouldn't be in that part of the temple so that people can
come in and worship. That's his main goal here and he
works out the best way to do it is to get the Whip and to
physically get them out. That's how passionate he is
about it. And it actually says in verse
15, he scattered the money changers coins knocking their
tables over. Now what it actually says is he
poured out? Out the coins of the
moneychangers, so we can imagine him going over to the money
tables, and literally turning over the tables to get rid of
the money to get them out of that area verse 16.
He knocked their tables over and said to the pigeon sellers, take
all this out of here and stop turning my father's house into a
market or some translations have that as you shall not make my
father's house, a house of trade.
This is Jesus concern. He wants people to be able to
access God in the temple unencumbered by these.
Market stalls, there's probably an illusion here to Zechariah 14
verse 21, which says no longer. Will.
They be margins in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day
and in context? That's a prophecy about the
coming reign of God. Now only John's version of this
highlights the phrase, my father's house in the synoptic
gospels that says. You cannot make my father's
house a den of Thieves and that's a reference to the Old
Testament in itself. But here the focus is on my
father's house. Only John has that phrase, John
is probably trying to highlight the relationship.
The deep relationship between Jesus and the father.
So he's giving us an insight into that deep relationship.
That would make sense because a son could act on behalf of his
father in that culture. So the fact that Jesus does
these acts and he says, this is my father's house.
Well, it gives his acts and legitimacy because he's doing it
on behalf of his father, his aggression, here in the temple,
probably foreshadows the temple destruction, which does come 40
years later. And the expulsion of the animals
might be a Prophecies of the sacrifices would soon stop
because indeed, in 70 AD God caused the temple sacrifices to
stop. So maybe all of this is
foreshadowing that verse 17 his Remember the words of scripture?
Now, John would know that the disciples remembered the words
of scripture because he was one of the disciples who was there
at the time. So apparently at the time, they
remembered these words from the Old Testament Zeal for your
house, will devour me. Now that's taken straight from
Psalm 69 verse 10. And in context, that Psalm is
about the righteous servant who will suffer servants, who are
suffering because of the insults, the Sinners make to
God. Now, interestingly.
Fittingly in the original texture of the psalm.
If you look at the sum in in Greek, it's actually in the past
tense. Zeal for your house, has
consumed me but here John has it.
As Zeal for your house, will consume me, which is not in the
Old Testament, manuscripts some Scholars.
Think that John changes it to the future tense, maybe because
he believes that the Zeal for his father.
That the Zeal that Jesus has for his father is one of the key
reasons why he's crucified. So when he says, Your Zeal for
your house will devour me. John is anticipating that the
Zeal will be consummated on the cross.
It's not yet finished. So that's an interesting Theory,
Verse 18, the Jews intervened. Now, we need to keep in mind
when John the Gospel of John uses the word, the Jews.
It means that you wish leaders and the catechism actually
discusses that So the Jewish leaders say, what sign can you
show us to justify what you have done?
So the Jewish leaders are all about signs.
They say, if Jesus was going to overturn the tables in the
temple, and that's an incredibly radical act.
Actually they say if you're going to do that, Jesus, you
need to have authority from God. So you need to prove that you
have authority from God by performing a sign that kind of
reasoning makes sense. Because in order to clear out
the temple in order for that to be legitimate, you would have to
have some fairly Strong Authority from God and they want
proof of that. So in verse 9, Jesus response,
destroyed this sanctuary. And in three days, I will raise
it up another word for Sanctuary.
There is Temple, destroy this Temple.
And in three days, I will raise it up.
So this is a prophecy and this is the sign that Jesus promises.
They say, give us a sign to prove that you're from God.
And he says, okay, destroy this Temple and I will raise it up in
three days. Now.
They think he's talking about the Jerusalem Temple and that
makes sense in context because he's Standing in the temple.
So you've got to have a bit of sympathy for them.
That would seem to be the natural interpretation.
Now. Apparently these words destroy
this sanctuary in three days. I will raise it up.
Apparently, the Jewish leaders remembered that.
He said that. Because later at Jesus trial the
witnesses, use these words against him.
They try to indicate that Jesus plan to destroy the temple.
So remember, in his trial, some witnesses come forward.
And say, this man said he will destroy the sanctuary and raise
it up in three days. Now notice here, that Jesus
doesn't say that he himself will destroy the temple.
All he says, is destroyed the sanctuary and in three days, I
will raise it up. So actually, what Jesus implies
is that a, the Jewish leaders will be the ones to destroy the
temple and that ends up being true, both of the Jerusalem
Temple literally because by their own, unfaithfulness, they
end up having the temple destroyed.
If you look at history, that's basically what happens.
And also Jesus are in death that is due to the Jewish leaders.
They kill him as well. They destroy both a literal
Temple and the Temple of Jesus. So they don't understand.
I think he's talking about the Jerusalem Temple.
So in verse 20, they reply it has taken 46 years to build this
Sanctuary. Now, what's this 46 years.
