After this, he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there a few days.
Parallel Translations
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After this, he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they stayed there a few days.
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After that he descended in to Capernaum and his mother and his brethren and his disciples: but contynued not manye dayes there.
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After that, he went downe into Capernaum, he and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: but they continued not many daies there.
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Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to John 2:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 12:46 While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.
- Matthew 4:13 Leaving Nazareth, he came and lived in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
- Matthew 13:55-56 Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?”
- Mark 6:3 Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judah, and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” They were offended at him.
- John 7:3-5 His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see your works which you do. For no one does anything in secret while he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, reveal yourself to the world.” For even his brothers didn’t believe in him.
- Acts 1:13-14 When they had come in, they went up into the upper room where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
- 1 Corinthians 9:5 Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
- Galatians 1:19 But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.
- Matthew 11:23 You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until today.
- John 6:17 They entered into the boat, and were going over the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 12. He went down to Capernaum. The Evangelist passes…
12. He went down to Capernaum. The Evangelist passes to an additional narrative; for having resolved to collect a few things worthy of remembrance which the other three had left out, he states the time when the occurrence which he is about to relate took place; for the other three also relate what we here read that Christ did, but the diversity of the time shows that it was a similar event, but not the same. On two occasions, then, did Christ cleanse the temple from base and profane merchandise; once, when he was beginning to discharge his commission, and another time, (Matthew 21:12; Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45,) when he was about to leave the world and go to the Father, (John 16:28.)
To obtain a general view of the passage, it will be necessary briefly to examine the details in their order. That oxen, and sheep, and doves, were exposed to sale in the temple, and that money-changers were sitting there, was not without a plausible excuse. For they might allege that the merchandise transacted there was not irreligious, but, on the contrary, related to the sacred worship of God, that every person might obtain, without difficulty, what he might offer to the Lord; and, certainly, it was exceedingly convenient for godly persons to find oblations of any sort laid ready to their hand, and in this way to be freed from the trouble of running about in various directions to obtain them. We are apt to wonder, therefore, why Christ was so highly displeased with it. But there are two reasons which deserve our attention. First, as the Priests abused this merchandise for their own gain and avarice, such a mockery of God could not be endured. Secondly, whatever excuse men may plead, as soon as they depart, however slightly, from the command of God, they deserve reproof and need correction. And this is the chief reason why Christ undertook to purify the temple; for he distinctly states that the temple of God is not a place of merchandise
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But it may be asked, Why did he not rather begin with doctrine? For it seems to be a disorderly and improper method to apply the hand for correcting faults, before the remedy of doctrine has been applied. But Christ had a different object in view: for the time being now at hand when he would publicly discharge the office assigned to him by the Father, he wished in some way to take possession of the temple, and to give a proof of his divine authority. And that all might be attentive to his doctrine, it was necessary that something new and strange should be done to awaken their sluggish and drowsy minds. Now, the temple was a sanctuary of heavenly doctrine and of true religion. Since he wished to restore purity of doctrine, it was of great importance that he should prove himself to be the Lord of the temple. Besides, there was no other way in which he could bring back sacrifices and the other exercises of religion to their spiritual design than by removing the abuse of them. What he did at that time was, therefore, a sort of preface to that reformation which the Father had sent him to accomplish. In a word, it was proper that the Jews should be aroused by this example to expect from Christ something that was unusual and out of the ordinary course; and it was also necessary to remind them that the worship of God had been corrupted and perverted, that they might not object to the reformation of those abuses
And his brethren. Why the brethren of Christ accompanied him, cannot be determined with certainty, unless, perhaps, they intended to go along with him to Jerusalem. The word brethren, it is well known, is employed, in the Hebrew language, to denote cousins and other relatives.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, his cousins.
That is, his cousins.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 After this he went down to Capernaum, he,…
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.
Ver. 12. To Capernaum] Where he had hired him a house; for the foxes had holes, &c., but the Son of man had not a house of his own to put his head in, Mat 8:20.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Capernaum was a city lifted up to heaven, for…
Capernaum was a city lifted up to heaven, for mercies of all sorts, which Christ foretold, Mat 11:28, should be brought down to hell, for their contempt of his doctrine and miracles. It was in the tribe of Naphtali, whose lot was contiguous to Zebulun, and lay on the north east of it; a place where Christ afterwards preached much, and wrought many miracles, Mat 8:13,14; 9:18; Mar 2:1; 5:22; a place brought so low in Hierom’s time, that it scarce consisted of seven poor cottages of fishermen. Thither at this time went Christ,
and his mother, and his brethren, ( by which term the Scripture often expresses any near kinsmen),
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and his disciples; whether only the five mentioned in the former chapter, or others also, is not said. But they did not at that time stay long there, probably because the passover time (when they were to be at Jerusalem) was so nigh, as would not admit any long stay before they began their journey; and it is likely that the company mentioned here to be with Christ at Capernaum, did also design to go along with him to the passover, of which we next read.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. How obedient in all things Christ…
Observe here, 1. How obedient in all things Christ was to the ceremonial law. he was not naturally subject to the law, but, to fulfil all righteousness, he kept the passover yearly, according to the command of God, That all the males should appear before him Exo 23:17 in the temple at Jerusalem.
Hence it is probably concluded, that Christ came up to the passover continually during his private life; and being now come up to Jerusalem to this first passover after his baptism, and solemn entrance upon his office, his first walk was to purge and reform it from abuses, not to ruin and destroy it, because it had been abused.
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Now the abuse and profanation of the temple at that time was this: in the outward court of the Gentiles, there was a public mart or market, where were sold oxen, sheep, and doves, for sacrifice; which otherwise the people, with great labour and trouble, must have brought up along with them for sacrifice. Therefore as a pretended ease to the people, the priests ordered these things to be sold hard by the altar; the intention was commendable, but the action not justifiable. No pretence of good ends can justify that which is forbidden of God: a good end can never justify an irregular action.
Observe, 2. Our Saviour’s fervent zeal in purging and reforming his Father’s house. The sight of sin in any persons, but especially in and among professors, ought to kindle in our hearts (as it did here in Christ’s breast) a burning zeal and indignation against it. Yet was not Christ’s zeal so warm as to devote the temple to destruction, because of its abuse and profanation. Places dedicated to the worship and service of God, if idolatrously abused, must not be pulled down, but purged; not ruined, but reformed.
There is a special reverence due to the house of God, but for the Owner’s sake, and the service’s sake. Nothing but holiness becomes that place, where God is worshipped in the beauty of holiness. Christ by purging the court of the Gentiles from merchandise, not unlawful in itself, but necessary for the sacrifices which were offered in the temple, though not necessary to be brought there, did plainly insinuate, that a distinction is to be made betwixt places sacred and profane; and that what may be done as well elsewhere, ought not to be done in the house of God, the place appointed immediately for his worship.
Observe, 3. The greatness of this miracle, in the weakness of the means which Christ made use of to effect and work it: he drove the buyers and sellers before him out of the temple.
But how and with what?
St. Jerome, in Mat 21:1 and following says , That certain fiery rays or beams, darting from Christ’s eyes, drove out these merchants from this place. I dare not avouch this, but I am satisfied that Christ drove them out, unarmed with any weapons that might carry dread and terror with them, at most but with a whip of small cords; which probably might be scattered by the drovers that came thither to sell their cattle.
Behold then the weakness of the means on the one side, and consider the greatness of the opposition on the other. Here was a confluence of people to oppose Christ, this being the most solemn mart of the passover, and here were merchantmen, whose hearts were set upon gain (the world’s god) to oppose him. But neither the weakness of the means, nor the greatness of the opposition, did dismay him, or cause our Saviour to desist from the attempt of reforming what was amiss in the house of God.
Learn we hence, that it matters not how weak the means of the church-reformation is, nor how strong the opposing power is; if we engage Christ in the undertaking, the work shall certainly be accomplished.
O, how great was the work, and how weak and unlikely were the means here! a parcel of sturdy fellows, whose hearts were set upon their wealth, Christ no sooner speaks to them, and shakes his whip at them, but like a company of fearful hares they run before him. Christ, in purging of his church, will make every thing yield and give way to his power. Let it comfort the church under all unlikelihood of reformation. Who art thou, O great mountain? before our spiritual Zerubbabel, thou shalt become a plain.
I shall close my observations upon this miracle of Christ’s whipping the buyers and sellers out of the temple, which both Origen and St. Jerome do make the greatest miracle that ever Christ wrought, all circumstances considered; I shall close it with this reflection, viz. Was there such power and terror in Christ’s countenance and speech here in the temple in the days of his flesh? Oh, how terrible then will his face and his appearance be to the wicked and impenitent world at the great day! Lord! how fearful will his iron courage then be; how terrifying that voice, "Depart, depart from me, depart accursed, depart into fire: depart into everlasting fire, into a fire prepared for the punishment of apostate spirits, the devil and his angels!" God grant we may wisely consider it, and timely flee from the wrath to come.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we have,
Here we have,
I. The short visit Christ made to Capernaum, Joh 2:12. It was a large and populous city, about a day's journey from Cana; it is called his own city (Mat 9:1), because he made it his head-quarters in Galilee, and what little rest he had was there. It was a place of concourse, and therefore Christ chose it, that the fame of his doctrine and miracles might thence spread the further. Observe,
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1. The company that attended him thither: his mother, his brethren, and his disciples. Wherever Christ went, (1.) He would not go alone, but would take those with him who had put themselves under his guidance, that he might instruct them, and that they might attest his miracles. (2.) He could not go alone, but they would follow him, because they liked the sweetness either of his doctrine or of his wine, Joh 6:26. His mother, though he had lately given her to understand that in the works of his ministry he should pay no more respect to her than to any other person, yet followed him; not to intercede with him, but to learn of him. His brethren also and relations, who were at the marriage and were wrought upon by the miracle there, and his disciples, who attended him wherever he went. It should seem, people were more affected with Christ's miracles at first than they were afterwards, when custom made them seem less strange.
2. His continuance there, which was at this time not many days, designing now only to begin the acquaintance he would afterwards improve there. Christ was still upon the remove, would not confine his usefulness to one place, because many needed him. And he would teach his followers to look upon themselves but as sojourners in this world, and his ministers to follow their opportunities, and go where their work led them. We do not now find Christ in the synagogues, but he privately instructed his friends, and thus entered upon his work by degrees. It is good for young ministers to accustom themselves to pious and edifying discourse in private, that they may with the better preparation, and greater awe, approach their public work. He did not stay long at Capernaum, because the passover was at hand, and he must attend it at Jerusalem; for every thing is beautiful in its season. The less good must give way to the greater, and all the dwellings of Jacob must give place to the gates of Zion.
II. The passover he kept at Jerusalem; it is the first after his baptism, and the evangelist takes notice of all the passovers he kept henceforward, which were four in all, the fourth that at which he suffered (three years after this), and half a year was now past since his baptism. Christ, being made under the law, observed the passover at Jerusalem; see Exo 23:17. Thus he taught us by his example a strict observance of divine institutions, and a diligent attendance on religious assemblies. He went up to Jerusalem when the passover was at hand, that he might be there with the first. It is called the Jews' passover, because it was peculiar to them (Christ is our Passover); now shortly God will no longer own it for his. Christ kept the passover at Jerusalem yearly, ever since he was twelve years old, in obedience to the law; but now that he has entered upon his public ministry we may expect something more from him than before; and two things we are here told he did there: -
1. He purged the temple, Joh 2:14-17. Observe here,
(1.) The first place we find him in at Jerusalem was the temple, and, it should seem, he did not make any public appearance till he came thither; for his presence and preaching there were that glory of the latter house which was to exceed the glory of the former, Hag 2:9. It was foretold (Mal 3:1): I will send my messenger, John Baptist; he never preached in the temple, but the Lord, whom ye seek, he shall suddenly come to his temple, suddenly after the appearing of John Baptist; so that this was the time, and the temple the place, when, and where, the Messiah was to be expected.
(2.) The first work we find him at in the temple was the purging of it; for so it was foretold there (Mal 3:2, Mal 3:3): He shall sit as a refiner and purify the sons of Levi. Now was come the time of reformation. Christ came to be the great reformer; and, according to the method of the reforming kings of Judah, he first purged out what was amiss (and that used to be passover-work too, as in Hezekiah's time, Ch2 30:14, Ch2 30:15, and Josiah's, Kg2 23:4, etc.), and then taught them to do well. First purge out the old leaven, and then keep the feast. Christ's design in coming into the world was to reform the world; and he expects that all who come to him should reform their hearts and lives, Gen 35:2. And this he has taught us by purging the temple. See here,
[1.] What were the corruptions that were to be purged out. He found a market in one of the courts of the temple, that which was called the court of the Gentiles, within the mountain of that house. There, First, They sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, for sacrifice; we will suppose, not for common use, but for the convenience of those who came out of the country, and could not bring their sacrifices in kind along with them; see Deu 14:24-26. This market perhaps had been kept by the pool of Bethesda (Joh 5:2), but was admitted into the temple by the chief priests, for filthy lucre; for, no doubt, the rents for standing there, and fees for searching the beasts sold there, and certifying that they were without blemish, would be a considerable revenue to them. Great corruptions in the church owe their rise to the love of money, Ti1 6:5, Ti1 6:10. Secondly, They changed money, for the convenience of those that were to pay a half-shekel in specie every year, by way of poll, for the service of the tabernacle (Exo 30:12), and no doubt they got by it.
