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The Cleansing of the Temple

Matt 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–48; John 2:13–22 · Passion week in Jerusalem

Scripture

Matthew 21:12–17

nd Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, 13And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 14And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. 15And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased, 16And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? 17And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.

King James Version · public domain

Mateu 21:12–17

dhe Jisuj hyri ndë hieroret të Perëndisë, edhe nxori jashtë gjith’ ata që shisnin’ e blininë ndë hieroret, edhe përmbysi truvezat’ e truvezarëvet, edhe fronet’ e atyre që shisninë pëllumbatë; 13Edhe u thot’ atyre, Eshtë shkruarë “Shtëpia ime dotë quhetë shtëpi lutjeje”; po ju e bët’ atë “shpellë vjedhësish”. 14Edhe i erthnë përanë të-verbër’ e të-çalë ndë hieroret; edhe i shëroj ata. 15Po krye-priftërit’ edhe shkronjësitë kur panë çudiratë që bëri, edhe çunatë dyke bërtiturë ndë hieroret e dyke thënë, Hosanna mbë të birin’ e Dhavidhit, uzëmëruanë, edhe i than’ ati, Dëgjon se ç’thonë këta? 16Edhe Jisuj u thot’ atyre, Po; kurrë s’keni kënduarë, “Se nga goj’ e foshnjavet edhe e atyreve që pinë sisë bëre gati lavdim?” 17Edhe si i la ata, dolli jashtë qytetit ndë Vithani, edhe natën’ e shkoj atje.

Kristoforidhi, Dhiata e Re Toskërisht 1879 · zotërim publik

In their own words

For he is indeed a thief, and turns the temple of God into a den of thieves, who makes a gain of his religion.

St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 21:12–16) (Catena Aurea)

The Cleansing of the Temple (Matthew 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–48; John 2:13–22)

The texts below are quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations; nothing is paraphrased.

St. John Chrysostom (c. 347–407)

Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily 67 (on Matthew 21:12–17) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf110/npnf110.iii.LXIV.html

On the temple cleansed a second time, and the hardness of the Jews:

And this is a heavier charge against the Jews, that when He had done this not once only, but a second time, they continued in their trafficking, and said that He was an adversary of God, when they ought even from hence to have learnt His honor for His Father and His own might.

On the authority He shows by healing the blind and the lame in the temple:

But not in this way only doth He show His authority, but also by His healing divers infirmities. For the blind and the lame came unto Him, and He healed them, and His power and authority He indicates.

On the perfected praise out of the mouth of babes and sucklings:

And well did He say, "Out of the mouth." For what was said was not of their understanding, but of His power giving articulation to their tongue yet immature. And this was also a type of the Gentiles lisping, and sounding forth at once great things with understanding and faith.

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376–444)

Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 2 (on John 2:13–22) Source: trans. P. E. Pusey, Library of Fathers, 1874. Public domain. Full text: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/cyril_on_john_02_book2.htm

On the scourge of small cords, and the house of prayer made a house of merchandise:

Reasonably is the Saviour indignant at the folly of the Jews. For it befitted to make the Divine Temple not an house of merchandise, but an house of prayer: for so it is written. But He shows His emotion not by mere words, but with stripes and a scourge thrusts He them forth of the sacred precincts, justly devising for them the punishment befitting slaves; for they would not receive the Son Who through faith maketh free.

On the authority with which He drives them out, as Lord and as teacher:

He commands as Lord, He leads by the hand to what is fitting, as teacher; and along with the punishment He sets before them the declaration of their offences, through shame thereof not suffering him that is censured to be angry.

On "Destroy this temple," which He spake of the temple of His body:

Since the Body of Christ is called a temple also, how is not the Only-Begotten Word Which indwelleth therein, God by Nature, since he that is not God cannot be said to dwell in a Temple?

Origen of Alexandria (c. 185–254)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 21:12–13) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxi.html

On the temple as a figure of the Church, and its house of prayer made a den of thieves:

The Temple of God is the Church of Christ, wherein are many, who live not, as they ought, spiritually, but after the flesh; and that house of prayer which is built of living stones they make by their actions to be a den of thieves.

On the buyers, the money-changers, and the sellers of doves as figures of unworthy ministry:

Whosoever among a Christian people spend their time in nothing else but buying and selling, continuing but little in prayers or in other right actions, these are the buyers and sellers in the Temple of God. Deacons who do not lay out well the funds of their Churches, but grow rich out of the poor man's portion, these are the money-changers whose tables Christ overturns. ... Bishops who commit Churches to those they ought not, are they that sell the doves, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, whose seats Christ overturns.

Blessed Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 10 (on John 2:13–22) Source: trans. in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107/npnf107.iii.xi.html

On the house of prayer that must not be made a house of merchandise:

If, while they were selling what was lawful and not against justice ... He nevertheless drove those men out, and suffered not the house of prayer to be made a house of merchandise; how, if He found drunkards there, what would the Lord do?

On the zeal of the Lord's house that ought to eat up every Christian:

Brethren, let every Christian among the members of Christ be eaten up with zeal of God's house. Who is eaten up with zeal of God's house? He who exerts himself to have all that he may happen to see wrong there corrected, desires it to be mended, does not rest idle: who if he cannot mend it, endures it, laments it.

On "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," the temple of His body:

But He spake, saith the evangelist, of the temple of His body. And it is manifest that, being slain, the Lord did rise again after three days.

St. Jerome (c. 347–420)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 21:12–16) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxi.html

On the thief who turns the temple of God into a den of thieves:

For he is indeed a thief, and turns the temple of God into a den of thieves, who makes a gain of his religion.

On the temple of the breast, to be kept clear of bargaining and covetousness:

What we have spoken of Churches let each man understand of himself, for the Apostle says, "Ye are the temple of God." Let there not be therefore in the abode of your breast the spirit of bargaining, nor the desire of gifts, lest Jesus, entering in anger and sternness, should purify His temple not without scourging, that from a den of thieves He should make it a house of prayers.

On the children crying Hosanna to the Son of David:

For, not daring to lay hands on Him, the Priests defame his works, and the testimony of the children who cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," as though this might be said to none but to the Son of God only.

Remigius (c. 841–908)

Commentary on Matthew (on Matthew 21:14) As preserved in the Catena Aurea on Matthew. Public domain. Full text: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena1.ii.xxi.html

On the blind and the lame healed in the temple, a figure of healing in the Church alone:

That they are healed in the Temple signifies, that men cannot be healed but in the Church, to which is given the power of binding and loosing.

Patristic sources

Read the sources: Chrysostom on Matthew, Homily 67 (CCEL) · Cyril of Alexandria on John, Book 2 (tertullian.org) · Augustine, Tractates on John, Tractate 10 (CCEL) · Catena Aurea on Matthew 21 (CCEL)