Jesus Drives the Sellers from the TempleBible World
2:13John 2:13
And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem with His disciples for the Passover after a short stay in Capernaum, joining the great throng coming from throughout Palestine and distant lands for the most important feast of the year. The visit marks the beginning of His public ministry and His entry upon His work as the Messiah. The weight of the passages holds it to be the first cleansing of the temple early in His ministry, three years before His return near its close when the defilement was greater, while those who held the differing position treat the cleansing connected with it as the second cleansing near the close of His mission. He found the sacred outer courts turned into a noisy marketplace of cattle, sheep, doves and money-changers, carried on as a profitable business of fraud, extortion and robbery by arrangement of the chief priests and rulers. With divine and kingly authority as founder of the sacrificial system and the great Offering Himself, He drove out the traders, overthrew the tables and cleansed the temple, confronting selfishness, hypocrisy and merely formal religion and foreshadowing the final purification of His church before His second advent.
Journey to Passover Feast
Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover after a short stay in Capernaum with His mother, His brothers, and His disciples, traveling with His disciples in a large company and mingling unnoticed with the gathering throng. He arrived when the city was crowded with people who had come from a distance for the great annual festival, and early in the morning large crowds were already repairing to the temple and its courts were already busy and crowded with worshipers. He had not yet publicly announced His mission, so He joined the crowd without drawing attention.
The Passover was the most important Jewish feast, and the leaders directed the people to worship God at Jerusalem. During the festival week large crowds came from throughout Palestine and from distant lands to worship and offer sacrifices, with large numbers of Jews gathering there for that purpose. Jerusalem was crowded with those who had come for the annual festival.
As He traveled, the people often discussed the coming of the Messiah and hoped for national greatness, but that hope rested on a misreading of Scripture. Jesus explained the prophecies to them and urged them to study God's word more closely.
Many pilgrims could not bring sacrificial animals with them, so animals and doves were sold in the temple's outer courts and foreign money was exchanged for sanctuary coin. The animals served as symbols of the one great Sacrifice, while the yearly half-shekel payment was collected as a ransom for each person's soul and used to support the temple. This visit marks the beginning of His public ministry and His entry into His work with the announcement of His mission as the Messiah, introducing the temple cleansing at the beginning of His ministry. It was an act of purification that is paired with and contrasted with His cleansing of the temple near the close of His life, almost at the close of His ministry.
The visit is the first cleansing of the temple early in His ministry, three years before His return near the close of His mission. He then stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by His command drove the buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts with less manifested authority than at the second cleansing, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with the majesty of Heaven's King. At the later cleansing the courts were defiled to a greater degree. In a differing position held by some, the cleansing connected with this going up is treated as a second cleansing near the close of His earthly mission, three years after He had first driven traders from the temple, after He had driven sellers from the court earlier in His ministry. On that view He acted after the people had proclaimed Him Israel's King, accepting their homage and His kingly and priestly office.
Temple Trade and Corruption
The temple was intended as a holy place of worship, prayer, and thanksgiving for the ransom God had provided, but its sacred outer courts had been turned into a noisy marketplace. The buying and selling there disturbed worship and contradicted the holiness of the temple. Because many who came from across Palestine and distant lands for Passover week could not bring sacrificial animals with them, they bought their offerings in the temple courts and exchanged foreign money for sanctuary coin. What began as provision for worshipers had become a profitable and extortionate business carried on in the courts already crowded with worshipers.
The traffic filled the courts with sellers and money-changers, with cattle, sheep, oxen, and doves. There was the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the cooing of doves, and the clinking of coin. Sharp bargaining and angry disputation filled the outer court with unholy noise. Even temple dignitaries took part in the trade, with animals, money-changing, and angry disputes crowding the place meant for devotion.
The sale of offerings and exchange of coins had become a source of fraud, extortion, robbery, and revenue for the priests. Priests and rulers bought cattle and other animals at very low cost and sold them at exorbitant prices to worshipers, sharing the profits among themselves. Foreign money was exchanged for sanctuary coin, and animals and doves were sold in the outer courts, while the yearly half-shekel was collected as a ransom for each soul to support the temple. The animals themselves served as symbols of the one great Sacrifice, yet the noise of the same traffic returning disturbed worshipers. Leaders exploited the worshipers by charging excessive prices and dividing the gain with priests and rulers.