[2.] What course our Lord took to purge out those corruptions. He had seen these in the temple formerly, when he was in a private station; but never went about to drive them out till now, when he had taken upon him the public character of a prophet. He did not complain to the chief priests, for he knew they countenanced those corruptions. But he himself,
First, Drove out the sheep and oxen, and those that sold them, out of the temple. He never used force to drive any into the temple, but only to drive those out that profaned it. He did not seize the sheep and oxen for himself, did not distrain and impound them, though he found them damage faissant - actual trespassers upon his Father's ground; he only drove them out, and their owners with them. He made a scourge of small cords, which probably they had led their sheep and oxen with, and thrown them away upon the ground, whence Christ gathered them. Sinners prepare the scourges with which they themselves will be driven out from the temple of the Lord. He did not make a scourge to chastise the offenders (his punishments are of another nature), but only to drive out the cattle; he aimed no further than at reformation. See Rom 13:3, Rom 13:4; Co2 10:8.
Secondly, He poured out the changers' money, to kerma - the small money - the Nummorum Famulus. In pouring out the money, he showed his contempt of it; he threw it to the ground, to the earth as it was. In overthrowing the tables, he showed his displeasure against those that make religion a matter of worldly gain. Money-changers in the temple are the scandal of it. Note, In reformation, it is good to make thorough work; he drove them all out; and not only threw out the money, but, in overturning the tables, threw out the trade too.
Thirdly, He said to them that sold doves (sacrifices for the poor), Take these things hence. The doves, though they took up less room, and were a less nuisance than the oxen and sheep, yet must not be allowed there. The sparrows and swallows were welcome, that were left to God's providence (Psa 84:3), but not the doves, that were appropriated to man's profit. God's temple must not be made a pigeon-house. But see Christ's prudence in his zeal. When he drove out the sheep and oxen, the owners might follow them; when he poured out the money, they might gather it up again; but, if he had turned the doves flying, perhaps they could not have been retrieved; therefore to them that sold doves he said, Take these things hence. Note, Discretion must always guide and govern our zeal, that we do nothing unbecoming ourselves, or mischievous to others.
Fourthly, He gave them a good reason for what he did: Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise. Reason for conviction should accompany force for correction.
a. Here is a reason why they should not profane the temple, because it was the house of God, and not to be made a house of merchandise. Merchandise is a good thing in the exchange, but not in the temple. This was, (a.) to alienate that which was dedicated to the honour of God; it was sacrilege; it was robbing God. (b.) It was to debase that which was solemn and awful, and to make it mean. (c.) It was to disturb and distract those services in which men ought to be most solemn, serious, and intent. It was particularly an affront to the sons of the stranger in their worship to be forced to herd themselves with the sheep and oxen, and to be distracted in their worship by the noise of a market, for this market was kept in the court of the Gentiles. (d.) It was to make the business of religion subservient to a secular interest; for the holiness of the place must advance the market, and promote the sale of their commodities. Those make God's house a house of merchandise, [a.] Whose minds are filled with cares about worldly business when they are attending on religious exercises, as those, Amo 8:5; Eze 33:31. [b.] Who perform divine offices for filthy lucre, and sell the gifts of the Holy Ghost, Act 8:18.
b. Here is a reason why he was concerned to purge it, because it was his Father's house. And, (a.) Therefore he had authority to purge it, for he was faithful, as a Son over his own house. Heb 3:5, Heb 3:6. In calling God his Father, he intimates that he was the Messiah, of whom it was said, He shall build a house for my name, and I will be his Father, Sa2 7:13, Sa2 7:14. (b.) Therefore he had a zeal for the purging of it: "It is my Father's house, and therefore I cannot bear to see it profaned, and him dishonoured." Note, If God be our Father in heaven, and it be therefore our desire that his name may be sanctified, it cannot but be our grief to see it polluted. Christ's purging the temple thus may justly be reckoned among his wonderful works. Inter omnia signa quae fecit Dominus, hoc mihi videtur esse mirabilius - Of all Christ's wonderful works this appears to me the most wonderful. - Hieron. Considering, [a.] That he did it without the assistance of any of his friends; probably it had been no hard matter to have raised the mob, who had a great veneration for the temple, against these profaners of it; but Christ never countenanced any thing that was tumultuous or disorderly. There was one to uphold, but his own arm did it. [b.] That he did it without the resistance of any of his enemies, either the market-people themselves, or the chief priests that gave them their licences, and had the posse templi - temple force, at their command. But the corruption was too plain to be justified; sinners' own consciences are reformers' best friends; yet that was not all, there was a divine power put forth herein, a power over the spirits of men; and in this non-resistance of theirs that scripture was fulfilled (Mal 3:2, Mal 3:3), Who shall stand when he appeareth?
Fifthly, Here is the remark which his disciples made upon it (Joh 2:17): They remembered that it was written, The Zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. They were somewhat surprised at first to see him to whom they were directed as the Lamb of God in such a heat, and him whom they believed to be the King of Israel take so little state upon him as to do this himself; but one scripture came to their thoughts, which taught them to reconcile this action both with the meekness of the Lamb of God and with the majesty of the King of Israel; for David, speaking of the Messiah, takes notice of his zeal for God's house, as so great that it even ate him up, it made him forget himself, Psa 69:9. Observe, 1. The disciples came to understand the meaning of what Christ did, by remembering the scriptures: They remembered now that it was written. Note, The word of God and the works of God do mutually explain and illustrate each other. Dark scriptures are expounded by their accomplishment in providence, and difficult providences are made easy by comparing them with the scriptures. See of what great use it is to the disciples of Christ to be ready and mighty in the scriptures, and to have their memories well stored with scripture truths, by which they will be furnished for every good work, 2. The scripture they remembered was very apposite: The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. David was in this a type of Christ that he was zealous for God's house, Psa 132:2, Psa 132:3. What he did for it was with all his might; see Ch1 29:2. The latter part of that verse (Psa 69:9) is applied to Christ (Rom 15:3), as the former part of it here. All the graces that were to be found among the Old Testament saints were eminently in Christ, and particularly this of zeal for the house of God, and in them, as they were patterns to us, so they were types of him. Observe, (1.) Jesus Christ was zealously affected to the house of God, his church: he loved it, and was always jealous for its honour and welfare. (2.) This zeal did even eat him up; it made him humble himself, and spend himself, and expose himself. My zeal has consumed me, Psa 119:139. Zeal for the house of God forbids us to consult our own credit, ease, and safety, when they come in competition with our duty and Christ's service, and sometimes carries on our souls in our duty so far and so fast that our bodies cannot keep pace with them, and makes us as deaf as our Master was to those who suggested, Spare thyself. The grievances here redressed might seem but small, and such as should have been connived at; but such was Christ's zeal that he could not bear even those that sold and bought in the temple. Si ibi ebrios inveniret quid faceret Dominus! (saith St. Austin.) If he had found drunkards in the temple, how much more would he have been displeased!
2. Christ, having thus purged the temple, gave a sign to those who demanded it to prove his authority for so doing. Observe here,
(1.) Their demand of a sign: Then answered the Jews, that is the multitude of the people, with their leaders. Being Jews, they should rather have stood by him, and assisted him to vindicate the honour of their temple; but, instead of this, they objected against it. note, Those who apply themselves in good earnest to the work of reformation must expect to meet with opposition. When they could object nothing against the thing itself, they questioned his authority to do it: "What sign showest thou unto us, to prove thyself authorized and commissioned to do these things?" It was indeed a good work to purge the temple; but what had he to do to undertake it, who was in no office there? They looked upon it as an act of jurisdiction, and that he must prove himself a prophet, yea, more than a prophet. But was not the thing itself sign enough? His ability to drive so many from their posts, without opposition, was a proof of his authority; he that was armed with such a divine power was surely armed with a divine commission. What ailed these buyers and sellers, that they fled, that they were driven back? Surely it was at the presence of the Lord (Psa 114:5, Psa 114:7), no less a presence.
(2.) Christ's answer to this demand, Joh 2:19. He did not immediately work a miracle to convince them, but gave them a sign in something to come, the truth of which must appear by the event, according to Deu 18:21, Deu 18:22.
Now, [1.] The sign that he gives them is his own death and resurrection. He refers them to that which would be, First, His last sign. If they would not be convinced by what they saw and heard, let them wait. Secondly, The great sign to prove him to be the Messiah; for concerning him it was foretold that he should be bruised (Isa 53:5), cut off (Dan 9:26), and yet that he should not see corruption, Psa 16:10. These things were fulfilled in the blessed Jesus, and therefore truly he was the Son of God, and had authority in the temple, his Father's house.
[2.] He foretels his death and resurrection, not in plain terms, as he often did to his disciples, but in figurative expressions; as afterwards, when he gave this for a sign, he called it the sign of the prophet Jonas, so here, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Thus he spoke in parables to those who were willingly ignorant, that they might not perceive, Mat 13:13, Mat 13:14. Those that will not see shall not see. Nay, this figurative speech used here proved such a stumbling-block to them that it was produced in evidence against him at his trial to prove him a blasphemer. Mat 26:60, Mat 26:61. Had they humbly asked him the meaning of what he said, he would have told them, and it had been a savour of life unto life to them, but they were resolved to cavil, and it proved a savour of death unto death. They that would not be convinced were hardened, and the manner of expressing this prediction occasioned the accomplishment of the prediction itself. First, He foretels his death by the Jews' malice, in these words, Destroy you this temple; that is, "You will destroy it, I know you will. I will permit you to destroy it." Note, Christ, even at the beginning of his ministry, had a clear foresight of all his sufferings at the end of it, and yet went on cheerfully in it. It is good, at setting out, to expect the worst. Secondly, He foretels his resurrection by his own power: In three days I will raise it up. There were others that were raised, but Christ raised himself, resumed his own life.
[3.] He chose to express this by destroying and re-edifying the temple, First, Because he was now to justify himself in purging the temple, which they had profaned; as if he had said, "You that defile one temple will destroy another; and I will prove my authority to purge what you have defiled by raising what you will destroy." The profaning of the temple is the destroying of it, and its reformation its resurrection. Secondly, Because the death of Christ was indeed the destruction of the Jewish temple, the procuring cause of it; and his resurrection was the raising up of another temple, the gospel church, Zac 6:12. The ruins of their place and nation (Joh 11:48) were the riches of the world. See Amo 9:11; Act 15:16.
(3.) Their cavil at this answer: "Forty and six years was this temple in building, Joh 2:20. Temple work was always slow work, and canst thou make such quick work of it?" Now here, [1.] They show some knowledge; they could tell how long the temple was in building. Dr. Lightfoot computes that it was just forty-six years from the founding of Zerubbabel's temple, in the second year of Cyrus, to the complete settlement of the temple service, in the 32nd year of Artaxerxes; and the same from Herod's beginning to build this temple, in the 18th year of his reign, to this very time, when the Jews said that this as just forty-six years: ōkodomēthē - hath this temple been built. [2.] They show more ignorance, First, Of the meaning of Christ's words. Note, Men often run into gross mistakes by understanding that literally which the scripture speaks figuratively. What abundance of mischief has been done by interpreting, This is my body, after a corporal and carnal manner! Secondly, Of the almighty power of Christ, as if he could do no more than another man. Had they known that this was he who built all things in six days they would not have made it such an absurdity that he should build a temple in three days.
(4.) A vindication of Christ's answer from their cavil. The difficulty is soon solved by explaining the terms: He spoke of the temple of his body, Joh 2:21. Though Christ had discovered a great respect for the temple, in purging it, yet he will have us know that the holiness of it, which he was so jealous for, was but typical, and leads us to the consideration of another temple of which that was but a shadow, the substance being Christ, Heb 9:9; Col 2:17. Some think that when he said, Destroy this temple, he pointed to his own body, or laid his hand upon it; however, it is certain that he spoke of the temple of his body. Note, The body of Christ is the true temple, of which that at Jerusalem was a type. [1.] Like the temple, it was built by immediate divine direction: "A body hast thou prepared me," Ch1 28:19. [2.] Like the temple, it was a holy house; it is called that holy thing. [3.] It was, like the temple, the habitation of God's glory; there the eternal Word dwelt, the true shechinah. He is Emmanuel - God with us. [4.] The temple was the place and medium of intercourse between God and Israel: there God revealed himself to them; there they presented themselves and their services to him. Thus by Christ God speaks to us, and we speak to him. Worshippers looked towards that house, Kg1 8:30, Kg1 8:35. So we must worship God with an eye to Christ.
(5.) A reflection which the disciples made upon this, long after, inserted here, to illustrate the story (Joh 2:22): When he was risen from the dead, some years after, his disciples remembered that he had said this. We found them, Joh 2:17, remembering what had been written before of him, and here we find them remembering what they had heard from him. Note, The memories of Christ's disciples should be like the treasure of the good house-holder, furnished with things both new and old, Mat 13:52. Now observe,
[1.] When they remembered that saying: When he was risen from the dead. It seems, they did not at this time fully understand Christ's meaning, for they were as yet but babes in knowledge; but they laid up the saying in their hearts, and afterwards it became both intelligible and useful. Note, It is good to hear for the time to come, Isa 42:23. The juniors in years and profession should treasure up those truths of which at present they do not well understand either the meaning or the use, for they will be serviceable to them hereafter, when they come to greater proficiency. It was said of the scholars of Pythagoras that his precepts seemed to freeze in them till they were forty years old, and then they began to thaw; so this saying of Christ revived in the memories of his disciples when he was risen from the dead; and why the? First, Because then the Spirit was poured out to bring things to their remembrance which Christ had said to them, and to make them both easy and ready to them, Joh 14:26. That very day that Christ rose form the dead he opened their understandings, Luk 24:45. Secondly, Because then this saying of Christ was fulfilled. When the temple of his body had been destroyed and was raised again, and that upon the third day, then they remembered this among other words which Christ had said to this purport. Note, It contributes much to the understanding of the scripture to observe the fulfilling of the scripture. The event will expound the prophecy.
