John 2:14Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Do you see their extreme envy, and how the benefits shown to others especially irritated them?

At one time He said that the temple had been made by them a den of thieves. By this He showed that what was sold had been acquired by theft, robbery, and usury, and that they enriched themselves through others' misfortunes.

At another time He called it a house of trade, exposing their shamelessness in commerce.

But why did He do this? Later He began to heal on the Sabbath and to do many such things that seemed to them transgressions of the Law.

Therefore, lest they think Him an enemy of God, acting contrary to the Father's will, He forestalls this thought of theirs by this event.

One who showed such great zeal for the house surely did not intend to oppose the Master of the house, Who was worshiped in it.

True, the preceding years in which He lived according to the Law could sufficiently show His reverence for the Lawgiver. They could show that He had not come to legislate anything contrary to Him.

But since those years were likely given over to oblivion with the passage of time, and were not known to all, He does this in the presence of all the people gathered because the feast was near.

He does it also at danger to Himself. He did not simply drive them out, but overturned the tables and scattered the money.

By this He made them understand that one who exposes Himself to danger for good order in the house will not despise the Master of the house.

If He had done this hypocritically, He could have used persuasion alone. To expose Himself to danger was exceedingly bold.

It was no small matter to hand Himself over to such rage from the merchants, or to provoke against Himself an ignorant crowd of tavern people by shaming them and causing them loss.

This belongs not to a hypocrite, but to one ready to suffer everything for the beauty of the house.

For when someone prices a thing of little worth dearly and takes advantage of the poor and widows when opportunity arises, what else is he doing but thieving?

This is what those usually do who buy up necessary goods and then sell them, drawing profit from the misfortune of their neighbors.

Why does He drive such people out of the temple altogether? Not without reason. He will heal on the Sabbath and seem to violate the law concerning it.

Therefore, lest they then consider Him an enemy of God, He forestalls that thought by the present event. For one who showed such zeal for the temple will not reject God, the Lord of the temple.

He did not simply drive them out, but struck with a scourge of cords, overturned the tables, and scattered the coin, or money, of the changers. He resolved upon a very dangerous act.

One who exposes himself to danger for the house of God will not permit departure from God's Law as an enemy of God. He will do so, without doubt, as the Son who has equal authority with God and the Father, who gave the law concerning the Sabbath.

Therefore He did not say the house of "God," but "My Father's" house. He showed that, as Son, He has authority over all that belongs to the Father.

The money changers are those who sell small coins, or nummi.

Many high priests sin like the merchants of that time when they sell "oxen" in the Church. They do not give honor to those distinguished in the word of teaching, but give it to those willing to do evil.

They sell "sheep," the simple and ordinary people, and "doves," the spiritual gifts. They raise to higher rank those who give more.

The Lord drives such men out of the sanctuary, finding them by His judgment unworthy of the high priesthood.

Likewise, if anyone sells large and small coin, that is, opinion and word, and is a teacher but does not foresee what is profitable, he does not proclaim the word of the Gospel.

Then the Lord overturns his table, that is, his office as teacher, and the teaching which he wickedly withholds, not giving it to all.

Meanwhile the Lord Jesus removes such a man from authority and seats another, worthy man at the teacher's table.

Thus what God said about them is true: "Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have defiled My portion. They have made My desirable portion a trackless wilderness. It has become a consumption of destruction" (Jer 12:10-11).

Indeed, the Lord's vineyard had been corrupted. It was taught to trample down the very worship of God and was estranged into every ignorance by the greed of its rulers.

What follows? "The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and He went up to Jerusalem" (Jn 2:13). The Gospel then tells of another event, as though it came back to the narrator's memory. "And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting. And making a scourge of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen. He poured out the money of the changers and overturned their tables. And He said to those who sold doves, 'Take these things away. Do not make My Father's house a house of trade'" (Jn 2:16).

What have we heard, brethren? See that this temple too was a type. The Lord drove out from it all who sought their own interests when they came on a market day. And what were they selling there? What people at that time needed for sacrifices. For you know, beloved, that because of that people's fleshly mind and still stony heart, such sacrifices were given them. They were to hold to these, so that they would not fall away to idols. There they offered oxen, sheep, and doves in sacrifice. You know this, because you have read it.