The market existed by arrangement of the chief temple authorities, so the great sin of desecration lay upon the priesthood who had perverted and disgraced their sacred office. Their greed had overcome religious scruples, making them thieves in God's sight and desecrating the holy place. The crowd using the court for its appointed purpose was comparatively innocent beside those who had turned it into a marketplace. While some hold that this visit came near the close of His earthly mission after He had driven traders out earlier, the weight of testimony places this arrangement and desecration at the Passover when He went up to Jerusalem at the opening of His work.
Those who had traveled far felt compelled to buy rather than go home without completing the devotion that had brought them to Jerusalem. They were distressed by teaching that there would be no remission of sins without shedding of blood. They had also been taught that without an offering God would withhold blessing from their children and lands. In that distress the poor saw no way but to submit to unfair transactions, robbery, and oppression in order to offer sacrifice.
Cleansing Act and Authority
At the Passover Jesus cleansed the temple of buying and selling and merchandise, for the courts had become a place of dishonoring traffic that oppressed the people. On entering the enclosure He gathered a scourge of small cords, bade the bargaining company depart, overthrew the tables of the money-changers so that coin fell ringing on the pavement, and drove out temple officers, speculating priests, brokers and cattle traders with their sheep and oxen. None dared question His authority or stop to gather ill-gotten gain, and though He struck no one with the whip the simple scourge in His hand seemed terrible as a flaming sword, so that they fled before Him as though pursued by armed soldiers. The outer court was filled with sharp bargaining, the lowing of cattle, bleating of sheep, cooing of doves, clinking of coin and angry disputation, and He saw the unfair transactions and robbery and oppression with a zeal and severity never before manifested.
The act was not an exhibition of human power but of divine and kingly authority that lifted Him above humanity and openly assumed authority greater than the chief priests and elders. He was the originator and founder of the whole Jewish sacrificial system, and all the sacrifices were types of Himself as the great Offering now standing in His temple. In exercising that authority He drove out the priests and rulers and condemned their sacrilegious practices.
The dignitaries of the temple fled precipitously before Him in fear and unquestioning obedience. This was the first cleansing at the Passover, three years before the final cleansing, when He stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by His command drove buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts. Afterward they were ashamed of their surrender and wondered at their own fears, judging such a surrender impossible to repeat, yet at the second cleansing three years after the first they obeyed again in greater terror and haste, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with less manifested authority at first than afterward with the majesty of Heaven's King whose indignation quenched all opposition.
His appearance, voice and power over the crowd led many people to believe that He was the Messiah they had long expected and long awaited. His disciples remembered this display of power and hoped He would again disperse His enemies and show Himself to be the King of Israel. The cleansing condemned sacrilegious practices and reproved the Pharisees, whose religion consisted of forms and ceremonies, whose rigorous exactions showed no reverence for the true requirements of God but trampled them daily, and whose hypocritical lives stirred their bitter hatred. The Jews felt and realized that divine authority and should have been brought by it as worshipers at His feet, but they hated and scorned Him and questioned what right a youthful Galilean had to interfere with the dignitaries of the temple. They were determined to disbelieve Him from fear that this humble Galilean teaching humility and love would take from them their power over the people by His greater works and superhuman authority, and because their haughty spirits looked for a king who would come with great pomp and heraldry to subdue nations and raise them to loftier station.
News of that act, along with His healings, reached Galilee with the returning Passover pilgrims who had come from the feast. The people's disapproval of the temple rulers and hope that Jesus might be the Deliverer helped prepare them to receive Him. That report encouraged the Capernaum nobleman to believe Jesus could heal his dying son even from the brink of the grave. Nicodemus witnessed the temple scene and then sought Jesus at night on the Mount of Olives, and on the day after the cleansing Jesus healed the sick and taught the people.
