Clearing the Money-Changers from the Temple 

Basic Info

Matthew 21:12–17,23–27; Mark 11:15–19,27–33; Luke 19:45–48, 20:1–8; and John 2:13–17

Back in the day, pilgrims who came to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple had to offer an animal for sacrifice. But it is hard to keep a goat or dove alive, and healthy and safe from bandits, when traveling to Jerusalem from Egypt or Rome or some other far-off place. A practice sprang up in the Temple precincts whereby one could buy a goat or dove to sacrifice, but only with the coin of Tyre. Most pilgrims therefore had to change the coin of their own country into the coin of Tyre in order to buy a goat or dove from the traders. Before long, a huge amount of trade was occurring on the Temple property. Because the pilgrims to the Temple didn’t know the city, it would not be surprising if the money changers and traders were charging exorbitant rates.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell that after Jesus arrived triumphantly in Jerusalem, he went to the Temple and found the money-changers and dove-traders engaged in the kind of commerce that looked like thievery, thereby defiling of God’s house. Matthew and Mark report that he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of the dove traders. Luke merely reports that he drove out those who were selling things. John places his more detailed story nearer to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry; mentions sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves; and describes Jesus’ making a whip out of cords to drive the money changers and traders all out of the Temple. John reports the disciples’ thinking about the zeal for his father’s house mentioned in Psalm 69:10.

A similar story is found in 2 Maccabees 3:21–28 wherein a man, Heliodorus, attempting to steal the Temple treasury, a fund reserved for widows and orphans, is driven out by miraculous young men and a horse.

What to Look For

• Jesus’ emotional state (dispassionate, zealous, angry, etc.)
• The kinds of things the merchants are selling (i.e., only animals or other things as well)
• What the Apostles are doing if they are present
• Whether the clothing and setting reflects the artist’s time and place or first-century Jerusalem

Questions to Focus a General Interpretation

Christians teach that Jesus did not sin. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. Zeal is not anger (zealous advocacy is what lawyers are supposed to do for their clients). Does this artwork depict Jesus’ acting out of zeal or anger?

Jesus was acting to protect the sacredness of the Temple from the profane practice of gouging (stealing from) pilgrims. Does this artwork depict the sacredness of the place? Is this a prominent enough feature that the reason for Jesus’ actions is made clear in the artwork?

Questions to Guide a Personal Interpretation

Does the artwork offer any suggestions for converting your anger into zealous advocacy or action for a cause?

Does the artwork encourage you to become aware of the kinds of exploitative practices that are occurring in or around supposedly sacred places today?

What about the artwork attracts you? What repels you? What might that say about what is going on in your life right now?

Imagine yourself as one of the characters in the artwork. From this character’s perspective, what is going on here? Does this person understand what Jesus is doing?

Questions to Suggest a Historical Interpretation

Lawyers zealously advocate for their clients, usually without getting emotionally involved. But over the years, many people have wanted to think that Jesus was not simply being a zealous advocate for the sanctity of his Father’s house, that he lost it in this event and just blew his top. That would make him seem more human. What was going on in the artist’s time and place that might have swayed the artist one way or the other on this issue? Was something causing public anger?

Does the artwork suggest any parallels between the money changers and traders in the story and whichever public figures in the artist’s time and place might have been defiling sacred places, events, or practices?