John 2:13-25
Jesus’ First
Cleansing of the Temple
John 2:13–25
13The Jewish Passover was near, so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple complex He found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves†,
and He also found the money changers sitting there. 15After making a
whip out of cords, He drove everyone out of the temple complex with their sheep
and oxen. He also poured out the money
changers’ coins and overturned the tables. 16He told those who
were selling doves, “Get these things
out of here! Stop turning My
Father’s house into a marketplace!†”
17And His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for Your house
will consume Me.”
18So the Jews replied to Him, “What
sign of authority will You show us for doing these things?”
19Jesus answered, “Destroy this
sanctuary, and I will raise it up in
three days†.”
20Therefore the Jews said, “This sanctuary took forty-six years to
build, and will You raise it up in three days?”
21But He was speaking about the sanctuary of His body. 22So
when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said
this. And they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.
23While He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many trusted in His name when they saw the signs He was doing. 24Jesus, however, would not entrust Himself to them, since He knew them all 25and because He did not need anyone to testify about man; for He Himself knew what was in man.[1]
[1]
Knight, G. W. (2001). A simplified harmony of the Gospels (pp.
36–37). Holman Bible Publishers.
Two Cleansings of the Temple?
John places Jesus’ cleansing of the temple at the beginning of His public ministry. But the other Gospel writers report that He cleansed the temple as His ministry drew to a close about three and one-half years later (see segment 158, “Jesus Curses a Fig Tree and Cleanses the Temple,” p. 185).
Were there two separate cleansings of the temple or only one? Scholars disagree on this issue. Some believe that Jesus cleansed the temple only one time. They theorize that John placed this event early in Jesus’ ministry to show that He clashed with the Jewish religious leaders from the very beginning, while the writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke wanted to show that this event sealed Jesus’ doom.
Other scholars point out that two separate cleansings of the temple are a distinct possibility. For example, A. T. Robertson in his A Harmony of the Gospels declares: “There is no inherent difficulty in the repetition of such an act when one reflects on the national indignation of Jesus at the desecration of the temple on his visits during his ministry and considers that Jesus may have wished to make one last protest at the close of his ministry. Certainty, of course, is not possible in such an argument one way or the other” (p. 25).
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Other Resources:
Pure Hearts John 2 https://virtualbiblestudy.com/john/2/
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