Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Many critics point to John’s placement of the Temple cleansing and conclude either John has it wrong or the Synoptics do. In other words it is possible for Jesus to do this only once in his life. But, Jesus did many things more than once. He raised Lazarus from the dead near the end of his public ministry and the son of the widow near the beginning of his public ministry. He healed several blind men, several who couldn’t walk etc. So, why couldn’t he cleanse the Temple more than once? The fact is each of the Gospel writers point to a different Temple cleansing. So, Jesus did it at least four times in his public ministry! But for now, I am only interested in what John has to say.

It was important for Jesus to cleanse the Temple near the beginning of his ministry, in order to be singled out by the leaders of Judaism, i.e. marked by them as the chosen Lamb for the slaughter, which he makes reference to here, when he refers to his own death and resurrection (John 2:19, 21). So, about six months after beginning his public ministry, Jesus came to Jerusalem, showing the Temple was unclean. He declared it so, in that the Jewish authorities made it a marketplace through buying and selling sacrifices within the Temple compound. They did this in the court of the gentiles, thus polluting the name of God before the world with their unauthorized practices.

The prophet, Isaiah, refers specifically to the first destruction of the Temple, but that was a type of the death of Jesus, who was the Tabernacle (flesh) of God. Isaiah says:

Isaiah 43:27-28 KJV  Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.  (28)  Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Here Isaiah refers to the Jews “first father” and their “teachers” who had transgressed against God, and, because of what they had done, God cursed Jacob and Israel. That is, the destruction of Jerusalem was due to the works and teachings of the Temple officials. Likewise, Jesus is saying that the “first father,” meaning the high priest (in this case Annas, who was the power behind Caiaphas, his son-in-law), and the “teachers” of the people have made the Temple unclean with their practices. This refers us in particular to Daniel’s prophecy of the 2300 evenings and mornings in Daniel 8. I hope to have a study or two to show this soon in a graph, but for now we are only interested in what Jesus is doing in John 2.

Jesus is the true High Priest, and he declared the Temple unclean at this particular time, which was near the Passover of his 1^st year of public ministry (cir. spring of 28 CE). The only notable day before the Passover Festival was the day the lamb was chosen as the national Passover lamb. That day would have been the 10^th day of the 1^st month. That year this would have been Sunday as we count days, but remember the Jews began and ended their days at sundown, so the 10^th day began on the evening of what would be Saturday for us. Jesus cleansed the Temple on this day, just as business was beginning, and was, thus, singled out by the authorities collectively as the chosen Lamb for the nation. Of course, they would not have recognized what they were actually doing, but it was at this time that they selected Jesus as their Passover Lamb, whom they constantly inspected for blemishes (sin) for the next three years.

Daniel’s 2300 evenings and mornings do not refer to 2300 days but to 2300 evening and morning sacrifices or 1150 whole days. If one were to count from the first evening sacrifice on the 10^th of the 1^st month in 28 AD one would conclude the 1150^th day or 2300 evening and morning sacrifices on the morning of Pentecost 31 AD. In other words, Jesus declared the Temple unclean on the evening of the 10^th of the 1^st month in 28 AD, and the Temple was cleansed, just as Daniel had predicted, 2300 evening and morning sacrifices later on the Feast of Weeks or on Pentecost 31 AD, following the morning sacrifice, when the Holy Spirit fell down upon the disciples of Jesus, and man became the Temple of God.