It was not a great sin if they sold in the temple what was bought for offering in the temple. Yet He drove them out from there. Why did the Lord act as though He had found drunkards there? If the merchants sold what was permitted and not contrary to justice, why did He drive them out? For it is not unlawful to sell what it is proper to buy. Yet He did not tolerate the house of prayer becoming a house of trade.

If the house of God must not be turned into a house of trade, should it become a tavern? When we say this, they gnash their teeth at us. Yet the psalm strengthens us, where we hear: "They gnashed their teeth at me" (Ps 34:16). We know how we may be healed, even though scourges are doubled for Christ. For His word is scourged: "They gathered scourges against Me, and they knew it not" (cf. Ps 34:15). He was scourged by the scourges of the Jews. Now He is scourged by the blasphemies of false Christians. They multiply scourges for their Lord, and they know it not. Therefore, as far as He helps us, let us do what the psalmist did: "As for me, when they troubled me, I put on sackcloth and humbled my soul with fasting" (cf. Ps 34:13).

Yet we say, brethren, that He Himself does not shrink from them. He, Who was to be scourged by them, Himself first scourged them. We say that a certain sign was given us when He made a scourge of cords and scourged the disobedient, who had made the temple of God a place of trade.

Indeed, each man twists a cord for himself out of his own sins. The prophet says: "Woe to those who draw their sins as with a long cord" (cf. Is 5:18). Who makes a long cord? He who increases sin by sin. How are sins added to sins? When sins already committed are covered by other sins. A man has committed theft. To keep what he did from being discovered, he seeks out an astrologer. It was enough to commit theft and become a sinner. Why do you wish to add another sin to sin? Now there are already two sins. When you were warned not to go to an astrologer, you began to blaspheme the bishop. Now there are three sins. When you heard, "Remove him from the Church," you said, "I will take refuge in the party of Donatus." Now you have added a fourth sin.

The cord grows. Fear the cord. It will be good for you to be corrected here, when you endure scourging. Otherwise it may be said to you at the end: "Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into outer darkness" (cf. Mt 22:13). For "each man is bound by the cords of his own sins" (cf. Prov 5:22). The first word was spoken by the Lord. The second is spoken by other Scriptures, yet both were spoken by the Lord. By their own sins men entangle themselves and cast themselves into outer darkness.

But in order to seek out the mystery of what happened in this type, let us answer: who are those who sell oxen? Who are those who sell sheep and doves? They are those who seek their own things in the Church, and not the things of Jesus Christ (cf. Phil 2:21). They consider everything an object of sale, because they do not wish to be redeemed. They do not wish to be redeemed, yet they wish to sell. It would be good for them to be redeemed by the blood of Christ, so that they might come to the peace of Christ.

For what profit is there in gaining anything temporal and passing in this world, whether money, pleasures of the belly and throat, or honor from human praise? Is all this not smoke and wind? Will it not vanish and flee away? Woe to those who cling to passing things, for they themselves vanish with them. Is all this not a river rushing swiftly into the sea? Woe to him who falls into it, for he will be swept away into the sea. Therefore we must restrain all our senses from such desires.

My brethren, those who seek such things are sellers. Simon himself wished to buy the Holy Spirit because he wished to sell the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 8:18-19). He thought that the apostles were merchants like those whom the Lord drove from the temple with a scourge. For he himself was such a man, and he wished to buy what he could sell. He belonged to those who sell doves. For the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in the dove (cf. Mt 3:16). Who, then, are those who sell doves, brethren? Who are they, if not those who say, "We give the Holy Spirit"? Why do they say this, and at what price do they sell Him? At the price of their own honor. They receive temporal seats as their price, so that they may seem to sell doves. Let them beware of the scourge of cords. The dove is not an object of sale. It is given as a good gratis, freely and without payment. Therefore it is called grace, gratia.

So then, my brethren, you can see such traders and shopkeepers. Each praises what he sells. How many shops they have built! One is held in Carthage by Primian, another by Maximian, a third in Mauretania by Rogatus. Others are held in Numidia by one man and another, whom we can no longer name. Now someone goes about wishing to buy the dove, and each of these praises the shop in which he trades. Let the heart of this seeker turn away from every seller. Let him come where the dove is obtained freely.

And they do not blush, brethren, that through their grievous and ruinous divisions they have split themselves into so many parties. For they ascribe to themselves what does not belong to them. They exalt themselves, thinking themselves something when they are nothing (cf. Gal 6:3). What was fulfilled in them, when they refused correction, except what you heard in the psalm: "They were torn apart and felt no repentance" (cf. Ps 34:16)?