[2.] What use they made of it: They believed the scripture, and the word that Jesus had said; their belief of these was confirmed and received fresh support and vigour. They were slow of heart to believe (Luk 24:25), but they were sure. The scripture and the word of Christ are here put together. not because they concur and exactly agree together, but because they mutually illustrate and strengthen each other. When the disciples saw both what they had read in the Old Testament, and what they had heard from Christ's own mouth, fulfilled in his death and resurrection, they were the more confirmed in their belief of both.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain After this he went down to Capernaum,.... After he…
After this he went down to Capernaum,.... After he had been at Cana, and at the wedding there: after he had wrought the miracle of turning water into wine; and after he had manifested forth the glory of his deity thereby, and had confirmed the faith of his disciples, he departed from thence, and went lower into the country of Galilee, to Capernaum, a city near the sea of Tiberias; and which, from henceforward, he made the more usual place of his residence, and whither he frequently resorted, and therefore it is called his city, Mat 9:1. This refers not to the same journey recorded in Mat 4:12, for that was after John was cast into prison, whereas this was before; see Joh 3:24; the company that went with him, are as follow,
he, and his mother; who had been with him at Cana, and was a principal person at the wedding: and she now returning home, he accompanies her, to see her to her own habitation; or to settle her in Capernaum, whilst he went about discharging his public ministry.
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And his brethren; or near kinsmen, according to the flesh, the sons of Alphaeus, or Cleophas, and Mary, sister to the mother of our Lord; whose names were James, Joses, Simon, and Judas, three of which afterwards became his apostles:
and his disciples: as many as he had yet called, which were Andrew, and the disciple that followed Jesus with him, and Simon Peter, and Philip, and Nathanael,
and they continued there not many days; not because of the impenitence, unbelief, and wickedness of the place, but for the reason following.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Joh 2:12-13. After this he went down to Capernaum…
Joh 2:12-13. After this he went down to Capernaum — A city that lay near the north part of the sea of Galilee, and on the south border of the land of Naphthali. See note on Mat 4:13. Here Christ and his disciples continued but a short time, the passover of the Jews being at hand, which Jesus, who was made under the law, and maintained a religious regard to its ceremonial, as well as its moral precepts, would not neglect attending: thus teaching us by his example a strict observance of all divine institutions, and a diligent attendance on religious assemblies. As the evangelists have not informed us how many passovers happened between the baptism and death of Christ, or during the course of his public ministry, learned men have been much divided in their opinions on the subject. But by far the greater part have supposed there were four, reckoning this the first; the feast mentioned Joh 5:1, the second; the passover spoken of Joh 6:4, as the third; and that at which Christ suffered, the fourth. But there are others of a different opinion. The celebrated Sir Isaac Newton reckons five; the first, this which is now before us; the second, according to him, happened four months after Christ’s discourse with the woman of Samaria, Joh 4:35; the third, a few days before the story of the disciples rubbing the ears of corn, Luk 6:1; the fourth, a little after the feeding of the five thousand; and the last, at the time of our Lord’s crucifixion.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain To Capernaum - See the notes at Mat 4:13.
To Capernaum - See the notes at Mat 4:13.
Not many days - The reason why he remained there no longer was that the Passover was near, and they went up to Jerusalem to attend it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Jesus, The Guest In Capernaum, And The Pilgrim To…
IV
Jesus, The Guest In Capernaum, And The Pilgrim To The Passover. The Purification Of The Temple, As A Prelude Of The Redeeming Purification Of The World And Reformation Of The Church. Christ The True Temple. The Sign Of Christ: The Destruction Of The Temple And The Raising It Again. The First Spread Of Faith In Israel, And Christ The Knower Of Hearts.
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Joh_2:12-25
12After this he went down to Capernaum [Kapharnaum], he, and his mother, and his39 brethren [brothers],40 and his disciples; and they continued there [and there they abode, χαὶ ἐχεῖ ἔμειναν]41 not many days.
13And the Jews’ passover [the passover of the Jews, τὸ πάσχα τῶν ’I.] was at hand 14[or, near, ἐγγίς], and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, [.] And [he] found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money [money-changers] sitting [established]: 15And when he had made [having made, ποιήσας a scourge of small cords, he drove them [omit them] all out of the temple, and [both] the sheep, and the oxen;42 and poured out the changers’ money43 [the money of the exchangers], and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that [to those who] sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise 17[a market]. And his disciples remembered that it was [is] written, The zeal of [for] thine house hath eaten me up [will eat me up].44 (Psa_69:9.) 18Then answered the Jews [The Jews therefore answered] and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? 19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up [again]. 20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear [raise] it up in three days? 21But he spake of the temple of his body. 22When therefore lie was [had] risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them [omit unto them];45 and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said [spoken].
23Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover in the feast day [at the feast, ἐν τῇ ἑο̣ρτῇ, many believed in hi3 name [ἐπίστευσαν, trusted in his name], when they saw the miracles [his signs, αὐτοῦ τὰ σημεῖα] which he did [wrought]. 24But Jesus did not commit himself unto them [οὐχ ἐπίστευεν αὐτύν αὐτοῖς, did not trust himself to them], because he knew all men, 25And needed not [had no need] that any [one] should testify of [concerning] man; for he [himself, αὐτύς] knew what was in man.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
[The Messianic purification of the temple was the first, and, according to the Synoptists (Mat_21:12-13; Mar_11:15-17; Luk_19:45; Luk_19:40), also the last public act of Christ in Jerusalem.46 It very appropriately opens and closes His labors in the sanctuary of the theocracy. It was foretold by the prophet Mal_3:1 ff., that immediately after the forerunner the Messiah Himself “shall suddenly come to His temple,” for the purpose of cleansing it: “He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” The gross scandal in the Court of the Gentiles represented the general profanation and corruption of the theocracy (as Tetzel’s and Samson’s sale of indulgences revealed the secularization of the Latin Church in the 16th century). Christ commenced the reformation at the fountain-head, in Jerusalem and the temple where it was most needed. The expulsion was a judicial act of the Lord of the Sabbath and the temple. He acted here not simply as a prophet or Zealot, but as the Messiah, as the Son of God; and hence calls the temple the house of His, not our, Father (Joh_2:16). Some infidels have misrepresented it as an outburst of passion and an argument against the sinless perfection of Christ. But the result conclusively shows that it was an exhibition of superhuman power and majesty, which so overawed the profane traffickers, that, losing sight of their superiority in number and physical strength, they submitted at once, and without a murmur to the well deserved punishment.47 Their bad conscience, which always makes men cowardly, and the conceded right of prophets like Elijah, to rebuke scandulous profanations of religion, would not sufficiently account for this complete victory. A similar instance is recorded, Joh_18:6, where Judas and his band of men and officers shrunk back and fell to the ground before the defenceless Jesus.—P. S.]
Joh_2:12. After this he went down [κα̇τέβη] to Capernaum.—No doubt not directly from Cana, but from Nazareth. Not that, as Meyer says, the brethren here mentioned were not with Him at the wedding (this is not necessarily to be inferred from the silence respecting them), but that Nazareth was still the residence of Jesus and of the family of Mary, who no doubt returned home before they all went together to Capernaum, that they might thence join the nearest festival caravan for Jerusalem. He went down from the hill country towards the sea, on the coast of which Capernaum lay. On Capernaum, see the Matth. at Joh_4:13. [Am. ed. pp. 90, 91. The question of the site of Capernaum, or properly Kapharnaum (i.e., the Village of Nahum), is still unsettled between the rival claims of Tell Hûm (i.e., the hill of Nahum) and Khân (i.e., lodging-place) Minyeh (with a near fountain called Ain-et-Tin, i.e., the spring of the fig-tree), two heaps of ruins on the Western shore of the sea of Galilee about three miles apart. Robinson (Researches ΙΙ. 403 ff.) and Porter (Handbook of Syria, ΙΙ. 425) decide for Khân Minyeh, but Van de Velde, Ebrard, Thomson, and Dixon, for Tell Hûm, at the head of the Lake. For this view speaks the similarity of name. (Hûm is a mutilated נהום=ναούμ), and the far greater importance of the ruins. The English explorers, Captain Wilson and his associates, are reported to have discovered in 1866, among the ruins of Tell Hûm, a synagogue of elegant architecture dating from a time before the Christian era. See, besides Robinson, ΙΙ. 403–405, the article Capernaum, by Grove, with the additional note of Hackett, in Smith’s Dictionary, Ι. p. 382; the Land. Athenæum, Feb. 24, and Mar. 31, 1866; and an essay of Prof. Ebrard in the Studien and Kritiken, for 1867, No. IV. pp. 723–740.—P. S.]
He, and his mother, and his brothers, and his disciples,—The singular (κατέβη) is explained by the fact that Jesus was the leader of the train. That the family had already settled in Capernaum (which, according to Ewald, is here stated, according to De Wette presupposed), is contradicted by the distinct indications that this removal did not take place till after the return of Jesus from Judea, and His appearance in Nazareth (Mat_4:13; Luk_4:31; Joh_4:43); though Meyer, maintains that there also the removal is neither intimated nor supposed. But no doubt the removal had already been virtually induced by the connection with the disciples from the sea. The brothers of Jesus are distinguished from the disciples. Even though now His brothers, James, Judas, and Simon, had been called to be disciples, which is not at all probable, a separate category had still to be made, because there were yet Joses and the sisters, Mat_13:55-56. And that they had already attached themselves to the company of Jesus, shows that the usual exaggerated and extreme pressing of the statement in Joh_7:5 is false. See Hengstenberg: Das Evang. John , 1 p. 149 sqq.
[The gradual transition from Christ’s private to His public life is here indicated. At Cana and at Capernaum His earthly relations are still with Him, but in the next verse He appears alone with His disciples or spiritual relatives. As to the vexed question of the brothers of Jesus, I have given my views in full in my German work on James, the brother of Christ, Berlin, 1842, and in a note on Mat_13:55, pp. 256–260. Comp. also the notes on Mat_1:25, and Joh_7:3; Joh_7:5. Meyer, Godet (I. 368 ff.), and Alford take ἀδελφοί here in the proper sense, as brothers, i.e., sons of Joseph and Mary. Hengstenberg (in loc.) revives the R. Catholic cousin-theory which dates from Jerome in the 4th century, and owes its origin and spread mainly to an ascetic overestimate of the perpetual virginity of Mary, as expressed in the words of Augustine: Maria mater esse potuit, mulier esse non potuit. Dr. Lange’s hypothesis is an ingenious, but somewhat artificial modification of this view, and assumes that Mary, though in the full sense the wife of Joseph, could bear no children after giving birth to the Messiah, and that the brethren of the Lord were both His cousins (as the sons of Clopas, a brother of Joseph, not as the sons of a supposed sister of Mary), and His foster-brothers (having been adopted, after the death of their father, into the holy family). To my mind the only alternative lies between the Epiphanian or old Greek view, which makes them elder sons of Joseph from a former marriage, and the view held by Tertullian and Helvidius, that they were younger children of Mary and Joseph, and so half-brothers of Jesus. Ancient tradition favors the former, an unprejudiced exegesis the latter view. Prof. J. B. Lightfoot, of Cambridge (in a learned excursus on Galatians, Lond., 1866, pp. 247–281, where much use is made of my book on James), elaborately defends the Epiphanian theory, mainly on account of Joh_19:26-27, which he regards as conclusive against the Helvidian hypothesis; but if this passage is allowed to decide the controversy, it overthrows also the Epiphanian theory. It receives its true light from the peculiar intimacy of Christ with John, and the fact that His brothers were still unbelievers when He entrusted His earthly mother to the care of His bosom disciple, who was probably also His cousin according to the flesh.—P. S.]
Not many days.—Depending solely on the preparation for the approaching passover, which Jesus attended in company with His disciples, v. 23. But that during these few days Jesus wrought miracles in Capernaum, must be inferred from Luk_4:23.
Joh_2:13. And the passover of the Jews was at hand.—On the passover see the Matth., p. 459.
And Jesus went up.—Besides the attendance of Jesus at the feast when He was twelve years old, mentioned by Luke alone (John 2.), and the last attendance on the passover in the year 783, related by all the Evangelists, John gives the remaining occasions of this kind. Here the first attendance on the passover, in the year 781; then a visit to another feast, not named, most probably the feast of Purim of 782 [ch. 5]; then the feast of tabernacles [ch. 7], and the feast of the dedication [ch. Joh_10:22], in the same year. See the Introduction,§ 8.
Joh_2:14. And found in the temple.—In the fore-court of the temple. On the temple and the fore-court see the Matth. on Joh_21:12 [p. 375], and Winer, sub. v. Also Braune: Das Evangelium von Jesus Christus, p. 45, The first act of the Lord, in the confidential circle of susceptible disciples, was an act of positive glorification, coming into the place of the symbolical purification; His second act, in the bosom of the corrupted religious life of the people, was an act of negative purification, significant at the same time of His glorification. That this deed was looked upon by the better people as a miraculous sign also, and that besides this Jesus wrought other miracles in Jerusalem, may be inferred from Joh_3:2. But John relates the purging of the temple alone as the first characteristic work, the signal-miracle of the Lord on His public appearance. To him the first cleansing of the temple was more important than the second. But the fact that John mentions only this cleansing at the opening of the Lord’s official life, and the Synoptists mention only the similar act at its close, proves nothing against the truth of either or both the occurrences. See the Matth. on John 21.
[The market in the Court of the Gentiles (the ἔξωθεν ἱερόν) was introduced, we know not when, from avaricious motives, in violation of the spirit of the law and to the serious injury of public worship, though it was no doubt justified or excused, as a convenience to foreign Jews for the purchase of sacrificial beasts, incense, oil, and the sacred shekel or double drachma in which the temple-tax had to be paid (Exo_30:13). Similar conveniences and nuisances, markets, lotteries and fairs, are not seldom found in connection with Christian churches. The most striking analogy is the traffic in indulgences, which made the forgiveness of sin an article of merchandise and became the occasion (not the cause) of the Reformation in Germany and Switzerland.—P. S.]