Spiritual Meaning and Doctrine
Going up to Jerusalem for the Passover at the start of His public work, Jesus began that work by confronting selfishness, hypocrisy, and merely formal religion among professed worshipers who neglected inward holiness. His cleansing condemned sacrilegious traffic and reproved the Pharisees, whose religion consisted of forms and ceremonies, whose rigorous exactions showed no reverence for God's true requirements but trampled them daily, and whose hypocritical lives were rebuked by His teaching. Their retreat from His presence showed they were not fitted by His grace for sacred service, for though they claimed to be Abraham's children and guarded outward forms, they neglected holiness of heart and violated the spirit of the law.
Mere profession of religion has no value before God, who values a pure, holy character maintained with strict integrity. What was needed was new birth, cleansing from sin, and renewal in holiness for eternal life. His holy wrath against the Jewish leaders arose because they taught human commandments as doctrines and practiced deceit. That driving out of pollution from the temple also shows His desire to cleanse hearts of everything resembling fraud.
In the temple He exercised great authority in condemning the leaders' practices, and His appearance, voice, and power over the crowd led many to believe He was the long-expected Messiah. The Passover cleansing thus revealed His divinity and, together with His healing and teaching in Judea, proclaimed His Sonship to God. The temple purified at the beginning of His ministry was purified again at its close, illustrating that God purifies His church through trials for its present and eternal good to strengthen it to carry the message of the cross throughout the world. In this way truth confronts religious leaders and rulers whose conduct needs to be corrected and purified.
Prophetic Foreshadowing of End
The Passover journey to Jerusalem marks the beginning of public ministry with a first cleansing of the temple from sacrilegious trade and profanation, when a sacred institution had been turned into means of profit and worship of mammon. That act of purification at the opening of ministry is paired with a second cleansing almost at its close, nearly the last act of ministry, three years after the return to the temple near the close of the earthly mission. The two are repeated acts of purification standing together as first and second.
At the first cleansing He stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by command drove buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts. It was wrought with less manifested authority than the second, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with the majesty of Heaven's King and His indignation quenched all opposition. The dignitaries fled precipitously before Him in fear and unquestioning obedience, afterward ashamed of their surrender and judging repetition impossible, yet at the second cleansing they obeyed again in greater terror and haste.
Together the two cleansings foreshadow the last work for the warning of the world, in which two distinct calls are made to the churches. They picture the second angel's message and the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. The temple scene at that Passover visit showed Christ exercising kingly authority as He drove out the priests and rulers, and their flight symbolized the later dispersion of the Jewish nation for its wickedness and impenitence.
That first cleansing, when He came to Jerusalem at His first advent because commercial work had been brought in and God had been forgotten, will be repeated prior to His second advent. Then God in displeasure will cleanse and purify His temple. In that cleansing the principles of God's law were presented with the question how much of the law had been obeyed, amid hurry here and hurry there and hurry somewhere else leaving no time to think of heaven.
Present Practical Application
The going up to Jerusalem at the Jews' passover establishes the duty to practice true health reform and temperance and to preserve the physical powers in the best possible condition in order to render acceptable service to God. That preservation keeps a person susceptible to the sanctifying influence of truth, and the light and knowledge of the laws of health are granted to promote spiritual as well as physical life. Instruction in this duty is to be given by precept and by quiet, consistent example, and then followed up with publications.
As He drove the money-changers from the temple at that Passover, so He would likewise drive out those who desecrate churches through feasting and unholy trade conducted in the name of religion. The cleansing is a call for Him to remove fraud and injustice from religious institutions and to cleanse a workplace of concealed wrongdoing. He who came to Jerusalem to cleanse defilement from God's work when He was upon the earth will just as surely cleanse the publishing office, the Review and Herald Office, from its defilement if there is not a change. That cleansing is required because the men in office are not under control to God, are not walking in the light, and do not sense the difference between handling the sacred and the common fire.
The temple had been set apart for God but had been turned to common commercial use displeasing to God, and that desecration exerted a corrupting, poisoning influence on minds through blindness and lack of spiritual discernment. The same desecration takes place when an institution dedicated to God's pure truth is used for God-displeasing commercial work. It likewise takes place when such an institution is used for matter containing principles that lead to false doctrine.