Who, then, are those who sell oxen? By oxen we should understand those who handed down the Holy Scriptures to us. The apostles were oxen, and the prophets were oxen. Therefore the Apostle says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain." Is God concerned for oxen? Or is this certainly said for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake. For he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the expected fruit (1 Cor 9:9-10). Thus those oxen left us the written record of the Scriptures. For they did not hand down their own things in them, but sought the glory of the Lord. What did you hear in that psalm? "And let them say continually, 'Let the Lord be magnified,' who desire peace for His servant" (cf. Ps 34:27).

The servant of God is the people of God, the Church of God. Let those who desire peace for His Church magnify the Lord, not the servant. Let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified." Who ought to say this? "Those who desire peace for His servant." This is clearly the voice of His people, the voice of His servant. You heard it groaning in the psalm, and you were moved when you heard it, because you belong to this people. What was sung by one resounded in every heart. Blessed are those who saw themselves in those voices as in a mirror. Who, then, are those who desire peace for His servant, peace for His people, peace for the one soul which He calls "My only one," and which He wishes to deliver? "Deliver My only one from the power of the dogs" (cf. Ps 21:21). They are those who say continually: "Let the Lord be magnified."

Those oxen, then, magnified the Lord and not themselves. Behold the ox magnifying his Lord, for "the ox knows his owner" (Is 1:3). Behold the ox fearing lest the Owner of the ox be abandoned and hope be placed in the ox. So the Apostle fears those who wish to place their hope in him: "Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Cor 1:13). "What I gave, I did not give from myself. Freely you received; the dove came down from heaven." The Apostle says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God Who gives the growth" (1 Cor 3:6-7). And let those who desire peace for His servant say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified."

These heretics deceive men by means of the very Scriptures, in order to receive honor and glory from them, and so that men may not turn to the truth. Since they deceive men by means of the Scriptures, from whom they seek honor, they sell oxen to them. They also sell sheep, that is, the common people themselves, plebes. To whom do they sell them, if not to the devil? My brethren, if the Church of Christ is one and only one, who carries off everything torn away from her, if not the prowling and roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (cf. 1 Pet 5:8)? Woe to those who are torn away from the Church. She herself remains unharmed. For the Lord knows His own (cf. 2 Tim 2:19). Yet they, as far as they can, sell oxen and sheep. They also sell doves. Let them beware of the scourge made from their own sins.

Clearly, when they suffer something of this kind for their injustices, let them recognize that God has made a scourge of cords. He urges those apostates to change themselves, so that they may no longer be sellers. For if they do not change themselves, they will hear at the end: "Bind their hands and feet, and cast them into outer darkness" (Mt 22:13).

Remember that when He went on a journey, He distributed minas and allotted talents among His servants (cf. Mt 25:14-15; Lk 19:12-13). Remember also that He gave the innkeeper two denarii for the care of the wounded man (cf. Lk 10:35). Understand that our wounds are healed by the two Testaments.

As a good moneychanger, hide the words of the Lord, pure words, silver tried by fire and purified sevenfold by the Spirit (Ps 11:7; cf. Isa 11:2). Do not accept, in a dishonest exchange, the counterfeit image of the king, because Satan himself takes the form of an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14).

Do not mix into your treasures the image of your Lord devalued by the deceit of Arian impiety. Do not tempt the hearing of the faithful with the ringing of coins, lest the sound of money prevent them from hearing Holy Scripture, and lest the passion for possession enter the hearts of those who honor God.

Not all moneychangers are driven out. The good ones are left, as the Lord says: "You ought to have given my money to the moneychangers, and at my coming I would have received it back with interest" (Mt 25:27). If the riches are the Scriptures, then the interest too must be expected from the Scriptures.

Why He overturned the seats of those who sold doves, I cannot explain in the literal sense. Dealers in birds could not attain a high and honorable standing in trade. What profit is there from doves?

But if we remember how, at the time of baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord in the form of a dove (cf. Lk 3:22), their expulsion from the temple becomes a stern warning. There is no place in the Church for merchants in the grace of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Himself said, "Freely you have received, freely give" (Mt 10:8). And Peter rebuked Simon, who wished to obtain the priestly gift with money: "May your silver perish with you, because you thought to obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter" (Acts 8:20-21).