Joh_2:15. He drove all out.—Referring grammatically not to the animals, but to the men. But He drove the men out by raising the whip against their animals; precisely after the analogy of His method with the money-changers, whose tables He overthrew. To drive the men themselves, by themselves, from the temple, was not His design. Grotius: The whip, a symbol of the divine wrath.48 Meyer rejects all typical import. Yet even about the whip of an actual ox-driver there is somewhat typical; and the whip in the hand of Christ is at least a type of the punitive, reformatory office of discipline in the theocracy and the church.
And poured out the money of the exchangers, and overthrew, etc.—That is, He first dashed upon the tables hither and thither and then overturned them. The right of free motion in the temple-space, where tables of money-changers did not belong.
Joh_2:16. Unto them that sold doves.—Because the doves were in baskets, they must be carried away (Rosenmüller, Schweizer). His command now sufficed for this, after the dove-traders had seen His earnestness. Showing, that even the ox-traders also He had not driven out with the lash; and showing likewise that He intended no injury, else He would have let the doves go. De Wette: He dealt more gently with the dove-merchants, because the doves were bought by the poor. Stier: Because He saw in the dove the emblem of the Holy Ghost. Both groundless. The difference in the mode of expulsion arises simply from the nature of the articles: doves in baskets. That the dove-sellers came last, may have been determined by the modesty of their business, which generally makes also modest people. These people were doubtless not so much traders properly speaking, as they were poor farmers or farmers’ boys. As to the doves being emblems, so were also the sheep and oxen.
My Father’s house.—See Luk_2:49.49 The temple was still His Father’s house, because He was still waiting for the repentance of the people. The moment He takes His departure from the temple on account of their obduracy, He calls it: Your house, given over to desolation, Mat_23:38. Our Father’s, even a prophet might perhaps have said; My Father’s, Jesus says in the consciousness of His divine dignity and authority, as it were betraying Himself, without their understanding immediately the full sense of His word. The Pharisees, however, have doubtless already reflected upon the word as very suspicious (see John 10).
A house of merchandize.—The term here is not so strong as at the second purification. It denotes the entire secularization of the system of worship. The term “den of thieves” [σπήλειον λῃστῶν], in Mat_21:13, on the contrary, denotes the prophet-killing and spirit-killing fanaticism, into which this secularization at last ran out.
Joh_2:17. And his disciples remembered.—Olshausen: After the resurrection. Meyer, [Godet, Alford], on the contrary, rightly: At the occurrence itself. The passage is Psa_69:9, (10): “For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them, that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”50 Whether the Psalm be by David (Tholuck; comp. v. 31; Psalms 51), or by Jeremiah (Hitzig, see Joh_5:14?), or by some other theocratic sufferer, it belongs at all events, like Psalms 22., to that class of typical passages, in which the passion of Christ miraculously reflects and foreshows itself. Hence also Peter, Act_1:20, applies to Judas the words of v. 25 (“Let their habitation be desolate”), and Paul applies the Psalm several times to the conduct of the Jews towards Jesus, Rom_11:9; Rom_15:3. When Bengel, Olshausen, etc, and Luthardt refer the words: hath eaten me up, to the death of Jesus,51 and Meyer says, on the contrary, that the word is to be understood of the inward attrition of zeal (so that the disciples would mean, His zeal will yet consume Him from within), we may freely march over this difference of schools, and suppose (against Meyer) that the disciples, with anxious forebodings for the future of Christ, were smitten with the remembrance of that passage of the Psalm. For it is not necessary to suppose they had made out a clear idea of the sense of those words; any more than that Mary, with her words, meant: “Make wine!” or: “Go home!,” The school always reaches after fully expressed ideas or thoughts; actual life has also vague presentiments, anxious forebodings, dim, confused ideas; that is, life is subject to the fundamental law of gradual development. That the disciples did not connect a distinct expectation of the death of Jesus with their application of the verse of the Psalm to this action of their Lord, is proved by Joh_2:22; after Psa_22:6-8, etc., they could not confine their thoughts to an exclusively internal self-attrition; probably they did not think of it at all in the Old Testament sense, though the metaphorical use of ἐσθίειν is clear, and consuming passions too (see Meyer, with a reference to Chrysostom, Lampe, Wolf) are not wholly excluded. But here for the first time met and struck them the conflict of the spirit of Christ with the spirit of the people, the terrible life staking earnestness in the appearance of Christ, which threatened to bring incalculable dangers after it. We may no doubt further suppose that this remembrance indicates great apprehensiveness in the disciples respecting the Lord. Though the future καταφάγεται may occur in the sense of the present,52 it does not follow that, according to Tholuck, it is to be read as present here. In this case the Evangelist might better have used the κατέφαγε of the Septuagint.
Joh_2:18. Then answered the Jews.—Ἀπεκρίθησαν οὐν. Here the Jews already begin to appear in opposition to Jesus; accordingly the Pharisaic and Judaistic Jews are intended, particularly the rulers. They regarded the act of Christ as a reproach to their religious government; therefore their interruption was an answer. And from their spirit it was to be expected; hence οὖν.—What sign she wrest thou unto us?—They did not see that the majestic and successful act itself was a great moral, theocratic sign, which accredited him; they intended therefore a sign after some magical, chiliastic sort. It should be noticed that they did not venture to dispute the theocratic propriety of the act itself. The right of zealotry against theocratic abuses was legalized in the example of Num_25:7; yet the prophets were accustomed to support great acts of zealotry by special miraculous signs, 1Ki_18:23. The idea of such signs, however, particularly of the sign with which the Messiah should attest Himself, had gradually passed into the magical and monstrous. At all events, the challenge of a sign from heaven, Mat_12:38; Mat_16:1, is here already put forth.
Joh_2:19. Destroy this temple.—[One of those paradoxical and mysterious sayings which, though not understood at the time, stuck in the memory as seed thoughts for future sprouting.53 Comp. Christ’s word on the sign of Jonah, Mat_12:39-40, in which He likewise mysteriously and typologically predicts His resurrection.—P. S.]—This is the sign which He would give them. The imperative is permissive. (Glassius: est Imperat. pro Futuro permissive).54 The Jews took the words of Jesus in an entirely literal sense, as Joh_2:20 proves, yet hardly without design. From this conception gradually arose the malignant perversion, slander, and accusation: This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days, Mat_26:61; Mar_14:58; comp. Act_6:13. This conception John corrects in Joh_2:21 : He spake of the temple of his body [for His humanity]. The fathers universally acknowledge this interpretation. It has been supposed, He pointed to His body as He spoke.55 Of this there is no indication.
Since Herder, Henke, and Paulus, down to Lücke [De Wette], Bleek, Ewald (see Meyer, in loc.), it has been suggested, on the contrary, that John misunderstood the Lord; that Christ spoke of the temple as the symbol of the Jewish system of religion.56 Destroy this edifice of religion, and in three days, i.e., in a short time, proverbially (with reference to Hos_6:2) represented by three days, I will set it up again renewed.
Kuinoel, Tholuck, Meyer, and many others57 have maintained the correctness of John’s interpretation. And with all reason ; for an error of the Apostle and the whole company of disciples in respect to so important a word of the Lord is utterly inadmissible (see the several, not absolutely irrefragable arguments in Meyer).58
A third view adheres to John’s interpretation, but holds likewise an element of truth in the second view, and puts them in connection. The temple on Zion was the symbolical dwelling of God; the body of Christ was the real dwelling of God [and hence more than the temple, comp. Mat_12:6].59 The word of Christ, therefore, underneath its immediate reference to the external temple, has a deeper meaning: Destroy this temple and worship, as ye have already begun to do by your desecration,—destroy it entirely, by putting the Messiah to death, and in three days I will build it new, i.e., not only rise from the dead, but also by the resurrection establish a new theocracy (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Olshausen, Lange, Leben Jesu, I., p. 200; simultaneously Ebrard, Kritik, p. 325; later, in similar manner, Luthardt).60
This combination is supported (1) by the actual connection. The crucifixion of Christ was the desecration, the spiritual dissolution of the temple, which must be followed by its outward destruction (see Mat_23:38; Mat_27:51), because the body of Christ was the real temple of God. (2) Christ, on this account, has repeatedly represented His death and resurrection as the one great sign which was to be given to the Jews instead of the required sign from heaven (Joh_3:14; Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4), and this sign too always connected with an antecedent Old Testament type. (3) A word concerning His death, without connection with an intelligible figure, would have assuredly been as yet wholly unintelligible to the Jews. (4) John gave the inmost and ultimate significance of the expression of Christ for the sole reason, that it was the main matter, and that the figurative sense was self-evident. (5) In Mat_26:61 Christ puts in the true explanation, 2:64, immediately upon the false interpretation, besides perversion, of His utterance.
In three days, a round number, 1Sa_30:12; see the Matth. on Joh_12:40, p. 226.
I will raise it up (again).—“It is only apparently contrary to John’s explanation, that Christ, according to the New Testament doctrine, did not raise Himself, but was raised by the Father.” Meyer. And besides, the resurrection of Jesus was in one view as much His own act [Joh_10:18; Rev_5:5], as, in another view, the act of His Father, especially in its results, 1Co_15:57; Eph_4:8. That Jesus was already familiar with the thought of His death, appears from the conversation which soon followed, Joh_3:14. The explanation of Athanasius, quoted by Tholuck, is an ingenious modified form of our third: With the putting to death of the body of Christ the Jewish system of types and shadows also is dissolved, and the real church thereby (by means of the resurrection) established.
Joh_2:20. Then said the Jews.—With an οῦ̓ν; it was to be expected that they would finish their malicious misunderstanding consistently.—Forty and six years.—They mean the renovation and enlargement of the temple of Zerubbabel, which begun in the eighteenth year of Herod’s reign, 20 B. C. (Joseph. Antiq. XV. 11, 1), and was finished under Herod Agrippa II. in A. D. 64 (Joseph. Antiq. XX. 9, 7). According to Wieseler, it. appears, therefore, that in this computation of forty-six years since the work was begun, the passover of the year 781 is the occasion on which it is made (Chronol. Synops. p. 106).
Joh_2:21. The temple of his body.—Genitiv. Apposit.
Joh_2:22. His disciples remembered that he had said this.—This remembrance does not exclude former remindings; but the right remembrance came now with the right understanding of it. [Remarks like this impress upon the reports of the discourses of Christ the stamp of historical fidelity. A later falsifier would have made the reference to the resurrection much plainer.—P. S.]—And they believed the Scripture.—[Faith in Christ is the key to the understanding of the Scriptures of the O. T.; comp. Joh_7:38; Joh_7:42; Joh_10:35; Joh_13:18. The singular τῇ γραφῇ indicates the unity and harmony of the canonical books from Genesis to Malachi, which, considering the great number of authors, the long period of time, and the variety of circumstances in and under which they were composed, is a strong evidence of their divine origin.—P. S.] Comp. Luk_24:26 : “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,” etc. As they now found the death of Christ foretold in the Old. Testament, so they found also His glorification, which included His resurrection, Psa_16:10; comp. Act_2:27; Act_13:35; 1Pe_3:19; Psa_68:18; comp. Eph_4:8; Isa_53:7; comp. Act_8:35.
[Alford: “At first sight it appears difficult to fix on any passage in which the resurrection is directly announced: but with the deeper understanding of the Scriptures which the Holy Spirit gave to the Apostles and still gives to the Christian church, such prophecies as that in Psalms 16. are recognized as belonging to Him in whom alone they are properly fulfilled: see also Hos_6:2.” This is not satisfactory. The O. T. indeed does not expressly prophesy the resurrection, as a separate fact, but very often the exaltation and glorification of the Messiah after His humiliation and suffering, and this implies the resurrection, as the intervening link or the beginning of the exaltation itself. Hence we may count here in a wider sense, with Hengstenberg (I. 171), the prophecy of Shilo as a ruler, Gen_49:10; Psalms 110, where the Messiah is represented as sitting at the right of God and ruling over all His enemies; Dan_7:13-14, where He appears at the head of a universal Kingdom; Isaiah 53, where, after His atoning death, He is raised to great glory; Zec_9:9-10, where Zion’s King appears first lowly and riding upon an ass, yea, as dying (comp. Joh_12:10; Joh_13:7), but afterwards speaking peace to the heathen and having dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth; comp. also Isaiah 9; Isaiah 11; Micah 5; Psalms 16. It is quite in keeping with the character of prophecy to behold the various stages of the exaltation as one continuous panorama. It is under this view that the Scripture of the O. T. is said to have foretold the resurrection; Luk_24:26 (“to enter into His glory”); Joh_20:9; 1Co_15:4; 1Pe_1:11 (“the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow”).—P. S.]
Joh_2:23. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover.—The Evangelist thus distinguishes the stay of Jesus in Jerusalem during the passover from His first appearance there.—On the feast.—Meyer justly says, this addition is not intended to explain the term pass over for Greek readers; that must have been done by Joh_2:13. The expression signifies participation in the celebration of the feast. We suppose the feast days themselves are set off against the day of His entrance. On the day of the symbolical castigation He wrought other miracles, probably miracles of healing; and the first surprise of the Jews was followed by a demonstration of faith on the part of many attendants of the feast. The signs.—Evidently implying a multiplicity of signs, and such as determined those people to believe. He must therefore have done many miracles in Jerusalem.
