John 2: 12-22, Clearing the Temple Courts

Jesus attended a wedding in Cana with several of his disciples.

John 2: 12
After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.

This verse is a transitional verse, describing the town that Jesus will use for much of his ministry.

John 2: 13-17, Driving money changers from the temple
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 
15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 
16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 
17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Jerusalem was south of Galilee, by more than a hundred miles. But one went "up" to Jerusalem since Jerusalem was on a ridge, of higher elevation than Galilee.

The money changers and people selling animals were using the temple -- and temple regulations -- to steal from the visitors. To pay the temple taxes, one had to use temple coins. To sacrifice an animal, it had to be "perfect" and so probably had to be purchased at the temple. Both situations offered opportunity for graft.

It is natural to make a whip to drive sheep and cattle from the temple courts. Did Jesus use the whip on the men at the tables?  How violent was he? It is possible that the whip was reserved for the sheep and cattle.  But Jesus did overturn the moneychangers tables.

Jesus' action is motivated by "zeal" to honor the temple and not desecrate it with greed and corruption. The quote about zeal is from Psalm 69:9.

The other gospels record this cleansing at the end of the ministry of Jesus.  (See Matt 21: 12-13, for example.) Is this the same event, or a new one? William Barclay argues that this is the same event -- it is hard to imagine that the temple let him do this twice.  If this is the same event as that recorded in the other three gospels, then it is at the end of his ministry, as it contributes to Jesus' arrest. In this case, John is not attempting to write events in chronological order but intends to link this event with a teaching of Jesus.

John 2: 18-22, Rebuilding the temple in 3 days
The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?”

19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 
21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 
22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

The "zeal" at the temple is linked, by John, to a teaching on the role of Jesus as the "temple" that will be destroyed and then restored for all of Israel.

This statement about rebuilding the temple is later twisted by Jesus's accusers to be an attack on Judaism.

We will look more at this paragraph, and the teachings that follow, tomorrow.