The sellers of oxen and sheep, I think, recall cunning sellers in the marketplace, who profit from another's labor or simplicity. Oxen symbolize labor, and sheep simplicity.

Or, if we consider that the oxen and sheep are driven out, while the doves are ordered to be carried away, this may concern the rejection of the Jewish people. Ephraim is like a dove (Hos 7:11), but the Lord accepts neither his inheritance nor his labors.

The coins are scattered, so that grace may be gathered. The moneychanger's table is overturned, so that the Lord's table may be set. The sacrificial altar is cast down, so that altars may be raised up.

He did this without the involvement of an armed detachment and without the help of wealth. He struck the crowd with a whip of cords, and no one dared resist. In His hands there is now a rod, now a whip.

"The rod of uprightness is the rod of Your kingdom" (Ps 44:7). The rod is for correction, the whip for persuasion. The first is inexorable. The second is more like admonition, and like a blow to the sinner's conscience with a soft lash.

One is the threats of the prophets. The other is the persuasion of the apostles. Yet in both, the same Word teaches.

He made a whip from cords, as it is said: "My boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places, and my inheritance is pleasing to me" (Ps 15:6). Here the boundary lines are the cords by which the borders of allotted fields are marked.

Christ, like a skilled surveyor, marked out the boundaries of the synagogue and commanded the defilers of the Church to depart from the temple. He is the new surveyor of fruitful souls, and He evaluates fields not by size, but by fruitfulness.

The new thing is that the boundaries of faith are not embraced by a stretched cord, as with landed property, and are not defined as though faith were a limited thing. Rather, a freely moving boundary extends the limits of the Church without end.

The Jews, however, become exiles not in one defined place, but everywhere, so that nowhere in the world should a place remain for the synagogue.

Since He intended to heal on the Sabbath and to do many things that seemed to the Jews a violation of the Law, He now destroys such a suspicion beforehand. He does this so that they may not think He acts as an adversary of God.

He showed such zeal for the house of God, manifested such power and indignation on its behalf, and spared absolutely no one. He even exposed Himself to danger.

He stirred up against Himself the sellers and the Jews who had permitted this business. He Himself was ready to endure everything for the sake of good order in the temple.

Such a One could not be an adversary of the Master of this temple.

This can be seen from the Evangelist's description of Jesus' actions toward the money changers and the sellers of doves. He scattered the coins of the former and overturned their tables.

To the latter, whose merchandise was in baskets, He addressed only the word of command: "Take these things away," and so forth.

The merchants could not but obey the command of Jesus Christ, already because holy truth was on His side. They realized that by their conduct they were truly defiling the sanctuary of the temple, though with the permission of its authorities.

Besides, one may think that the merchants regarded Jesus Christ as a prophet. He had been firmly testified to by John the Baptist as the Messiah, and in Galilee He had already glorified Himself as such through a miracle.

Most of all, however, what mattered here was the divine authority of Jesus Christ's gaze, word, and action. This produced an irresistible impression on those whom He addressed with His command.

He came there no longer because every adult Jew was obliged to appear in the temple at the feast of Passover. He came in order to do the will of Him Who sent Him, and to continue the messianic ministry begun by Him in Galilee.

No fewer than two million Jews came to Jerusalem from various countries for the feast of Passover. All of them were obliged to offer sacrifices to God in the temple.

No one was to appear before the face of the Lord empty-handed (Deut 16:16). There also the Paschal lambs had to be slaughtered, that is, killed (Deut 16:5-6).

According to the testimony of Josephus, in the year 63 after the birth of Christ, on the day of the Jewish Passover, 256,500 Paschal lambs were slaughtered in the temple by the priests.

Besides this, during the days of Passover a multitude of small livestock and birds was killed for sacrifices.

The temple itself was surrounded by a high wall, and the space between the temple and the walls was divided into courts. The largest of these was the Court of the Gentiles.

The Jews found this court very suitable for commercial purposes and turned it into a market square. They drove into it herds of Paschal and sacrificial livestock and brought many birds.

They set up stalls for the sale of everything needed for sacrifices, such as incense, oil, wine, flour, and so forth. They also opened exchange counters.

At that time Roman coins were in circulation, but the Jewish law (Ex 30:13) required that the temple tax be paid in Jewish coin, the sacred shekels.

Therefore those who came to Jerusalem for Passover had to exchange their money, and this exchange gave the money changers a large income.