Joh_2:24. Did not commit himself unto them.—The second πιστεύειν ἑαυτόν is evidently connected with the first πιστεύειν. He believed not in their believing, to such a degree as to commit or deliver up Himself to them. Various interpretations: (1) He withheld His doctrine (Chrysostom, Kuinoel); (2) He did not yield Himself to personal intercourse with them (Meyer). Without doubt simply: He did not yet entrust Himself to them as the Messiah, did not offer Himself as the Messiah, though they seemed inclined to recognize Him as such. It is the Lord’s determination, not to appear publicly under the title of Messiah; and He follows it henceforth till the triumphal entry into Jerusalem; in full accordance with Mat_4:1-11.
Because he.—He Himself, in distinction from indirect knowledge through others. How He knew them all, is in part shown by what has preceded. He knew in general that the secular spirit predominated in them; but He also saw through each one, as He met him, with a divine physiognomic discernment. In both cases is intended not only the general prophetic illumination, but the penetrating spiritual eye of the God-Man.
Joh_2:25. And needed not.—Explanatory of αὐτός in the previous clause.—Of man.—Of man as to his sinful nature in general, and of man in particular, as He encountered each individual.—For he knew.—The positive expression for: He needed not.—What was in man.—Not only the special, miraculous, physiognomic knowledge (Meyer cites Joh_1:48; Joh_4:18; Joh_6:61; Joh_6:64; Joh_11:4; Joh_11:14; Joh_13:11; Joh_21:17), but also the general knowledge of the constitution of human nature (John 3), of the order of the universe (Joh_19:11), and of the situation of the Jewish people in particular. Result: In the familiar circle of His disciples Jesus manifested His glory; in public He preserved His mysterious anonymousness as to the Messianic office.
[Christ knows us better than we know ourselves. He sees the end from the beginning, we the beginning from the end. He, says Calvin, knows the roots of the tree, we know the tree only by its fruits.—P. S.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The different meanings of the two purifications of the temple. According to Meyer, no essential difference should be perceived between the two acts. Vet the difference between the expressions “house of merchandize” in John, and “den of thieves” in the Synoptists, “the house of My Father” (ὁ οῖ̓κος τοῦ πατρός μου) in John, and “My house” (ὁ οῖ̓κός μου) in the Synoptists, as well as the greater rigor in the second case as described by Mark (cot suffering any man to carry any vessel through the temple), is plain enough. According to Hofmann, Lichtenstein, and Luthardt, Christ in the Synoptists appears as a prophet to protect the place of prayer, in John as the Son to execute His domestic right. But this would lead to an entire reversal of the order of things in the self manifestation of the Lord. The case is just the reverse. Christ performed the first cleansing of the temple, as an anonymous prophet in the right of zealotism and the right of a prophet (see the Matth. on Joh_21:12, p. 376); the second, as the Lord of the temple, publicly introduced by the people to the holy city and temple as the Messiah.
2. The body of Christ, the most real temple of God. The crucifixion, the destruction of the temple in the strictest sense (Rom_2:22); the resurrection, the building of the eternal temple. Meaning of the sign: He who builds the eternal, essential temple, has power also to purge the symbolical. The truth, that Christ is perpetually building greater, more glorious the temple of God, which the sin of man demolishes. The centre of this truth is the death and resurrection of Christ; its first tokens, the fall of Adam and the first promise (the protevangelium), the flood and the rain-bow, etc.; its unfolding, the destruction of the theocracy and temple in Jerusalem, the rise of the church, the ruin of the mediæval church by the hierarchy, and its rebuilding in the Reformation, the inducing of the judgment of the world by anti-christianity, and the erection of a new heavens and a new earth. The wedding at Cana before the purification of the temple, the token of the transfiguration of the world before the judgment of the world.
3. The first and second purifications of the temple: when once the temple is made a house of merchandize (John 2), it has also become in effect a den of robbers or of murderers, Matthew 21. First the selling of indulgences, then persecution and reformation.
4. Christ entrusts Himself to no one in Jerusalem; i.e., He does not as yet come on the stage in His office as Messiah. Comp. the Com. on Matth. on John 4.
5. The supernatural knowledge of Christ, the source of His miracles of knowledge, and in fact everywhere divine human; i.e., on the one hand not merely divine, nor on the other merely human, but both at once; divinely immediate, humanly exercised through means and organs.
ΗOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See Comm. on Matthew, on Joh_21:12-22, p., 377; Mark, on Joh_11:12-26; Luke, on Joh_19:41-42.—The visit of Jesus the youth to the temple, and the visit of the man matured for the execution of His Messianic office.—The first, second, and last solemn appearance of Jesus in the temple (the last, Matthew 21-23).—As the crucifixion of Christ completed the desecration of the temple, so the resurrection of Christ completed the restoration of the temple.—Out of His word of holiest zeal for the temple, they made a word of blasphemy and deadly sin against the temple.—The purification of the temple, the perpetual charter of reformation.—What sign shewest thou, etc.? The spiritual blindness which demands a sensible sign for the holiest sign of the Spirit.—How Judaism, by overdoing itself, falls back into heathenism, in asking a sign for the sense, when the sign of the Spirit gloriously stands forth.—So also the Judaism of legality in Christendom.—The scourge in the hand of Jesus, or the anger of personal gentleness itself. (1) The overpowering sign of the highest zeal (against sin); (2) the humbling sign of the highest majesty (against frivolity); (3) the ocular sign of the highest assurance (against doubt).—The Old Testament spirit in which the disciples viewed the matter, indicated by their word: The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up; the New Testament watchword of Jesus: My meat is to do the will, etc., Joh_4:34.—To the temple of a Herod the hierarchs had even a right; in the temple of Christ they found themselves utterly out of place.—The token which Christ gives the Jews for the truth of His divine mission.—This token, the token also of reformation: Commit the utmost abominations in the temple, the more gloriously will the ruined temple be restored!—The conduct of the Jews on Christ’s purifying of the temple, in its permanent import.—The destroyers of the temple would be its restorers, and the restorers must pass for destroyers.—From this first day of the public appearance of Christ, enmity calumniously laid up the word, which was to bring it to naught.—The Lord’s great word concerning His end, at the beginning of His career.—The subsequent remembrance of Christ’s words by His enemies, and the subsequent remembrance of them by His friends.—When He was at Jerusalem, many believed on Him; or, (1) festival believers, believers of festival seasons when things go grandly in the church; (2) yet festival times, also true birthdays of faith.—But Jesus did not commit Himself to them; or, secret disciples, and a secret Saviour (anonymous believers, and an anonymous Christ).—Christ, the knower of hearts.—The first sign of Christ in the pious house, and His first sign in the impious church.—The transformation of water into wine, and of the driver’s whip into a beneficent sceptre (in contrast with those who have turned the sceptre into a whip).—Christ and the hierarchs with reference to the temple of God: (1) He purifies and sanctifies it, they would make its desecrated condition its holiness; (2) He gives a moral and religious sign of the Spirit, they demand a magical, sensuous sign to accredit it; (3) He gives them for a sign the prophecy that they will kill Him, and they make of it a mortal charge against Him; (4) He announces to them a new supernatural temple, and they harden themselves in their old system to their judgment.—The first public Easter festival of Jesus, a foretokening of His future and eternal Easter.—Christ’s observance of the prescribed feasts the dawn of the free festivity of the gospel.—Christ at the feast: (1) As an Israelite, in the spirit of the patriarchs; (2) as a Jew, according to the law of Moses; (3) as a prophet, after the manner of the prophets (my Father’s house not a house of merchandize, the court of the Gentiles not a cattle-market); (4) as the Christ, introducing and indicating the course of His life and work.—Holy zeal and unholy zeal in contrast in the purification of the temple.—The open, noble indignation of Jesus, and the impure malicious reserve of His opponents.:—Jesus, here as in Cana, a man, and a sinless man.—The keeping holy the temple; (1) The house of God; (2) the body; (3) the church. The rising of the divine above the corruption and ruin of the human; the eternal divine token thereof, the luminous centre of all divine signs: the resurrection of Christ from the death of the cross.
Starke: Majus: Though the word and works of God are not bound to place, yet it is right, after the example of Christ, to observe proprieties of place and time.—Osiander: Christ, the Lord of the law, submitted Himself to it, that He might redeem men from it.—Cramer: Christ, not a secular king, but Lord of the temple; therefore He comes into the temple, and there begins His public function, Hag_2:3; Hag_2:18.—Hedinger: What has the abomination of usury to do in the temple of God? What the indulgence-monger in the sanctuary?—Ah, our churches to this day are sufficiently profaned by sinful garrulity, proud display of dress, etc. (even by unsanctified discourses).—Nova Bibl. Tub.: The abuses which have crept into the church must be scourged and banished. How much more must traditional abuses call forth our zeal! Hos_12:8; Zec_14:21.—It is incumbent on all Christians, particularly on ministers, to be zealous for the house of God; yet should every one take good heed lest it be not according to knowledge.—Osiander: He who diligently pursues his calling, may fear no danger. The protection of God will be with him.—Majus: The works of God need no miraculous attestation. They shine so brightly upon the eye, that God and His divine glory may be sufficiently recognized in them.—Hedinger: Unbelief demands miracles and signs.—Zeisius: Where we have to do with false, malicious men, we are not called upon to make the truth so clear and bright, to their greater condemnation (dark words for dark men).—A mind occupied only with the earthly, cannot perceive the mysteries of God.—Instruction often serves more for others in the future, than for those to whom it is given at the time.—Ibid: Fulfilment yields the best interpretation.—Quesnel: Truth brings forth its fruits in their season.—Ibid.: Christian prudence requires that we do not lightly judge and condemn any, yet that we do not easily trust ourselves to any who present a good appearance.
Gerlach: “As Christ’s kingdom is not a sword, how is it that He deals so hardly and harshly here with the priests of the temple, and concerns Himself with what properly belongs to the secular power? Because the Lord at that time stood between the Old Testament and the New, between what Moses had established in Israel, and what Christ was to establish after His death through His Holy Spirit and the preaching of the gospel; and He shows thereby that He is a Lord who holds both dispensations in His hand” (Luther).—Lisco: A picture of the reformation of a temple-desecration which had arisen from an abuse of Deu_14:24-26.—Heubner: How much is contained in completely trusting one!—We must judge not, yet not hastily open and surrender ourselves to any. The more perfect and noble a man is, the more true and open (and yet the more is he, again, a higher mystery).—Schleiermacher: What a zeal for His Father’s house did the Lord Himself sanctify, in doing that!—But there afterwards came a time, when even the Christian church was a house of merchandize.—Then He again gathered a whip; Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and all the reformers.—It was not the whip that effected what the Redeemer did, but the spiritual power, of which that was only a sign and seal.—Our failure to act in many cases as the Redeemer acted here, is the cause of many evils in the Christian church and in all human affairs. That one is always putting upon another the performance of works well pleasing to God, and no one maintains a fresh and free consciousness of the power which God the Lord has given him, and does all he can do to promote truth and goodness and prevent wickedness,—this is the reason why so many disorders are daily renewed in the smaller and larger relations of men.—Besser: The Saviour (because they stifle the voice of conscience) draws back from them, and veils in a holy riddle the sign which they demand, and flame which was intended to be given them as the sign of all signs, the proper sign of Christ.—From every defeat a victory unfolds to the church; from every shame a glory.—When therefore He was risen, etc. Chemnitz presents the disciples, in their relation to the discourse of Jesus to them, as an example for all Bible-readers: They should not at once despise and reject everything in the Holy Scriptures which they cannot at first glance understand; nor must they despair of understanding, if they cannot at once penetrate the deep mysteries of the word. For the Spirit of knowledge leads us into the truth by degrees.—Christ’s power of trying spirits (Isa_11:3. comp. with 1Sa_16:7 ; 1Ti_5:22).
Footnotes:
[39]Joh_2:12. [αὐτοῦ after οἱ ἀδελφοί, is omitted by B. L., Treg., Westcott and Hort, but supported by א. A. al and retained by Tischend and Alf. (the latter in brackets). Westcott and Hort bracket καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ. The false view about the ἀδελφοί of Christ may have had some influence on these variations.—P. S.]
[40]Joh_2:12. [As ”brethren” is now almost exclusively used in the spiritual sense, it is better to substitute “brothers,” where, as here, kinsmen, i. e., either cousins, or more probably half-brothers of Jesus, are intended. In the Scriptures the term denotes either (1) actual brotherhood, or (2) kinsmanship (cousins), or (3) common nationality, or (4) friendship and sympathy. Where there are no obvious objections, the first sense, being the most natural, must always be preferred, especially when the term, as here, occurs in connection with mother. See the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]
[41]Joh_2:12. [The singular ἔμεινεν (instead of the plural ἔμειναν) in A. F. G. was occasioned by the preceding κατέβη and the succeeding ἀνέβη.—P. S.]
[42]Joh_2:15. [The words to τά τέ πρόβατα καὶ τοὺς βόας, “the sheep as well as the oxen,” are merely epexegetical of πάντας (masc. on account of βόας), and imply that the φραγέλλιον was used on the beasts only, although it scared the men away likewise. The them and and of the E. V. convey a false impression.—P. S.]
[43]Joh_2:15.—B. L. X., etc. [Alford, Tregelles] read:τά κέρματα [moneys, small change, instead of the singular, τὸ κέρμα (text rec. Tischend). Greek writers generally use the plural. The singular is here collective.—P. S.]
[44]Joh_2:17.—The reading of the Recepta [κατέφαγε] is conformed to the Septuagint. The most important codd., particularly א. A. B. R. besides Origen, etc., read καταφάγεται [the future, contracted from καταφαγήσεται, will consume me, in the Sent, and the Apocrypha.—P. S.]
[45]Joh_2:22.—The addition αὐτοῖς is very feebly accredited. [Omitted by all the modern critical ed.]