Jesus went up to Jerusalem with His disciples for the Passover after a short stay in Capernaum, joining the great throng coming from throughout Palestine and distant lands for the most important feast of the year. The visit marks the beginning of His public ministry and His entry upon His work as the Messiah. The weight of the passages holds it to be the first cleansing of the temple early in His ministry, three years before His return near its close when the defilement was greater, while those who held the differing position treat the cleansing connected with it as the second cleansing near the close of His mission. He found the sacred outer courts turned into a noisy marketplace of cattle, sheep, doves and money-changers, carried on as a profitable business of fraud, extortion and robbery by arrangement of the chief priests and rulers. With divine and kingly authority as founder of the sacrificial system and the great Offering Himself, He drove out the traders, overthrew the tables and cleansed the temple, confronting selfishness, hypocrisy and merely formal religion and foreshadowing the final purification of His church before His second advent.
Journey to Passover Feast
Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Passover after a short stay in Capernaum with His mother, His brothers, and His disciples, traveling with His disciples in a large company and mingling unnoticed with the gathering throng. He arrived when the city was crowded with people who had come from a distance for the great annual festival, and early in the morning large crowds were already repairing to the temple and its courts were already busy and crowded with worshipers. He had not yet publicly announced His mission, so He joined the crowd without drawing attention.
The Passover was the most important Jewish feast, and the leaders directed the people to worship God at Jerusalem. During the festival week large crowds came from throughout Palestine and from distant lands to worship and offer sacrifices, with large numbers of Jews gathering there for that purpose. Jerusalem was crowded with those who had come for the annual festival.
As He traveled, the people often discussed the coming of the Messiah and hoped for national greatness, but that hope rested on a misreading of Scripture. Jesus explained the prophecies to them and urged them to study God's word more closely.
Many pilgrims could not bring sacrificial animals with them, so animals and doves were sold in the temple's outer courts and foreign money was exchanged for sanctuary coin. The animals served as symbols of the one great Sacrifice, while the yearly half-shekel payment was collected as a ransom for each person's soul and used to support the temple. This visit marks the beginning of His public ministry and His entry into His work with the announcement of His mission as the Messiah, introducing the temple cleansing at the beginning of His ministry. It was an act of purification that is paired with and contrasted with His cleansing of the temple near the close of His life, almost at the close of His ministry.
The visit is the first cleansing of the temple early in His ministry, three years before His return near the close of His mission. He then stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by His command drove the buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts with less manifested authority than at the second cleansing, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with the majesty of Heaven's King. At the later cleansing the courts were defiled to a greater degree. In a differing position held by some, the cleansing connected with this going up is treated as a second cleansing near the close of His earthly mission, three years after He had first driven traders from the temple, after He had driven sellers from the court earlier in His ministry. On that view He acted after the people had proclaimed Him Israel's King, accepting their homage and His kingly and priestly office.
Temple Trade and Corruption
The temple was intended as a holy place of worship, prayer, and thanksgiving for the ransom God had provided, but its sacred outer courts had been turned into a noisy marketplace. The buying and selling there disturbed worship and contradicted the holiness of the temple. Because many who came from across Palestine and distant lands for Passover week could not bring sacrificial animals with them, they bought their offerings in the temple courts and exchanged foreign money for sanctuary coin. What began as provision for worshipers had become a profitable and extortionate business carried on in the courts already crowded with worshipers.
The traffic filled the courts with sellers and money-changers, with cattle, sheep, oxen, and doves. There was the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the cooing of doves, and the clinking of coin. Sharp bargaining and angry disputation filled the outer court with unholy noise. Even temple dignitaries took part in the trade, with animals, money-changing, and angry disputes crowding the place meant for devotion.
The sale of offerings and exchange of coins had become a source of fraud, extortion, robbery, and revenue for the priests. Priests and rulers bought cattle and other animals at very low cost and sold them at exorbitant prices to worshipers, sharing the profits among themselves. Foreign money was exchanged for sanctuary coin, and animals and doves were sold in the outer courts, while the yearly half-shekel was collected as a ransom for each soul to support the temple. The animals themselves served as symbols of the one great Sacrifice, yet the noise of the same traffic returning disturbed worshipers. Leaders exploited the worshipers by charging excessive prices and dividing the gain with priests and rulers.