Striving for profit, the Jews also traded in the temple court in other items not required for sacrifices. The proof of this is the presence there of oxen, which did not belong among Paschal and sacrificial animals.

The Sanhedrin, guardian of Jewish piety and of the sanctity of the temple, not only looked indifferently upon this market. In all likelihood, it even encouraged the conversion of the temple into a bazaar.

For its members, the chief priests, bred doves and sold them for sacrifices at very high prices.

Such markets, according to pagan writers, took place near certain famous pagan temples. Thus they were held near the temple of Venus on Mount Eryx in Sicily, and near that of the Syrian goddess at Hierapolis.

But the evil did not stop there. The broad chambers and spacious arches adjoining the court of the Gentiles offered too strong a temptation to Jewish greed.

From the Talmud it is known that a certain Bava ben Buta first brought three thousand sheep into the court of the Gentiles, and thus within the sacred precincts of the temple. This sacrilegious example was quickly followed by all.

The merchants' stalls and the money-changing chests of the usurers gradually penetrated the holy enclosure. There, in the very court of the Gentiles, whole herds of sheep and oxen stretched out, steaming in the heat of a sultry April day.

They filled the temple with stench and uncleanness. Around them cattle-dealers and pilgrims noisily made their bargains.

Merchants with large woven cages full of doves offered the poor a cheap sacrifice, though at a price artificially raised by monopoly. Beneath the shade of arched vaults, formed by four rows of Corinthian columns, money-changers sat at their tables.

The tables were covered with heaps of various small coins. With eyes glittering from greed, they made the reckonings and settlements of their vile trade.

And this was the entrance court of the temple of the Most High. The court meant to testify that this temple should be a house of prayer for all nations had become something more like a cattle pen in its filth.

In its commercial turmoil, it resembled a crowded bazaar. The lowing of oxen, the bleating of sheep, the Babylonian confusion of tongues, the cries and disputes of traders, the ringing of coins, and the clatter of scales were heard from afar.

Perhaps the scales were not always honest. All this drowned out the singing of the Levites and the prayers of the priests.

This sacrilege was intensified because the higher hierarchy secretly took part in the trade. Thus the sale of doves was, to a considerable degree, secretly in the hands of the priestly aristocracy.

The high priest Annas himself received especially large profits from his dove stalls on the Mount of Olives. Considerable duties levied from dealers in cattle and sheep also went to the benefit of the priestly aristocracy.

Needless to say, still greater profit came to them from the usurers. The presence of money-changers in the temple court is explained partly by a real need.

By law, every Jew had to pay a certain tax to the temple for the maintenance of its buildings and for the sacred service performed in it. For this purpose, money-changing tables had long been permitted on both sides of the temple's eastern gates.

They made it possible to exchange foreign coinage. From the fifteenth day of the preceding month, the money-changers were allowed to set up their tables in the city.

From the twenty-first day, or twenty days before Pascha, they were allowed to bring their tables into the temple precincts themselves. Buyers of certain materials for sacrifices paid a fixed sum at special tables to a particular official attached to the temple.

They received from the seller a tin token, with which they obtained everything they needed. At the same tables large coins were exchanged, so that they might be deposited in portions into one of the thirteen chests that made up the temple treasury (Mk 12:41; Lk 21:1).

Moreover, every Jew, however poor he might be, had to pay annually a half-shekel, about forty kopecks, as redemption money for his soul and for the maintenance of the temple.

Since this tax was accepted only in native coinage, called the sacred shekel, which was not current among everyone, Jews arriving from different countries had to turn to the money-changers.

They did so precisely to exchange their Roman, Greek, or other foreign money and obtain the required coin. Such a trade naturally gave occasion to numerous deceptions, which were very common.

The proper charge for exchange was five percent. But this rate was greatly increased by various tricks and clever devices, for which this class of traders was always notorious.

As a result, their very name, like that of the publicans, was despised among the people, and their testimony was not accepted in court. All this trade, with its injustice and fraud, defiled the temple of the Most High.

The noise and clamor were further increased because many people, passing through the city with every kind of burden, went straight through the temple courts to shorten their way. Thus they intensified the bustle and crowding.

The circumstances preceding these events, and those following them, were, according to John and the first Evangelists, entirely different.

The Lord's conversation with the Jews, according to John, is also different from the accounts of the first Evangelists.

