Since the Passover of the Jews was near, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
At this the Jews said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?”
But Jesus was speaking about the temple of his body. Therefore, when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken.
Gospel Trivia:
The following context would help us understand this gospel passage better:
- This happened just before Passover, and during this time, Jews from all over Israel would make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the temple. When visiting the temple, a pious Jew would offer a sacrifice (ox or sheep if you were rich, and doves if you were poor).
- The priests in the temple would "corner the market" by requiring that they or their representative vet the sacrifice to make sure that the offering is "unblemished" or fit for offering; for a fee, of course. The animal had to be bought using "temple money"; which means they also made money on the exchange from local money to temple money.
- The above were what caused Jesus anger because:
a. the Jews have reduced temple worship to the ritual of offering animal sacrifices (instead of real conversion of the heart), and
b. the priests, who were supposed to lead the people to holiness, made a profitable business out of this practice
It should be noted that the temple incident appears in all four gospels. But, in Matthew, Mark and Luke, this incident happens towards the end of Jesus' ministry, right before Passion week. In John, it appears in the beginning of his ministry.
Which is sequence is correct? There are a good number of biblical scholars who defend each position, so it is hard to say. Suffice it to say that, whether John's version is correct or not, John had a specific purpose in deliberately putting this incident at the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
Those who defend this position say that, at the outset, John's theology wanted to establish the end of the Jewish mindset which equated being righteous before God with simply following a set of rules and laws, without the requisite internal conversion required for authentic love.
The Jewish temple rites are now replaced with the worship of Jesus (his body now being the temple) by his community in the breaking of the bread.
Finally, a comment on the verse: "He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables."
Does this suggest that Jesus used violence against the money changers, and that such violence is justified? A more careful analysis of the Greek text by some biblical scholars indicate that a more accurate translation of the verse is:
"... he drove them all, namely the sheep and the oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers..."
Reference:
- Nil Guillemette, SJ, Hungry No More (Manila: St. Paul's Publications, 1989), pp. 41-47.
No comments:
Post a Comment