Matthew 21 Footnotes

21:2 The inseparability of a donkey and its colt was proverbial in Judaism, and here the mother apparently accompanied the unbroken colt on its first ride to keep it calm. Matthew noted both animals because of the nice parallelism with the prophecy of Zch 9:9 (two animals are mentioned: the colt and the female donkey of whom it is the son), though he doubtless understood that only one animal was indicated as being ridden there and intended his readers to understand that it was upon the colt that Jesus actually rode. Mark and Luke referred only to the colt since it was the animal ridden and since they made no mention of the prophecy.

21:12-22 Matthew (and to a lesser extent Luke) differed from Mark on the timing of these events. It appears that Mark recorded the actual chronology, while Matthew and Luke gave a more topical arrangement within the broad chronology. Mark had Jesus merely looking around at the temple on the day of the triumphal entry and cleansing the temple the following day. Matthew and Luke skipped the initial visit and jumped immediately to the cleansing. Mark split the cursing of the fig tree (before the cleansing) and its withering (after the cleansing). Matthew combined both events and reported them immediately after the cleansing.