Basically? They're talking here about the
period, it takes for them to do the renovations and the
extensions of on the temple. We know from history that in
about 19, BC or 20, BC under Herod, the Great Herod, ordered
the temple to undergo some big extension and renovation work.
That was continuing in the time of Jesus.
Now, let's do the maths here. If this Temple work started in
19, BC or 20, BC history is a bit unclear about which year it
was. And now here, the Jewish leaders
say to Jesus, it is taken as 46 years.
Well, that would place this event in ad, 27, or 28.
That's much too late for the end of Jesus ministry.
And it depends on how you use other dates in the gospel.
Some people would say, Jesus began his ministry in ad 27,
some would say he began in ad. The 30 and then if you add 3
used to that, that means Jesus was either crucified in ad 30 or
ad 33. So it depends which dating
system you use. But here's one of these
interesting dating ones that would seem to indicate that this
event, the cleansing of the temple happens in ad 27 and
Scholars debate about the best way to fit this in
chronologically in some ways. It fits the data of the gospels
in some ways. It seems a little hard to fit
the data of the Gospel. So maybe we'll never get an
answer to this question of. When did the cleansing of the
temple happen or We will get an answer as we continue to do
research into this passage. And that's what Biblical
Scholars do. That's what the Catholic Church
tells biblical Scholars. They should do is help us
clarify the text through research.
So they asked him here. Are you going to raise it up in
three days? So, they're thinking, well, it
took us 46 years to build it. How then can Jesus say, it's
only going to take three years to three days rather to build
it. That's a big difference from 46
years verse 21. Now John the narrator He says,
but he was speaking of the sanctuary.
That was his body. So John here tells us what Jesus
meant by these words in the old Covenant.
The temple was the place where God dwelt in the New Covenant.
Jesus is the dwelling place of God.
He is God in human flesh. And that's what John said early
in his gospel. Remember John said he made his
dwelling Among Us in chapter 1, verse 14.
So, when Jesus says here, destroy this Temple and I will
raise it in three days. He intends the Jewish leaders to
understand that he is now the place of God's residence.
He says the Jewish leaders attention should be on him, not
the temple from this point on and that's a huge claim.
And of course they see as Blasphemous but it does match
other things. Jesus says later remember at the
with a woman at the well in chapter 4 Jesus says the time is
coming when people will worship God in spirit and in truth.
Now here, if there's another element we can take from this,
Jesus makes a prophecy of his own Resurrection.
He knows in advance how long he's going to be in the Tomb
here. As in other places.
He says, I'm going to be in the Tomb for three days and then
I'll rise again and when Jesus rises, again, it serves as a
confirmation to the, Jewish leaders of Everything.
Jesus said and did during his life.
There's a lot of aspects to the resurrection and one of them is
as a sign to the Jewish leaders, that everything Jesus said about
his eye. Entity is correct, verse 22.
And when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the
words. He had said.
Now at the time according to John, the disciples did not
understand those words of Jesus. When he said, destroy this
temple in three days, I will raise it up, but apparently
later when Jesus rose from the dead, they looked back on this
incident and they realized what he was talking about.
Now, the disciples were probably it's Not just simple memory.
It's not just them simply using their own intellect.
To look back on these events and work out what was going on
there. Probably Guided by the holy
spirit, in this special, kind of remembering.
If you look at 14:26 in John, it talks about how the Holy Spirit
guides the disciples after the resurrection, to look back on
these events and see their significance.
So John, he says, eventually that able to look back and
remember this event after Jesus resurrection and it gives them
confidence to trust in Jesus and it gives them confidence to
trust the whole Old Testament scriptures, which spoke of Jesus
as the Messiah. That's what John says here in
verse 22. He says, when they remembered he
had said this. They believed the scripture and
the words he had said, so when Jesus rise for his from the
dead, it all comes together for the apostles and they see how it
all fits in God's Plan of Salvation.
So we get to verse 23, and there's a really interesting
language here. John says, during his stay in
Jerusalem for the Passover. So remember, Jesus is in
Jerusalem at this stage for the Passover.
The first one, he goes through during his ministry, many
believed in his name, else is quite significant.
If you think about it often, we get the impression that the
people in the countryside believed in Jesus, but in
Jerusalem, he wasn't particularly well received while
here John tells us that's not the case.
There's always people in Jerusalem who do believe in
Jesus and the language John uses here is.
They believed in his name and basically that means they put
their trust in Jesus. Some people in the crowd at the
Passover, put their trust in Jesus and they start following
him. But as we'll see, it seems to be
people who don't fully understand.
Jesus, identity. They interested in the him and
they believe that he's from God in some sense because he can do
Miracles, but they don't really understand his identity.
Still though. They believed in his name.
So there's people in Jerusalem for the Passover, probably, some
who are locals, and probably some, who are pilgrims who have
come to Jerusalem for the feast who believe in Jesus.
And John says, the reason they do that is because they saw the
signs that he gave. So it's likely that Jesus is
performing some signs here in Jerusalem that are not recorded.
