Then answered the Jews, and said unto him
They did not lay hands on him, or offer any violence to him; they
did not, as the inhabitants of Nazareth did, thrust him out, and
lead him to a precipice, to cast him down headlong; nor did they
take up stones to stone him, as they afterwards did, when he
asserted his deity: and it is surprising, that they did not rise
up and destroy him at once, a single man, unarmed, and without
assistance, having so highly provoked them; the restraint upon
them must be his almighty power: nor do they deny what he
suggested, that they had made his Father's house an house of
merchandise; nor do they offer to vindicate their profanation of
the temple, or object to the purging of it; only demand a proof
of his right to do it: and which demand was made, not by the
common people, or by the sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and
the money changers, who were drove out, and had not spirit to
rally again; but by the chief priests and elders, the sanhedrim
of the nation, who had the care and government of the temple, and
under whose authority the above persons acted; and whose gain and
worldly interest were promoted hereby, as a like demand was
afterwards made by the same persons; see ( Matthew
21:23 ) ;
what sign shewest thou unto us, seeing thou dost these
things?
they argued, that either he did these things of himself, by his
own authority, and then they must be deemed rash and
unjustifiable; or he did it by the authority of others: they knew
it was not by theirs, who were the great council of the nation,
from whom he should have had his instructions and orders, if he
acted by human authority; and if he pretended to a divine
authority, as they supposed he did, then they insisted upon a
sign or miracle to be wrought, to prove that God was his Father,
as he suggested; and that he was the proprietor and owner of the
temple, and had a right to purge it, as he had done; see (
1
Corinthians 1:22 ) .