John 2:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Another evangelist relates that, when He drove them out, He said: "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves" (Mt 21:13). Saint John expresses it thus: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade" (Jn 2:16).

The evangelists do not contradict one another. They show that He did this twice, and that the two events did not happen at the same time. The first time He did it at the beginning of His preaching. The second time He did it when He was already going to His Passion.

For this reason, on the last occasion He used stronger words, calling the place a den of thieves. At the beginning of the signs He did not speak so, but used a milder rebuke. Thus it is likely that He did this twice.

When He came to Jerusalem, He performed an act manifesting complete authority. He drove out of the temple those who sold sheep and oxen. Although Matthew (Mt 21:12-13) recounts this, know that He did it more than once.

What Matthew recounts He did near His Passion. The present event in John He performed at the beginning of His signs. Therefore here He spoke more leniently: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade." The miracles were only beginning, and He did not yet have the boldness that the miracles gave.

There, in Matthew, He says: "Do not make it a den of thieves." He plainly called them thieves, since they profited by unjust means. For if someone values a cheap thing highly and, when occasion arises, profits from the poor and widows, what else is he doing but stealing?

He commands as Master, guides toward what is proper as Teacher, and by punishment exposes transgressions. By reverence for this, He does not permit the One who punishes to be insulted.

It must be noted that He again calls God His Father in an exclusive sense, as the only One by nature and truly begotten of Him. If this were not so, and the Word were truly a son together with us as one of us, that is, by adoption and only by the Father's will, why does He appropriate to Himself alone the dignity common to all?

He says: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade," and not, the house of our Father. It seems He ought to have said this, if He recognized Himself as one of those sons of God who are such not by nature, but by grace.

In accord with the figure, the Lord drives people from the temple, namely those who sought their own, who came into the temple for selling and buying. If that temple was a figure, it is clear that the Body of Christ, which is the true Temple and of which that one was the likeness, also has buyers and sellers mixed within it. These are those who seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ.

Did those who wished to make the house of God a den of fornication thereby cause the temple to be destroyed? So too, those who live shamefully in the catholic Church desire, as far as they can, to make the house of God a den of thieves. Yet by this they do not overthrow the temple.

Those who sell sacred offices also make the house of God a house of trade and sell doves in it. For the dove serves as an image of the grace of the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove.

They prove to be sellers of God, selling for shameful gain what belongs to God. The words, "Take these things away from here," indicate the abolition and abandonment of the legal service.

Not only by deed, but also by His words, Jesus Christ shows that He is not an opponent of God. Certainly He called God Father by nature. Yet the Jews thought that He called Him Father by adoption, and therefore they were not disturbed by these words.

Indeed, they were not even provoked by His action, since their own conscience accused them and testified that Jesus Christ had acted and spoken justly.

From this He says that the temple of God is creation: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him. For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3:16-17).

He openly calls the body the temple in which the Spirit dwells. The Lord likewise says concerning this: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (Jn 2:19). He says that He spoke this concerning His body (Jn 2:21).

He knows that our bodies are not only the temple, but also members of Christ.

An answer must be given to your reasonable question. For it is said, “He speaks into the ears of those who listen,” Sir 25:12, and, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” Mt 11:15. “Do not make My Father’s house a house of trade,” the Lord said to those selling doves. He was implying the priests, who trade in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, since the Divine Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. He was mocking the sellers of divine things. The saying, “Take these things away from here,” means that blood is no longer needed. I grant a bloodless remission of transgressions. From this time forth I desire the one Spirit to be propitiated. The carnal law has been fulfilled. Let the law of the Spirit prevail, and let the beginning of salvation be established.

Do we not see that many are still burdened by the harshest deeds? I speak to you bishops with tears, because we have learned that some of you ordain for rewards, sell spiritual grace, and from the iniquities of others gather temporal gains with the harm of sin.

Why then do you not remember that the voice of the Lord commands and says: "Freely you have received, freely give" (Mt 10:8)? Why do you not set before the eyes of your mind that our Redeemer, entering the temple, overturned the seats of those who sold doves and scattered the money of the money-changers?

No one must set up a tavern, offer various foods, or conduct any other trade within the sacred precincts, preserving reverence for the churches. For our Savior and God, teaching us by His life in the flesh, commanded that His Father’s house not be made a house of trade. He also scattered the coins of the moneychangers and drove out those who made the holy temple a worldly place. Therefore, if anyone is convicted of the aforesaid offense, let him be excommunicated. Apost. 73; Trullo 74, 97.

This transformation of the temple court into a marketplace, of course, happened gradually. In earlier years Jesus Christ had more than once had to see it, but His hour had not yet come, and He was compelled to endure it for a time.

Now, having begun to do the will of Him who sent Him, He came to Jerusalem with His disciples and went straight to the temple. Entering the court of the Gentiles, He silently took one of the cords, with which the driven animals may have been tied or fenced in.

He twisted it into the form of a scourge, drove out the sheep and oxen, and overturned the tables of the money-changers. Then He approached the sellers of doves and said: "Take these things away from here, and do not make My Father's house a house of trade."

Thus, by calling God His Father, Jesus Christ for the first time publicly proclaimed Himself the Son of God.

"Carry these things away," and so forth. The doves were in cages or baskets. Therefore, when the Lord drove out those trading in animals together with the animals themselves, He ordered the sellers of doves to carry them away.

"Do not make My Father's house a house of trade." When the Lord left the temple for the last time, He did not call it His Father's house, but "your house" (Mt 23:38). By this He indicated that God had abandoned this temple.

Here Christ still calls the temple His Father's house. For the opposition of its ministers to Christ and to God had not yet been revealed, and He was still awaiting the repentance of the people in the person of its representatives.

Interpretation of the rule of the Council in Trullo: No one may set up a tavern inside the sacred precincts, or offer various foods there, or conduct other trade. If anyone is convicted of the said offense, let him be excommunicated.

The aim of this rule is to preserve the holy temple and everything around it from profanation, especially from tavern-keeping and trade. This accords with Christ's teaching that His Father's house must not be made a house of trade (Jn 2:16), since it is a house of prayer (Mt 21:18).

This rule does not speak only about the temple or about persons engaged in blameworthy activities in the temple, since that is forbidden in itself. It speaks about the sacred precincts, ἔνδον τῶν ἱερῶν περιβόλων, intra sanctos ambitus. Such deeds are likewise forbidden there.

The Savior, with a scourge in His hand, drove everyone from the sacred place as though they were a herd of cattle. Some think that the Lord used no kind of force here, but acted only by persuasion. Yet the words of the evangelist say something entirely different.

Ἐκβάλλειν means to drive out by force; see Mt 22:13, Lk 4:29, Jn 9:31. Φραγγέλλιον is the Latin flagellum, a scourge. The broken tables and scattered money also speak of stern force.

Καὶ τῶν κολλυβιστῶν ἐξέχεε τὸ κέρμα. Κολλυβισταί is the technical name for money-changers. Κόλλυβος meant a kind of small coin equal to an obol. Among the rabbis, kolbon was the coin taken by money-changers for exchanging coins into shekels, and it amounted to one eighteenth of a shekel.