[46][The double purgation of the temple is rightly defended by all the older commentators, and by Schleiermacher, Olshausen, Tholuck, Ebrard, Meyer, Lange, Hengstenberg, Godet, Alford. Among those who admit only one, Strauss, Baur and Schenkel defend the report of the Synoptists, while Lüke, De Wette, Ewald decide in favor of John].
[47][Hieronymus: Igneum quiddam et sidereum radiabat ex occulis ejus et divinitatis majestas lucebat in facie. Comp. the remarks of Godet, I. p. 379, who attributes the effect chiefly to the imposing majesty of Christ’s appearance, and the irresistible force of His consciousness of supernatural power.—P. S.]
[48][So also Godet: a sign of authority and judgment. If Christ had intended physical punishment, the instrument would have been disproportionate to the end.—P. S.]
[49][Alford: The coincidence with Luk_2:49 is remarkable. By this expression thus publicly used, our Lord openly announces His Mossiahship.—P. S.]
[50][Sept.: “Ὅτι ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου κατέφαγέν με (Vulg.: comedit me), καὶ οὶ ὸνειδισμοὶ τῶν ὀνειδιζόντων σεἐπέπεσον ἐπ’ἐμέ.—P. S.]
[51][“The καταφάγειν spoken of in that passion Psalm, was the marring and wasting of the Saviour’s frame by His zeal for God and God’s Church, which resulted in the buffeting, the scourging, the Cross.” Alford].
[52][So also Tholuck, Hengstenberg, Godet, but Meyer contends that καταφάγεται (=καταφαγήσεται) is only used in the sense of the future.—P. S.]
[53][Renan (Vie de Jésus, p. 354) can see in this profound enigma of our Lord only “an imprudent word spoken in bad humor” (“Un jour sa mauvaise humeur contre le temple lui arracha un mot imprudent)”! Godet, I. 387, well remarks: “La methode de Jesus est de jeter une enigme et de ne révéler la vérité qu’en la voilunt sous un divin paradoxe, qui ne peut êlre compris qu’en changeant de cæur. C‘est là un secret de la profonde pédagogies”—P. S.]
[54][Meyer, with his usual and at times pedantic philological strictness, takes the imperative λύσατε as strictly provocative, and explains it from a painful excitement of feeling in view of the opposition already manifesting itself. But the apparent harshness is softened by the prophetic character of the word and the double reference to the temple and the person. Joh_13:27, where Christ calls upon Judas to do quickly what he intended to do, furnishes a parallel. If the fruit is once matured, it must fall.—P. S.]
[55][So Bengel (nutu gestuve) and Meyer. But in the fifth ed., p. 144, note, M. gives up this reference. Such pointing would have been the solution of the riddle, contrary to its intention; but neither the Jews nor the disciples understood Him at the time. The Jews on this and the second purgation referred τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον to the temple, Joh_2:20; Mat_26:61; Mat_27:40. Meyer now assumes that Christ pointed to the temple (this temple before you), but meant His body as the antitype of the temple and the true dwelling of God, and thus put the image in the place of the thing typified, “so dass diese scharfen lebendigen, ohne Auslegung hingeworfenen Bildzüge wie in einem Bilderräthsel eine symbolisch prophretische Vorhersagung seiner Auferstehung enthalten, wie Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4.”—P. S.]
[56](See Heubner, p. 242. Henke was not the first to take this view, but Zinzendorf has it in his Homil. über die Wundenlitanei, p. 160.)
[57][Olshausen, Stier, Brückner (versus De Wette), Alford, Godet.—P. S.]
[58][Meyer, pp. 145–147, raises seven objections against this view. It is plainly irreconcilable with apostolic inspiration. In my Lectures on the Gospel of John, written at Berlin, 1842, I find the remark: “It involves an immense presumption on the part of theologians of the nineteenth century, however respectable, if they imagine that they understand Christ better than His favorite disciple and bosom-friend to whom He revealed the future struggles and triumphs of His Kingdom.” Alford also justly protests against such liberty of interpretation. For we have here not a chronological statement, but a doctrinal exposition of a most important declaration of Christ.—P. S.]
[59][This idea John expresses in ἐσκήνωσεν, Joh_1:14 (see notes on pp. 71, 73), and Paul when he says that the whole fulness of the Godhead dwelled in Christ bodily. Col_2:9.—P. S.]
[60][Comp. also Hengstenberg, I:165. He thinks that no justice can be done to this holy enigma which Christ proposed to the Jews, unless we recognize the essential identity of the temple, the appearance of Christ in the flesh and the church of the N. T. He explains: “If ye once destroy the temple of my body, and with it this external temple, the symbol and pledge of the kingdom of God among you, I shall rebuild in three days the temple of My body and with it at the same time the substance of the eternal temple, the kingdom of God.” The crucifixion of Christ involved as a necessary consequence the destruction of the temple and the O. T. worship; the re surrection of Christ the creation of the Christian church, and worship, of which the temple was the type and shadow. Godet explains: “Destroy this your temple, by killing Me, the Messiah.”—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Capernaum--on the Sea of Galilee. (See on Mat 9:1).
Capernaum--on the Sea of Galilee. (See on Mat 9:1).
his mother and his brethren--(See on Luk 2:51, and Mat 13:54-56).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Down to Capernaum—Down, because Cana was on the…
12. Down to Capernaum—Down, because Cana was on the high table land and Capernaum on the low sea coast. For a full account of Capernaum see note on Mat_4:13, and map.
Brethren—See note on Mat_13:55. It seems a truly family party; Jesus’s natural relatives and his spiritual. The natural family may have accompanied him to Capernaum with the desire to be with him until his departure to his public life at the approaching Passover. The Passover caravans passed through that then most populous maritime town.
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There were three well known routes by which the caravans could go from Lake Gennesaret to Jerusalem. The FIRST was the great thoroughfare from Damascus to Egypt, which, passing near the lake, and leaving it two or three miles W.S.W. of Nain, proceeded south through Samaria by the Shechem valley. See note on Joh_4:2. The SECOND proceeded along the lake and the river Jordan, southwardly, to Scythopolis, or Beisan, and thence, by the ancient Egypt route, to Ginea; and so onward by the Jerusalem and Galilee road, through to Shechem. THIRD, the most usual route, though now but little explored, from the south end of the lake, on the east side of Jordan, to avoid Samaria, through Peraea, and across the Jordan at Bethabara, through Jericho to Jerusalem. Leaving his relatives, and taking his disciples, (see Joh_2:17,) we may suppose our Lord to have taken this last route.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. “Now follows a section of which we can…
12. “Now follows a section of which we can only say with M. Renan, that it constitutes a decisive triumph for our Gospel.… If it is at all an artificial composition, with a dogmatic object, why should the author carry his readers thus to Capernaum—for nothing?” S. p. 52. If S. John wrote it, all is simple and natural. He records this visit to Capernaum because it actually took place, and because he well remembers those ‘not many days.’
went down] Capernaum (the modern Tell-Hûm) being on the shore of the lake. It was situated in one of the most busy and populous districts of Palestine, and was therefore a good centre.
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his mother, and his brethren] Natural ties still hold Him; in the next verse they disappear. On the vexed question of the ‘brethren of the Lord’ see the Introduction to the Epistle of S. James. It is impossible to determine with certainty whether they are (1) the children of Joseph and Mary, born after the birth of Jesus; (2) the children of Joseph by a former marriage, whether levirate or not; or (3) adopted children. There is nothing in Scripture to warn us against (1), the most natural view antecedently; but it has against it the general consensus of the Fathers, and the prevailing tradition of the perpetual virginity of S. Mary. Jerome’s theory, that they were our Lord’s cousins, sons of Alphaeus, is the one most commonly adopted, but Joh_7:5 (see note there) is fatal to it, and it labours under other difficulties as well. (2) is on the whole the most probable.
continued there] Better, abode there. See on Joh_1:33.
not many days] Because the Passover was at hand, and He must be about His Father’s business.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) After this he went down to Capernaum.—For the…
(12) After this he went down to Capernaum.—For the position of Capernaum comp. Note on Mat_4:13. It was on the shore of the lake of Tiberias, and He must have gone “down” to it from any locality among the hills of Galilee. The words do not imply that they went to Capernaum direct from Cana. The “after this” allows of a return to Nazareth, and the mention of the “brethren” makes such a return probable. The place of this sojourn in the order of events belongs to the narrative of the earlier Gospels, and here, as elsewhere, questions which recur are treated when they are first mentioned. To deal with them on each occurrence would be to save the trouble of reference at the cost of much space; and this would be ill-saved; the spiritual profit arising from constant reference is one which no earnest student of the Gospels could desire to lose. He will wish to study every event in that life in every word which records it. (Comp. Mat_4:13 et seq., and Mat_9:1; Mar_3:21-31; Mar_6:3; Luk_4:16-30). For the “brethren of the Lord,” see Note on Mat_13:55.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain After this he went down from the high lands…
After this he went down from the high lands of Galilee to the borders of the Sea of Galilee, depressed as we now know it to be below the level of the Mediterraneanto Capernaum. Three competing sites for this small town have been advocated by Eastern travellers; all of them on the shore of the lake, all near to Bethsaida and Chorazin, in "the way of the sea," combining more or less the characteristics required by the New Testament narrative and the references in Josephus. ("Bell. Jud:," 3:10, 8) Keim is in favour of Khan, Minyeh; but there is no abundant spring such as Josephus describes, nor are there any ruins which indicate an extensive town. Caspari has argued in favour of Ain Mudawarah, a mile and a half to the west of Khan Minyeh, in which, though water is abundant, there are no remains of buildings. The old travellers, and the most recent explorations, have coincided in fixing on Tell-Hum as the site; and Dr. Farrar, Dr. Westcott, Major Wilson, incline to this conclusion. Abundant ruins are found there, and, what is more than probable, the remains of the very synagogue built by the Roman centurion, and one certainly dating back to the Herodian age. Tell-Hum, or "the Mound of Hum," is an easy corruption of the Caphar, or village of Nahum. He, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples. They may have returned home to Nazareth, though some recent commentators suggest that Cana had become the home of his family in late years. This is contradicted by the express statement of Joh_1:45, and the utter obliteration of the name of Cana from the synoptic narrative. We cannot identify this possible return to Nazareth with the account in Luk_4:16-20, because it assumes a previous period of activity in Capernaum, and further, because the commencement of Christ"s public ministry is expressly made synchronous with the imprisonment of the Baptist, (Mat_4:12-15) which did not take place till weeks or months afterwards. (Joh_3:24) Consequently, this journey to Capernaum preceded the journey to Jerusalem and the return to Nazareth, of which Matthew speaks. The fact that "the mother and brethren "of Jesus accompanied him, but not "the sisters," suggests what is implied in Mar_6:3 that the sisters were married in Nazareth Mar_3:21-23 that they did not accompany the non-believing brothers in their endeavour "to lay hold of him." The fact that Joseph is not mentioned induces the common assumption that he was already dead. Volumes have been written on "the brethren of Jesus." The determination of their parentage is one of the most perplexing points in the evangelic history. There are three hypotheses, which are alike beset with difficulties.
(1) The view propounded by Helvidius in Rome, in the fourth century, and to which Jerome replied, that the "brothers" are brothers in the ordinary sense, children of Joseph and Mary. This supposition is sustained by the statement of Mat_1:25 and Luk_2:7, each of which implies that the mother of our Lord had other children. The sentiment of the Church in favour of Mary"s perpetual virginity, and in favour of the uniqueness of her maternity, has powerfully contested this supposition. Further, apart from any sentiment, it has been said that the Lord would not have commended the mother to the beloved disciple, if he had living brothers who had a previous claim. To this, however, it is replied that John, the son of Zebedee and Salome, may have been his near relative, if Salome were the sister of the Virgin; and also that, up to the time of the Ascension, there is no proof that the brethren believed in him, but the contrary. The effect of a special manifestation to James (1Co 15) may have led to a general admission of the brethren, who are distinguished from, but yet with, the eleven apostles and the mother on the eve of the Ascension. (Act_1:14)
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(2) To obviate the difficulties of a sentimental kind, it was suggested by Jerome, and it has been often assumed since, that these brothers were in reality first cousins, not the children of Salome the sister of the Virgin, but of Mary the wife of Cleophas, who is supposed to be the sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, (see Joh_20:25, note) and further that this Cleophas = Clopas = ypilj = Alphaeus = Chalphai for the Aramaic guttural might be omitted as in Alphseus, or turned into k or c in Clopas, found in John"s text. Jerome, however (Lightfoot), never referred to this confirmation of his theory; but it has been hence conjectured that James the son of Alphaeus was identical with the celebrated "James the brother of our Lord," mentioned in Act_12:17 Act_15:13 Act_21:18; in Gal_1:19 Gal_2:9, Gal_2:12; and in ecclesiastical history. If, however, this James were the "son of Alphaeus," then Judas (Joh_14:22) (not Iscariot) of James" (Jud_1:1 Act_1:13) was also one of the "brethren;" also Joses and Simon, sons of Cleophas, were of their number; and some have gone further, and made Simon the Canaanite the other brother. This might possibly be the solution of the puzzle, if the entire theory did not break down under the clear distinction drawn in evangelic narrative between the twelve apostles and the brethren. E.g. in this passage they are discriminated from "disciples." In Joh_7:5 the "brethren" are said not to believe on the Lord. In Act_1:14 they are mentioned in addition to the apostles. Though in Galatians 1 and 2, James might seem from his great eminence to be classed with apostles in some wider sense, yet in Act_15:13 Act_21:18 Gal_2:12 he seems to take precedence of all the apostles, at the Council of Jerusalem, and in presidency of the Church there. Moreover, the identification of Cleophas with Alphaeus is very doubtful. Clopas is Aramaic, Cleophas a Greek name; and the identification of his wife Mary with the sister of the Virgin is also very doubtful; while to have two sisters of the same name in the same family is highly improbable. We cannot believe, further, that so distinguished a man as James the brother of our Lord could have been designated as "James the Less" in the evangelic narrative. (Mar_15:40) If the "cousin theory" holds, this must have been the case. Finally, "cousins" would hardly so persistently have been spoken of as brothers, and this would be still less likely if their mother was living.
