John 2:13-16

It was at Jerusalem and in the temple, that the Messiah's ministry must open. “The Lord whom ye seek,” Malachi had said (John 3:1-3), “shall enter into his temple.... he shall purify the sons of Levi...” That prophecy said to Israel that her King would announce Himself, not by a miracle of power, but by an act of holiness.

The moment of this inauguration was naturally indicated. The feast of the Passover, more than any other, assembled the whole people in the holy city and in the courts of the temple. This was the hour of Jesus (John 2:4). If the people had entered into the reformatory movement which He sought, at that time, to impress upon them, this entrance of Jesus into His temple would have become the signal of His Messianic coming.

The temple had three particularly holy courts: that of the priests, which enclosed the edifice of the temple properly so-called (ναός); more to the eastward, that of the men, and finally, to the east of the latter, that of the women. Around these courts a vast open space had been arranged, which was enclosed on four sides by colonnades, and which was called the court of the Gentiles, because it was the only part of the sacred place (ἱερόν) into which proselytes were permitted to enter. In this outermost court there were established, with the tacit consent of the temple authorities, a market and an exchange. Here were sold the different kinds of animals intended for the sacrifices; here Greek or Roman money, brought from foreign regions, was exchanged for the sacred money with which the capitation-tax determined by

Exo 30:13 for the support of the temple (the half-shekel or double-drachma = about 31 cents) was paid.

Until this day, Jesus had not risen up against this abuse. Present in the temple as a simple Jew, He did not have to judge the conduct of the authorities, still less to put himself in their place. Now, it is as the Son of Him to whom this house is consecrated, that He enters into the sanctuary. He brings to it, not merely new rites, but new duties. To keep silence in the presence of the profanation of which religion is the pretext, and at which His conscience as a Jew and His heart as the Son revolt, would be to belie, at the outset, His position as Messiah. The word of Malachi, which we have just quoted, traces His course for Him. It is to misconceive gravely the meaning of the act which is about to be related, to see in it, with Weiss, only a simple attempt at reform, such as any prophet might have allowed himself. The single expression: “ My Father's house” (John 2:16), shows that Jesus was here acting in the full consciousness of His Messianic dignity; comp. also John 2:19; John 2:19-21, make us appreciate the true bearing of this act; it is an appeal to the conscience of Israel, a demand addressed to its chiefs. If this appeal is heard, this act of purification will inaugurate the general reform of the theocracy, the condition of the Messianic kingdom. If the people remain indifferent, the consequences of this conduct are clear to the view of Jesus; all is over with the theocracy. The rejection of the Messiah, His death even; this is the fatal end of such conduct. Comp. an analogous ordeal at Nazareth, Luke 4:23-27. The power in virtue of which Jesus acted, was by no means, therefore, the alleged right of the zealots of which the act of Phineas (Numbers 25; Psa 106:30) is thought to have been the type, but which never really existed in Israel.