That after the first cleansing of the temple the Lord, about three years later, saw a need to do the same again is very probable in itself.

Over three years the same abuses could again have arisen in the temple court. As is evident, they were strongly and long established.

This is all the more probable because, even at Christ's first cleansing of the temple, His right to such an action was not acknowledged by the Jews.

Later, as time passed, the opposition of the priestly party to Christ developed more and more.

Thus the Lord, both at the beginning of His ministry and at its end, solemnly manifested Himself as Lord of the temple. Twice He cleansed it of the worldly impurities that had attached themselves to the holy place.

"And He found in the temple," that is, in the temple court called the Court of the Gentiles, "those who sold," and so forth. See the note on Mt 21:12 and following.

Zigabenus and others placed that expulsion before the history of the Savior's Passion. The expulsion described by John was accompanied by special severity of rebuke and by an objection from the Pharisees. This was absent from the expulsion before the Passion.

"And He found in the temple," ιερω, "those who sold and bought." The Ιερον, the sacred precinct of the Jerusalem temple, formed the very outer part of the temple, five hundred cubits long and wide, with five gates.

There the Gentiles prayed. There were the treasury and houses of mercy. There doves, lambs, oxen, and other requirements for sacrifice were sold.

There also sat the money changers, who exchanged large coins for small ones, and foreign coins for Hebrew ones, at interest.

Although in the Savior's time the temple tax was received in every place, and it was paid in the month of Adar, not in the Paschal month of Nisan, there was no need before Passover to exchange Hebrew shekels in the Court of the Gentiles.

Yet calculations of gain still exchanged money in the holy place, under various pretexts.

The noise of sellers and buyers not only deafened pious proselytes, but was heard even in the temple. Deceits, quarrels, and fights altogether defiled the sanctuary.

Blessed Jerome wrote in Comm ad Mutth 21, 12 that priests engaged in commerce and the exchange of money in the temple court.

Although other monuments do not say this directly of the Jewish priests, it is hard to believe that the priesthood, so passionate for money, had no financial dealings with the merchants.

They traded in a place that was under the full administration of the priests.

The first time, He reveals Himself to the people as the Christ. The last time, by this act and by His words, He foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple.

Concerning the last word, we note that the Greek text uses the word hieron to designate the temple. This word means the whole complex of the temple buildings with its courts, one of which was called the court of foreigners.

The temple itself, that is, the sacred part of the temple, is called naos in Greek in the Gospels. This is precisely the word used in verses 19, 20, and 21 of this chapter, where the sanctuary and the temple of the Lord Jesus' body are discussed.

The word hieron is used, for example, in Mt 4:5; 12:6; 24:1; Lk 2:37; Jn 10:23. The word naos is used in Mt 23:17, 35; Lk 1:21; Jn 2, and elsewhere.

From all this it is clear that the sellers were not sitting in the temple itself, but in one of the courts or porches of the temple. Nevertheless, their presence within the temple buildings was a gross violation both of the Law and of religious feeling itself.

The permission to trade in the temple proves how little religious feeling the high priest and his closest assistants had in their souls. In all likelihood, permission to trade within the temple enclosure formed part of the high priest's income.

It is noteworthy that the merchants, both the first time and the second, apparently offer no resistance. The "Jews" intercede for them in verse 18.

Yet neither they nor the merchants dare to tell the Lord that His action is unlawful. They only ask by what authority He acts.

In essence, it is clear that trade within the temple precincts is unlawful. The sellers of oxen, meaning cattle, bulls and heifers, and of sheep and doves sold them for the sacrifices prescribed by law.

See Leviticus, chapters 1-7, 11, 14, 15, and 17. They probably did this not only before the feasts, but had permanent places of trade there.

For guilt offerings and purification offerings prescribed by the Law had to be offered at every instance of sin or defilement. Peace offerings were brought at every family celebration or family joy.

The traders whom the Slavonic text calls "penyazhniki," that is, money-changers, played an important role because coins bearing images of gods or emperors were not accepted in the temple.

Every such coin, before being given to the temple, had to be exchanged for coinage of Jewish minting. On verse 13 we add that the Lord "goes up" to Jerusalem, "into the hill country," in comparison with Galilee and because of its mountainous structure.

The Lord goes to "Jerusalem, that kills the prophets" (Mt 23:37). For, as He Himself said, "Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem" (Lk 13:33).