(3) The third hypothesis, which is the suggestion of Epiphanius, is that these brothers were the children of Joseph by a previous marriage, to whom the blessed Virgin had acted the part of mother. This is based on a legend of the apocryphal "Protevang. of James" (ch. 9 and 17), where Joseph speaks of his "sons." The theory saves the virginity of Mary, but sacrifices that of Joseph. Such a conclusion, in some ecclesiastic circles, is almost as unwelcome as the former. Against Jerome"s hypothesis the greatest number of difficulties present themselves, and it must be abandoned. Therefore the choice really lies between that of Helvidius (1) and that of Epiphauius (3). These are alike encumbered by the perplexity that among the twelve apostles there were two Jameses, two Judases, and two Simons; and among the "brethren" there must have been also a James, Judas, Joses, and Simon, with sisters. Moreover, there was a Joses or Joseph, who was son of Alphseus, and therefore a brother of James. This is not an insuperable difficulty, because of the frequency with which personal names recur in Oriental families. Whether this multiplicity be true or not, there are, at least, ten other Simons in the New Testament, and nearly as many Josephs or Joses; and Judas Barsabas (Act_15:22) must be discriminated from the two Judases here supposed. We must, however, choose between suppositions (1) and (3). On the one side, it is said, if the brethren of Jesus were not the own sons of Mary, the language of Jesus on the cross would be entirely explicable. This is true; but, on the other side, if John were indeed a blood relation and beloved disciple (even if James was so also, but did not believe on him), the difficulty of the language is reduced to a minimum. There is no scriptural authority for the Epiphanian theory, but it is made plausible by the "Gospel according to St. Peter" and the " Protevang. Jacobi," which refer to Joseph"s sons. The whole history of its reception in the Church may be seen in the masterly essay of Bishop Lightfoot. The view of Alford, Mill, Farrar, Coder, and many others is in favour of a plain common sense interpretation of the letter of Scripture. Christ, who honoured marriage by his first display of miraculous power, and this at the suggestion.of his own mother, and in the society of those who passed undoubtedly as his brothers, would not feel that the faintest shadow of a shade fell on the lofty purity of his mother by this hypothesis. Certainly the Evangelist Matthew had not a vestige in him of that adoration of virginity, or Mariolatry, which has led ecclesiastical historians and commentators to reject the Helvidian hypothesis. Godet and some other harmonists endeavour to find, during the residence in Capernaum, the occasion for the first miraculous draught of fishes, and the final call of the two pairs of brothers; but it is. excluded by the notes of time subsequently given.
HOMILIES BY B. THOMAS Ver. 11. The miracle of Cana.
Notice
I THE MIRACLE IN RELATION TO JESUS HIMSELF. The miracle, with its attending circumstances, was:
1. A manifestation of his glory. Every act and every word of his manifested the glory of his character, but his miracles were spiritual and natural signs of the Divinity of his Person and the distinguishing feature of his character. His miracles were purely voluntary. Still, he pleased to perform them in order to manifest his glory the fulness of his Divine and human life.
2. It was a manifestation of his own glory. The glory manifested by the greatest and best of men is only derived and borrowed; but Jesus manifested his own glory that which originally and inherently belonged to him as the "Son of God," and now as the Son of God in human nature. What glory was specially manifested by this miracle and its attending circumstances?
(1) The thorough sociality of his nature. His first public appearance was in the house of joy, at a marriage feast, and that of a young couple in humble circumstances, so that he was not attracted by worldly distinction or self-interest, but by the simple sociality of his nature. He was not an Ascetic or a Stoic, but a perfect Man. His Divine nature did not interfere with his human instincts so as to keep him away from the human family. Thus the human side of his character was very different from and superior to that of the "Baptist." He lived out of the world; Jesus lived in it. And on this occasion was strikingly manifested the warm sociality of his nature, one of the chief glories of his Divine-human character, and thus representing faithfully the character of God, which is intensely social. Although invisible and infinite, yet he mingles with all the innocent joys and piercing sorrows of his creatures. He is present in the genial sunshine and in the dark cloud.
(2) The absolute independency of his conduct. His mother innocently interfered. She had long expected a display of his power, and, as she thought, the occasion had come. She says, "They have no wine." Being touched by the breath of a carnal notion, he gently but firmly rebuked it: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" In every instance of interference with his Divine course, such as that of Peter, or that of his enemies, he invariably rebuked it. If anything could vary his course, it would be parental and filial affection; but even this had to give way it was ignored. His Divine sovereignty shone brilliantly under all human conditions; he acted as God in the nature of man. In this instance he gives a reason for his conduct, which he was not called upon always to do: "Mine hour is not yet come." There is not a great difference between his "hour" and that of his mother; the greatest difference is moral, and it was immediately checked it vanished before the sovereignty of Divine rectitude and the glory of Divine propriety. It did not affect his mother"s love and faith; and if she could speak to those who superstitiously seek her intercession, she would point them to this incident, and say now as then, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." She at once comprehended and began to preach the revealed and absolute independency of his conduct, the sovereignty of his position.
(3) His absolute control over the elements of matter. The water was made wine.
(a) This was done by his mere will. Nothing was said, nothing was done. The elements were pliant to his will. It was done with the greatest ease.
(b) It was done openly, before the disciples and the crowd.
(c) It was done immediately. There was no break in the festive joy. No disappointment on account of failure; no anxiety on account of delay. What took him months to do in the ordinary course of things, he did now in a moment; and the water, as if competing with other elements in raising a commemorative monument to the presence of its Lord, made haste to obey, and "blushed" its homage.
(d) It was done perfectly. The wine was pronounced "good," not extraordinary. God in miracles is not superior to God in nature. God"s works, however performed, are Divine and uniform, and all his gifts are good. Man disimproves things, turns the water into blood. Christ improves everything the water is made wine. Jesus reverses the human order. The good wine is kept last. This is the Divine order. In all the earthly life of Jesus it was so, and eternity will not alter this order. In the enjoyment of heaven the language of blissful experience will ever be, "Thou hast kept the good wine," etc.
(4) The singular benevolence of his character. This was a miracle of kindness, as all his were. This was the natural keynote of his life and of his nature. Whenever his power rode forth in majesty, kindness was ever in its chariot, and the ocean of his benevolence was ever tremulous to the least breath of want; there was no need of a storm. Some might think that more wine was extravagance; but Jesus thought and felt differently. He knew how any lack in this direction would hurt the virgin feelings of a newly wedded couple. So that he is tenderly and delicately kind. The quality of the wine is good, and the quantity is kingly probably from sixty to a hundred gallons. "Too much," says some one. Yes, too much for a peasant, but not for a king. He gave for himself and friends. None shall suffer for being kind to him, but he will repay with Divine interest. There was enough for the guests and enough to spare, as his wedding gift to the young pair to commence life with. "Fill to the brim." All his vessels are filled to the brim, and the cup of blessings which he sends round his people is not merely brimful, but "runneth over." Just like himself.
(5) His gracious power and readiness to satisfy the natural expectations of faith. To supply the lack of wine at the feast was not the chief reason of the miracle. This was only secondary. There was a higher reason, and a more spiritual significance. It was performed in answer to the natural expectations of faith. There was another newly wedded couple in the feast of Cana Jesus and his disciples. They had believed on him without a miracle, but expected one at no distant date. Faith accepted him on trust. At the proper time he fully pays in hard cash, and his power and readiness to satisfy the lawful demands of faith shone forth with Divine brilliancy; and here is the climax of his glory in this miracle. Genuine faith shall never cry to him, "Show me thy glory," in vain.
3. This was only the beginning of the manifestation of his glory. The beginning of miracles; hence the beginning of his self-manifestation.
(1) The beginning of the manifestation of his glory was perfect. There is a special interest connected with the first performances of men of genius, and invariably they are inferior to their maturer efforts. But this first miracle of Jesus is as perfect in execution as his last; he never improved. It is not the first attempt of a pupil, but the first demonstration of a master. The first miracle of the Son of God was as perfect of its kind as his last.
(2) The manifestation of his glory was gradual. It was so then, and is so still. Faith could not stand the full blaze of his glory; it would dazzle rather than nurse it. We cannot stand the full glare of the sun, how much less that of its Creator! Christ feeds faith as a nurse feeds the babe, and manifests his glory, not in full blaze, but sometimes in startling flashes, and ever in genial rays, so as to suit the conditions and requirements of faith.
(3) The manifestation of his glory will be ever progressive. It was so while he was here on earth. He increasingly manifested his glory from Cana to Bethany, and on to the great miracle of the cross with its sequences the resurrection, etc., which still unveil his glory, scene after scene, to the human family. And ever since he has been progressively manifesting his glory on this and the other side, and will continue to do so, till it will reach a dispensational climax in his second coming, when he will be glorious in his saints, the rich trophies of his redeeming victories. His glory is such in its fulness and variety that time cannot contain it and eternity will not exhaust it. But after ages have passed, away, and the heavens flooded with its radiance, then its manifestation will only be beginning.
II THE MIRACLE IN RELATION TO THE DISCIPLES. "And his disciples believed on him." This implies:
1. That they had faith in him already. Otherwise they could, not be called his disciples, much less be his disciples. Faith in Christ is the first condition of Christian discipleship. The disciples" faith was kindled, by the preaching of John, and declared as they met Jesus on the banks of the Jordan.
2. That their faith wanted confirmation. It was yet young and tender, still clinging to him like the vine to the tree. It was weak in itself, but strong in its demands, longing in its expectations, and eloquent in its secret prayers for a Divine manifestation and nourishment.
3. The miracle satisfied the present want of their faith. Jesus through it manifested his glory, and they believed on him. Faith progresses with the progress of revelation, as revelation progresses with the development of faith. While the guests generally enjoyed the miraculous wine, faith had a higher enjoyment in drinking the wine of Jesus" manifested glory, and was invigorated and established. The wine of Cane was soon exhausted, but the glory of him who made it still shines, and faith still delights to revel in its light and buskin its sunshine. "And his disciples believed on him. " All believed in the wine, but not in him. The majority remained with the material, and soon forgot him; but the disciples rose to a diviner sphere, and left the stream and dipped their pitchers in the well. Many enjoy the gifts, but forget the great Giver. But faith almost forgets the gifts in the Giver, leaves the rays and flies upwards like an eagle to gaze on the Sun, the Source of light. And this is wise. Have the fountain, and you have the stream. Have Christ, and you have all.
LESSONS.
1. If married couples wish a happy life, let them commence it by inviting Jesus to their marriage feast. Let him be the chief Guest, and he will give the proper tone to it, as well as to the after life. A good beginning is half the battle. The evil one will be there, whether invited or not; he does not observe the rules of propriety. But Jesus wants to be invited, and if invited he will be there; for he loves even the best earthly illustration of the loving connection between himself and his bride, the Church.
2. Many invite Jesus to their scenes of sorrow, but not to their scenes of joy. He shall perform all the drudgeries of life, but not mingle with any of its luxuries. He is invited to the sick and death bed, but not to the marriage feast. This is neither kind nor wise. Let us remember that he can enjoy as well as suffer and pity. He can rejoice with those that rejoice, as well as weep with those that weep. And if we invite him to the sunshine of marriage, we have claim on his presence in the gloom of dissolution.
3. Those who invite him to their marriage feast will be amply repaid here and hereafter. He will have his marriage feast soon the grandest and happiest marriage that ever occurred in the universe, and the most sumptuous and lasting feast. With regard to those who invited him, he will certainly return the compliment, and invite them; "and blessed are they who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
4. There is infinite glory as well as grace in Christ. Let faith help herself. Faith drew out the miracle, and the miracle drew out faith, and both met in glory. "Draw out now, says Jesus. It is water. Yes, but draw out, and it will be wine. The quality and quantity of blessings depend on the quality and quantity of faith. Jesus is fail. "Draw out now. B.T.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Ver. 11. The beginning of miracles.
I THE OCCASION. It is possible, of course, to lay too much stress on the circumstances and nature of the first sign Jesus gave respecting his own character and mission; but it is better to go to the extreme in this direction that. to pretend that this beginning has no significance at all. Nothing would have been easier than to let the wedding feast pass over without exercise of the special power of Jesus. What necessity could there be for guests having wine rather than water? But if we speak thus, what necessity was there for any of the miracles of Jesus? They helped just one here and there out of the vast mass of needy ones. Jesus looks with a kindly eye on the innocent pleasures of men. His disciples had been disciples of John the Baptist, and John was an ascetic, a Nazarite, a man of the wilderness; and now that these disciples of John had become disciples of Jesus, they cannot learn too soon that their new Teacher proceeds by different methods from those of John. Not that blame of John is thereby implied. John had his own work to do in his own way, and Jesus had his work to do in his way. Jesus will become all things to all men, that he may save some. He cannot truly weep with the weeping unless he can also rejoice with the rejoicing. He takes men as they are, and tries to get hold of them by some timely service. It is a Christian act to increase the innocent pleasures of the world. Where the cup of gladness is not full, Jesus will fill it. The good of this miracle is made manifest as one considers what an effectual protest it is against those who would make religion the necessary enemy of deep-rooted social customs. Here were a bride and bridegroom, to whom the more serious side of life would come soon enough. For the present they desire their wedding feast to pass off creditably. Is it not likely they would feel somewhat humiliated to think the provisions were running short? and was it not, then, a worthy aim in Jesus to make every one satisfied, and at the same time to give an opportunity for the whole neighbourhood to be impressed by his power?
