From: John 2:13-25

The Cleansing of the Temple

[13] The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
[14] In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons,
and the money-changers at their business. [15] And making a whip of cords, he
drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out
the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. [16] And he told
those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my
Father’s house a house of trade.” [17] His disciples remembered that it was writ-
ten, “Zeal for thy house will consume me.” [18] The Jews then said to him, “What
signs have you to show us for doing this?” [19] Jesus answered them, “Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” [20] The Jews then said, “It has
taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?”
21] But he spoke of the temple of his body. [22] When therefore he was raised
from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed
the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

[23] Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his
name when they saw the signs which he did; [24] but Jesus did not trust himself
to them, [25] because he knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of
mail; for he himself knew what was in man.

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Commentary:

13. “The Passover of the Jews”: this is the most important religious feast for the
people of the Old Testament, the prefiguring of the Christian Easter (cf. note on
Mt 26:2). The Jewish Passover was celebrated on the fourteenth day of the month
of Nisan and was followed by the festival week of the Azymes (unleavened bread).
According to the Law of Moses, on those days every male Israelite had to “appear
before the Lord God” (Ex 34:23; Deut 16:16)—hence the pious custom of making
a pilgrimage to the temple of Jerusalem for these days, hence the crowd and all
the vendors to supply the needs of the pilgrims; this trading gave rise to abuses.

“Jesus went up to Jerusalem”: by doing this Jesus publicly shows that he ob-
serves the Law of God. But, as we shall soon see, he goes to the temple as the
only-begotten Son who must ensure that all due decorum is observed in the
House of the Father: “And from thenceforth Jesus, the Anointed of God, always
begins by reforming abuses and purifying from sin; both when he visits his
Church, and when he visits the Christian soul” (Origen, “Hom. on St John”, 1).

14-15. Every Israelite had to offer as a passover sacrifice an ox or a sheep, if he
was wealthy; or two turtle-doves or two pigeons if he was not (Lev 5:7). In addi-
tion he had to pay a half shekel every year, if he was twenty or over. The half
shekel, which was the equivalent of a day’s pay of a worker, was a special coin
also called temple money (cf. Ex 30:13); other coins in circulation (denarii, drach-
mas, etc.) were considered impure because they bore the image of pagan rulers.
During the Passover, because of the extra crowd, the outer courtyard of the tem-
ple, the court of the Gentiles, was full of traders, money changers etc., and ine-
vitably this meant noise, shouting, bellowing, manure etc. Prophets had already
fulminated against these abuses, which grew up with the tacit permission of the
temple authorities, who made money by permitting trading. Cf. notes on Mt 21:
12-13 and Mk 11:15-18.

16-17. “Zeal for thy house will consume me”—a quotation from Psalm 69:10. Je-
sus has just made a most significant assertion: “You shall not make my Father’s
house a house of trade.” By calling God his Father and acting so energetically,
he is proclaiming he is the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus’ zeal for his Father’s
glory did not escape the attention of his disciples who realized that what he did
fulfilled the words of Psalm 69.

18-22. The temple of Jerusalem, which had replaced the previous sanctuary
which the Israelites carried around in the wilderness, was the place selected by
God during the Old Covenant to express his presence to the people in a special
way. But this was only an imperfect anticipation or prefiguring of the full expres-
sion of his presence among men—the Word of God became man. Jesus, in whom
“the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 2:9), is the full presence of God
here on earth and, therefore, the true temple of God. Jesus identifies the temple
of Jerusalem with his own body, and by so doing refers to one of the most pro-
found truths about himself—the Incarnation. After the ascension of the Lord into
heaven this real and very special presence of God among men is continued in
the sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist.

Christ’s words and actions as he expels the traders from the temple clearly show
that he is the Messiah foretold by the prophets. That is why some Jews approach
him and ask him to give a sign of his power (cf. Mt 16:1; Mk 8:11; Lk 11:29). Je-
sus’ reply (v. 20), whose meaning remains obscure until his resurrection, the Je-
wish authorities try to turn into an attack on the temple—which merits the death
penalty (Mt 26:61; Mk 14:58; cf. Jer 26:4ff); later they will taunt him with it when
he is suffering on the cross (Mt 27:40; A 15:29) and later still in their case against
St Stephen before the Sanhedrin they will claim to have heard him repeat it (Acts
6:14).

There was nothing derogatory in what Jesus said, contrary to what false witnes-
ses made out. The miracle he offers them, which he calls “the Sign of Jonah” (cf.
Mt 16:4), will be his own resurrection on the third day. Jesus is using a metaphor,
as if to say: Do you see this temple? Well, imagine if it were destroyed, would it
not be a great miracle to rebuild it in three days? That is what I will do for you as
a sign. For you will destroy my body, which is the true temple, and I will rise
again on the third day.

No one understood what he was saying. Jews and disciples alike thought he was
speaking about rebuilding the temple which Herod the Great had begun to con-
struct in 19-20 B.C. Later on the disciples grasped what he really meant.

23-25. Jesus’ miracles moved many to recognize that he had extraordinary, di-
vine powers. But that falls short of perfect theological faith. Jesus knew their faith
was limited, and that they were not very deeply attached to him: they were inte-
rested in him as a miracle-worker. This explains why he did not trust them (cf.
Jn 6:15, 26) “Many people today are like that. They carry the name of faithful,
but they are ickle and inconstant”, comments Chrysostom (”Hom. on St John”,
23, 1).

Jesus’ knowledge of men’s hearts is another sign of his divinity; for example, Na-
thanael and the Samaritan woman recognized him as the Messiah because they
were convinced by the evidence of supernatural power he showed by reading their
hearts (cf. Jn 1:49; 4:29).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Readings at Mass

EITHER:

First reading

Exodus 20:1-17 ©

God spoke all these words. He said, ‘I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

‘You shall have no gods except me.

‘You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and I punish the father’s fault in the sons, the grandsons, and the great-grandsons of those who hate me; but I show kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

‘You shall not utter the name of the Lord your God to misuse it, for the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters his name to misuse it.

‘Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy. For six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath for the Lord your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the stranger who lives with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that these hold, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why the Lord has blessed the sabbath day and made it sacred.

‘Honour your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that the Lord your God has given to you.

‘You shall not kill.

‘You shall not commit adultery.

‘You shall not steal.

‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

‘You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his servant, man or woman, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is his.’

OR:

Alternative First reading

Exodus 20:1-3,7-8,12-17 ©