The market existed by arrangement of the chief temple authorities, so the great sin of desecration lay upon the priesthood who had perverted and disgraced their sacred office. Their greed had overcome religious scruples, making them thieves in God's sight and desecrating the holy place. The crowd using the court for its appointed purpose was comparatively innocent beside those who had turned it into a marketplace. While some hold that this visit came near the close of His earthly mission after He had driven traders out earlier, the weight of testimony places this arrangement and desecration at the Passover when He went up to Jerusalem at the opening of His work.
Those who had traveled far felt compelled to buy rather than go home without completing the devotion that had brought them to Jerusalem. They were distressed by teaching that there would be no remission of sins without shedding of blood. They had also been taught that without an offering God would withhold blessing from their children and lands. In that distress the poor saw no way but to submit to unfair transactions, robbery, and oppression in order to offer sacrifice.
Cleansing Act and Authority
At the Passover Jesus cleansed the temple of buying and selling and merchandise, for the courts had become a place of dishonoring traffic that oppressed the people. On entering the enclosure He gathered a scourge of small cords, bade the bargaining company depart, overthrew the tables of the money-changers so that coin fell ringing on the pavement, and drove out temple officers, speculating priests, brokers and cattle traders with their sheep and oxen. None dared question His authority or stop to gather ill-gotten gain, and though He struck no one with the whip the simple scourge in His hand seemed terrible as a flaming sword, so that they fled before Him as though pursued by armed soldiers. The outer court was filled with sharp bargaining, the lowing of cattle, bleating of sheep, cooing of doves, clinking of coin and angry disputation, and He saw the unfair transactions and robbery and oppression with a zeal and severity never before manifested.
The act was not an exhibition of human power but of divine and kingly authority that lifted Him above humanity and openly assumed authority greater than the chief priests and elders. He was the originator and founder of the whole Jewish sacrificial system, and all the sacrifices were types of Himself as the great Offering now standing in His temple. In exercising that authority He drove out the priests and rulers and condemned their sacrilegious practices.
The dignitaries of the temple fled precipitously before Him in fear and unquestioning obedience. This was the first cleansing at the Passover, three years before the final cleansing, when He stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by His command drove buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts. Afterward they were ashamed of their surrender and wondered at their own fears, judging such a surrender impossible to repeat, yet at the second cleansing three years after the first they obeyed again in greater terror and haste, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with less manifested authority at first than afterward with the majesty of Heaven's King whose indignation quenched all opposition.
His appearance, voice and power over the crowd led many people to believe that He was the Messiah they had long expected and long awaited. His disciples remembered this display of power and hoped He would again disperse His enemies and show Himself to be the King of Israel. The cleansing condemned sacrilegious practices and reproved the Pharisees, whose religion consisted of forms and ceremonies, whose rigorous exactions showed no reverence for the true requirements of God but trampled them daily, and whose hypocritical lives stirred their bitter hatred. The Jews felt and realized that divine authority and should have been brought by it as worshipers at His feet, but they hated and scorned Him and questioned what right a youthful Galilean had to interfere with the dignitaries of the temple. They were determined to disbelieve Him from fear that this humble Galilean teaching humility and love would take from them their power over the people by His greater works and superhuman authority, and because their haughty spirits looked for a king who would come with great pomp and heraldry to subdue nations and raise them to loftier station.
News of that act, along with His healings, reached Galilee with the returning Passover pilgrims who had come from the feast. The people's disapproval of the temple rulers and hope that Jesus might be the Deliverer helped prepare them to receive Him. That report encouraged the Capernaum nobleman to believe Jesus could heal his dying son even from the brink of the grave. Nicodemus witnessed the temple scene and then sought Jesus at night on the Mount of Olives, and on the day after the cleansing Jesus healed the sick and taught the people.
