John 2 Footnotes

2:13-25 At first glance this passage seems out of place since the other Gospels all have Jesus clearing the temple during the last week of his life (Mk 11:15-17). But John may have thematically relocated this passage as a kind of “headline” over his entire Gospel (there are no precise chronological links with previous or subsequent material in the Gk), or Jesus may have cleared the temple twice—once at the outset of his ministry when he had the people’s sympathies and once later when it proved too much for the authorities to tolerate.

2:15-16 Doesn’t Jesus’s “temple tantrum” show a cruel, vindictive side to him—abusing animals and exhibiting uncontrollable rage? Actually, the Greek text says he applied the whip only to the wicked people he was confronting. Rabbinic sources suggest that using the temple for trading in sacrificial animals was a recent development; the Kidron Valley below had been the earlier site. Commercial convenience created the change, but it prevented the Court of the Gentiles from being used as God had intended it—as a place of worship. Godly wrath is eternal opposition to what is evil. As such, it is not at all opposed to love but is really the action of holy love in the face of evil. Love for those who are outcast often requires judgment against their oppressors.