This is quite early in his ministry.
Jesus is in Jerusalem early, and he's doing some signs and that's
causing people to believe. Then John says this but Jesus
knew them all. So Jesus, here is reading the
hearts of these people in Jerusalem.
He has this kind of Supernatural knowledge, where he can perceive
their thoughts and their hearts. And this is mentioned elsewhere
in the gospels to what it literally says here is that he
knew all men and that connects in a way to the prologue.
Remember in John chapter 1 in that really elevated language,
John says that Jesus was the light that enlightens all men
and that's a sort. It's a deep kind of
philosophical thing. Going on here.
Jesus knew all men. He perceives what's going on in
the hearts of all men. And John says he did not trust
himself to them. So even though many in the crowd
here at Passover, a believing in Jesus.
He does not allow himself to become their leader.
He doesn't really trust them in the sense and he doesn't allow
them to be distracted from his mission, because he knows their
hearts, and he can see that. Although they believed in him.
They believe he can do. Miracles, their faith is
deficient. It's not true.
Genuine Faith. They're marveling and his
miracles and they consider him to be like a wonder worker, but
they don't really grasp the significance.
If you off his identity or Mission, and of course, Jesus is
always on about that. Particularly in the Gospel of
John. He wants people to understand
his identity that he's from God. He's not just some amazing
Miracle Worker. He's there on a certain Mission
and he can tell whether people are accepting that truth or not.
And we're going to see in chapter 3 in the next chapter
Nicodemus, embodies this kind of attitude where he sees the Jesus
is from God, but he does not understand what that means.
And what Jesus true identity is verse 25.
He never needed evidence about any man or another translation
of that is he needed. No one to Bear witness of man.
He could tell what a man had in him or more.
Literally. He himself knew what was in,
man. So John is trying to emphasize
to his readers that Jesus knew, what was I'm gone in everyone's
Hearts. He did not need to get to know
them. He could just tell he could just
read their hearts with a supernatural knowledge and he
knows that they do not fully understand his identity.
So that's the end of John Chapter 2 and the next section.
We start John chapter 3. And that's the famous story of
Nicodemus. You can hear that on week 2 of
eastertide. So just after Easter, we really
break down the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.
You might like to go through the podcast archives, to find that
one week to of eastertide is the next section of John.
Let's now turn to the catechism. There's a few places for us to
look at today. Paragraph 583 and 584 is a
discussion about Jesus relationship with the temple,
like the prophets before him. Jesus expressed the deepest
respect for the temple in Jerusalem.
Jesus went up to the temple as the privileged place of
encounter with God for him. The temple was the dwelling of
his father, a House of Prayer. And he was angered that it's out
of court, had become a place of Commerce.
He drove Merchants out of it because of jealous.
Love for his father. You shall not make my father's
house, a house of trade, his disciples remembered that.
It was written Zeal for your house, will consume me and then
in paragraph, 586 far from having been hostile to the
temple. Jesus even identified himself
with the temple by presenting himself as God's definitive
Dwelling, Place among men. Therefore he is being put to
bodily death presaged, the destruction of the temple which
would manifest the dawning of a new age.
In the history of Salvation. The hour is coming.
When neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Will you worship the father? Part of 575.
This is about Jesus relationship with Israel and here, the
Catholic Church via the catechism teaches us how to
understand a certain phrase in the gospels.
That says many of Jesus words and deeds constituted a sign of
contradiction but more. So for the religious authorities
in Jerusalem Whom The Gospel, according to John, often simply
calls the Jews then for the Ordinary People of God.
So here, the catechism, specifically says that, when
John uses the term, Choose, it means the Jewish leaders, not
the Ordinary People of God. Paragraph 99 for this is about
the progressive revelation of the Resurrection.
So, it's about how do we understand the resurrection of
Jesus. Jesus, links faith in the
resurrection to his own person. I am the resurrection and the
life. It is Jesus himself, who, on the
last day will raise up. Those who have believed in him,
who have eaten his body and drink his blood already.
Now, in this present life, he gives a sign and pledge of this
by restoring, some of the Dead to life announcing their by his
own Resurrection. Though it was to be of another
order. He speaks of this unique event
as the sign of Jonah, the sign of the temple.
He announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on
the third day. And the last one we'll look at
is paragraph 473. This is about Christ's soul and
his human knowledge. And it's going to refer here to
how Jesus can read people's minds.
But at the same time, this truly human knowledge of God's son,
expressed the Divine Life of his person, the human nature of
God's son, not by itself, but by its Union with the word new and
showed forth in itself, everything that pertains to God.
Such is, first of all, the case with the intimate and immediate
knowledge, that the Son of God made, man has of his father, the
son in his human knowledge also showed the Divine penetration
that he had into the secret thoughts of human hearts.
So, some fairly complex theology here, but really important
stuff. So, I'm put all include those
paragraphs in the show notes for you to look at.
Hopefully, you were able to learn something new about the
account here of Jesus cleansing. The temple will continue to move
through the gospels in the coming days.