Spiritual Meaning and Doctrine
Going up to Jerusalem for the Passover at the start of His public work, Jesus began that work by confronting selfishness, hypocrisy, and merely formal religion among professed worshipers who neglected inward holiness. His cleansing condemned sacrilegious traffic and reproved the Pharisees, whose religion consisted of forms and ceremonies, whose rigorous exactions showed no reverence for God's true requirements but trampled them daily, and whose hypocritical lives were rebuked by His teaching. Their retreat from His presence showed they were not fitted by His grace for sacred service, for though they claimed to be Abraham's children and guarded outward forms, they neglected holiness of heart and violated the spirit of the law.
Mere profession of religion has no value before God, who values a pure, holy character maintained with strict integrity. What was needed was new birth, cleansing from sin, and renewal in holiness for eternal life. His holy wrath against the Jewish leaders arose because they taught human commandments as doctrines and practiced deceit. That driving out of pollution from the temple also shows His desire to cleanse hearts of everything resembling fraud.
In the temple He exercised great authority in condemning the leaders' practices, and His appearance, voice, and power over the crowd led many to believe He was the long-expected Messiah. The Passover cleansing thus revealed His divinity and, together with His healing and teaching in Judea, proclaimed His Sonship to God. The temple purified at the beginning of His ministry was purified again at its close, illustrating that God purifies His church through trials for its present and eternal good to strengthen it to carry the message of the cross throughout the world. In this way truth confronts religious leaders and rulers whose conduct needs to be corrected and purified.
Prophetic Foreshadowing of End
The Passover journey to Jerusalem marks the beginning of public ministry with a first cleansing of the temple from sacrilegious trade and profanation, when a sacred institution had been turned into means of profit and worship of mammon. That act of purification at the opening of ministry is paired with a second cleansing almost at its close, nearly the last act of ministry, three years after the return to the temple near the close of the earthly mission. The two are repeated acts of purification standing together as first and second.
At the first cleansing He stood as a youthful, humble, single man and by command drove buyers and sellers, cattle and merchandise from the courts. It was wrought with less manifested authority than the second, when divinity flashing through humanity invested Him with the majesty of Heaven's King and His indignation quenched all opposition. The dignitaries fled precipitously before Him in fear and unquestioning obedience, afterward ashamed of their surrender and judging repetition impossible, yet at the second cleansing they obeyed again in greater terror and haste.
Together the two cleansings foreshadow the last work for the warning of the world, in which two distinct calls are made to the churches. They picture the second angel's message and the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. The temple scene at that Passover visit showed Christ exercising kingly authority as He drove out the priests and rulers, and their flight symbolized the later dispersion of the Jewish nation for its wickedness and impenitence.
That first cleansing, when He came to Jerusalem at His first advent because commercial work had been brought in and God had been forgotten, will be repeated prior to His second advent. Then God in displeasure will cleanse and purify His temple. In that cleansing the principles of God's law were presented with the question how much of the law had been obeyed, amid hurry here and hurry there and hurry somewhere else leaving no time to think of heaven.
Present Practical Application
The going up to Jerusalem at the Jews' passover establishes the duty to practice true health reform and temperance and to preserve the physical powers in the best possible condition in order to render acceptable service to God. That preservation keeps a person susceptible to the sanctifying influence of truth, and the light and knowledge of the laws of health are granted to promote spiritual as well as physical life. Instruction in this duty is to be given by precept and by quiet, consistent example, and then followed up with publications.
As He drove the money-changers from the temple at that Passover, so He would likewise drive out those who desecrate churches through feasting and unholy trade conducted in the name of religion. The cleansing is a call for Him to remove fraud and injustice from religious institutions and to cleanse a workplace of concealed wrongdoing. He who came to Jerusalem to cleanse defilement from God's work when He was upon the earth will just as surely cleanse the publishing office, the Review and Herald Office, from its defilement if there is not a change. That cleansing is required because the men in office are not under control to God, are not walking in the light, and do not sense the difference between handling the sacred and the common fire.
The temple had been set apart for God but had been turned to common commercial use displeasing to God, and that desecration exerted a corrupting, poisoning influence on minds through blindness and lack of spiritual discernment. The same desecration takes place when an institution dedicated to God's pure truth is used for God-displeasing commercial work. It likewise takes place when such an institution is used for matter containing principles that lead to false doctrine.