II THE MIRACLE ITSELF must be looked at along with the feeding of the multitudes. Jesus does not create wine or create bread. He has visible material before him, and to it he adds what makes it sufficient for the need. But we must believe that he adds what he finds elsewhere in the world. He makes available, in his own way, stores already existing. We toil and wait, and the results of our operations are bread and wine. Jesus, if needful, can bring the same results without any toiling or waiting. His sphere is eternity. We can do nothing without time for a settled order of processes; but whatever Jesus can do at all, he can do at once. Really he was doing in a moment what he does with every vine, with every grape, only he does it by agencies stretching over a longer period. Y. Vers. 12-22. (2) The second sign Supremacy over the theocratic house. Illustrations of righteousness, reverence, power, and sacrificial ministry.
Vers. 12, 13. They abode there not many days. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. The narrative at ver. 22; Joh_3:22 Joh 4:1, Joh_4:27, etc., shows, that some disciples were with him; but there is no reason for believing that the whole group were there. The fact is important that Jesus personally is said (anebh) to have gone up to Jerusalem, and that no reference is made to his disciples, mother, or brethren doing so. This undoubtedly assumes that he was not attended by any compact group of followers. It is more than probable that Simon and James, if not Nathanael and Philip, remained in Galilee to receive their final call in due season. One cannot doubt that John and Andrew were his auditors and witnesses. He went up to utter his prophetic summons to the metropolis of the nation, to take his place in the palace temple of his Father, in the centre of the old theocracy. After showing his perfect human sympathy, his power over physical nature, his abounding resources, and the glory of his love, he resolved that there should be no misunderstanding of his moral mission, and proceeded to institute a public demonstration of his loyalty to the theocracy, to the temple, and to its worship. Just at the moment when the One who, greater than the temple, was about to display his unique claims to a service which would outlive all the pomp of temple worship, it was profoundly significant that he should demand from it a right presentation, and not a corrupt defilement, of its true significance. Modern criticism refuses to accept the statements of the synoptists and of John as alike true, and endeavours to explain away one or the ether account. We are content to say here that a repetition of the Christ"s claim to sanctify the temple was again made on the eve of that awful day when that blood should be shed which would exhaust all the significance of the hecatombs of victims slain in its precincts, and when the veil of the temple should be rent in twain. Weiss here shows that Baur and Hilgenfeld are inconsistent in repudiating the historical character of an early conflict of Jesus with the authorities at Jerusalem, and that they forget, in their eagerness to demonstrate the anti-Jewish character of the Johannine Christ, that he here is represented as a pious Jew, attending the national festivals and jealous for the honour of the temple. The chronological difficulties that arise if the two cleansings are identified amount to the grossest inaccuracy on the part either of the synoptists or John. Lucke, De Wette, Ewald, treat the synoptists as inaccurate, and John"s account, being that of an eyewitness, as the reduction of the event to its proper place in the history. It is obvious that the synoptists (Mat_26:61 Mar_14:58) knew that words which John recounts had, at an earlier period, made a deep impression upon the multitude. The thief on the cross, (Mat_27:38-44) and the insulting crowds, (Mar_15:27-29) and Stephen afterwards, (Act_6:14) reveal familiarity with an utterance which John alone recounts, but which had been misunderstood. An ingenious writer in the National Review, 1857 (Mr. R.H. Hutton, "Theological Essays"), believes, not only that the entire scene in the temple, but that Christ"s claim to be the Head of the kingdom, the parables of "wicked husbandmen" and "two sons," and the reference to the "baptism of John," should all be transferred, together with the triumphal entry, to the period in which John has placed the first temple cleansing. He thinks that the reference to the "baptism of John" was more reasonable at that period than two years after the death of John, and (Mat_21:11) the reference to "Jesus of Nazareth" was more appropriate at the beginning than at the close of the ministry. But, on the other hand, the inscription on the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth," and the numerous references to the "baptism of John" at a much later date, quite refute this argument. There are those who strenuously assail the historicity of St. John"s account, and plead for the greater accuracy of the synoptists (Strauss, Baur, Hilgenfeld, etc.). But, seeing that the synoptic tradition takes no notice of this preliminary ministry, in which our Lord gives specimens of all his powers and glory, no reason presents itself why they should have singled out one narrative and misplaced it. So long as John"s Gospel is held to have a genuine historicity, his narrative cannot be suffered to be a romantic transposition to meet a preconceived idea of chronological development. The early foreshadowing of the Lord"s death and resurrection, coupled with the reference to Ms being "lifted up" like the serpent of brass, and the cruel treatment received from the people at Nazareth and from scribes and Pharisees at Capernaum, are in living harmony with one another, and combine to refute the idyllic reproduction of the public ministry, which Renan and many others have attempted to fashion, by which the early life is represented as enacted in one blaze of sunshine, and that its close alone was shrouded in clouds and darkened by the Lord"s reckless and suicidal rushing on his fate. We therefore conclude, with numerous critics, that there is
(1) no reason to believe that John misplaced the temple cleansing; and
(2) that he does not preclude the second act of the like kind recorded in the synoptists;
(3) while the synoptists imply occurrences which are detailed in John, but omitted in their narrative, yet the character of the proceeding differs on both occasions.
The transition between private and public life.
Before our Lord entered on his public life at Jerusalem, he goes back, as it were, for a moment into the retirement of his family.
I THE SCENE OF OUR LORD"S VISIT. "After this he went down to Capernaum.
1. It was the Jewish capital of Galilee, down upon the Sea of Tiberias, an important place of commerce.
2. It became, after Nazareth, the home of Jesus. (Mat_4:13) It is called "his own city". (Mat_9:1) On the occasion of the present visit he had come directly from Nazareth, after the Cana miracle.
3. It was a city honoured by the working of many miracles; yet, notwithstanding, distinguished by a most perverse unbelief. "Thou Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be cast down to hell". (Mat_11:23)
4. It is now a ruin, identified as Tell-Hum.
II THE OCCASION AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THIS VISIT. It has a double aspect so far as it relates to Christ"s relatives and to his disciples. "His mother and brethren are still with him, attached merely by nature; his disciples newly attached by faith.
1. Christ recognized the tender ties of kinship. He allowed his mother and his brothers though they did not yet believe in him to enjoy the satisfaction of his society for a time before his entrance upon his public ministry.
(1) The ties of nature are not superseded by the ties of grace.
(2) The ties of nature may themselves be strengthened by the ties of grace. These brethren of Christ, though now in unbelief, are afterwards found as disciples of Christ. (Act_1:14) We ought to love all our relatives in Christ.
2. Christ definitely called the disciples to the apostleship during this visit.
This is evident from Mat_10:1. The call was followed by the miraculous draught of fishes. The disciples were henceforth to follow Christ forever.
Vers. 13-22. Christ in the temple.
He went up straightway to the Passover at Jerusalem, for he honoured every ordinance of the old dispensation so long as it lasted.
I THE ACT OF OUR LORD IN THE TEMPLE. His ministry must open in the temple, which was the sanctuary of Judaism, and it must open with an act of holiness rather than a display of power.
1. His attitude was the subject of prophecy. "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple... he shall purify the sons of Levi". (Mal_3:1-3)
2. It was quite in keeping likewise with the character of him of whom the Baptist said, "Whose fan is in his hand". (Mat_3:12) Christ was about to vindicate the sanctity of his Father"s house by cleansing out the rabble of money-changers and dealers.
II THE TIME OF THIS ACT THE PASSOVER. As one of the great feasts of the Jews, it attracted to Jerusalem the entire people of the country, in their ecclesiastical relationships. His hour was now come.
III THE ACT ITSELF. As to sellers of oxen and sheep and doves, and money changers, "he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers" money, and overthrew the tables.
1. It was an act of supreme courage. The dominant hierarchy, corrupt and faithless as it was, was supported by the public opinion of Jerusalem, and might have crushed this zealot on the spot. Yet our Lord proceeds with the utmost deliberation to the work of purifying the temple with the "whip of cords" in his hand, not wielded as an instrument of offence, but as a symbol of authority. He has, no doubt, the consciousness of a supernatural force that could be put forth in case of need.
2. It was an act of holy zeal. "Make not my Father"s house a house of merchandise.
(1) Eighteen years before he said to his parents, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father"s business?". (Luk_2:49) He now shews his first concern was for the honour of his Father"s house.
(2) Our Lord was indignant because the Jews had made the temple their own house, and desecrated it by making it the instrument of their sordid interests.
(3) He asserts his Divinity in the act of defending the honour of his Father"s house. "He is sustained by the consciousness of his dignity as Son, and his duty as the Messiah.
3. He was supported in his act by the very conscience of the Jews themselves, who knew that he was right and they were wrong.
IV THE EFFECT OF THIS ACT. It had a double effect.
1. Consider its effect upon the disciples.
(1) It suggested an Old Testament prophecy: "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up" (Psalm 69). This implies the familiar acquaintance of the disciples with the Scriptures.
(2) It ministered to their faith. The act of Jesus was in their eyes a sign of Divine holiness. They only understood the true meaning of his words after he had risen from the dead; but "they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." It was the office of the Holy Spirit to bring such words to their recollection.
2. Consider its effect upon the Jews. As soon as they had recovered from the surprise of this sudden act, they began to question its authority. "What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
(1) The question implies that they conceded the lawfulness of his act. But they thought it just to demand his warrant for an act of such independent authority.
(2) Our Lord"s answer to their question. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
(a) The words were naturally taken by the Jews to refer to the temple he had just cleansed. The false witnesses of Christ on his final trial, and Stephen"s accusers, remembered the saying in its literal application. (Mat_26:61 Act_6:14)
(b) But the apostle refers them to "the temple of his own body," which would in three days be raised up again. The apostolic comment is decisive as to their true meaning. But what connection could there be between the temple and his body?
(a) The destruction of the temple was to come about by the slaying of the Messiah: "The Messiah shall be cut off... and the people of a prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary". (Dan_9:26) The death of the Messiah ends the temple; the veil of the temple is rent; there is no more to be a holy place, a priesthood, a sacrifice. The destruction of the temple was destined to be in Christ"s person: "On his body the fatal blow struck by the hand of the Jews would fall, which would lay the sanctuary in ruins.
(b) The restoration of the temple is to come likewise through his body raised from the dead. "The Messiah perishes: the temple falls. The Messiah lives again: the true temple rises on the ruins of the symbolical.
(3) The Jews" rejoinder to our Lord"s statement. "Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?" There is a spirit of raillery in the question. But our Lord gave no answer to their sneering question. It was his habit to deal with men according to what he saw was the state of their hearts.
Vers. 13-17. Genuine zeal.
The conduct of our Lord in the temple reminded the disciples of the words of the psalmist, "The zeal of thine house," etc. They supplied a most appropriate text to the symbolic sermon of our Lord. Genuine religious zeal as illustrated by the conduct of our Lord here. Notice it
I IS THE CHIEF OBJECT OF ITS CONCERN. It is the glory of God and the purity of his house and worship. Under the influence of this zeal:
1. Our relationship to God and his relationship to us are specially felt. It was so in the case of Christ now, and in a special manner he felt and proclaimed God to be his Father. "My Father." Jesus ever felt this relationship; and in the degree in which we are possessed of holy zeal, we shall feel our relationship to God and his to us.
2. God"s relationship to his house is felt. Jesus calls the temple his Father"s house. And so it was. It was his earthly habitation, where his glory should have shone, his Name should be honoured, his worship devotedly observed, and his people abundantly blessed. Holy zeal ever feels God"s relationship to his house, and looks at and speaks of it as the house of God, and not of men.
3. A burning interest in Gods house is felt. Jesus could not look on the temple with indifference; but, feeling God to be his Father, and the temple his Father"s house, as a loving and dutiful Son, he felt an absorbing interest in its welfare. His Father"s house was his own, and their interests and zeal were identical. This holy zeal does not stop with trifles, but is engaged with the highest and most momentous subjects the glory and honour of God, and the purity and success of his cause on earth.
II THIS ZEAL IN CONTACT WITH A GREAT ABUSE. The house of God was made a house of merchandise.
1. This abuse is quickly seen. No sooner had Jesus entered the temple than this terrible abuse attracted his notice. How many were there that saw it not! Coldness of the moral nature results in blindness to moral evil. But where this zeal is present, and burning in the breast, then the moral eye is keen and the moral visions are clear, and iniquities and abuses are quickly seen in their magnitude and horror.
2. This abuse is keenly felt. No sooner seen than fully realized and felt felt as repugnant to Jesus as to God himself, and filled him with feelings of disgust amt indignation. Where this zeal is predominant, not merely the moral eye is keen to discern social and religious evils, but the moral heart is sensitive of their injuriousness and intolerant of their existence.
3. This abuse is unmercifully condemned. Condemned:
(1) As an abuse of the place. Making God"s house a house of merchandise. Merchandise in itself is not condemned. As such it is right and necessary, and was even necessary in connection with the service of the temple, but not in the temple. In the market it is proper; in the house of God it is profanation.
(2) As an abuse of privileges. People professed to come to the temple to worship Jehovah, but Divine worship is exchanged for human business. In our Father"s house we should be about our Father"s business. It is a house of merchandise, but merchandise of a spiritual order not between man and man, but between man and God. It is an exchange, but not that of foreign coins for those of the temple, but an exchange of repentance for forgiveness, faith for Divine justification and peace.
(3) As an insult to God. An insult to his authority, purity, and honour. What an affront to the Lord of the temple! what an insult to the Divine Father, to be turned out of his own home, and what is most distasteful to him, worldliness, admitted instead! and what a breach of trust, what irreligiousness of feelings and conduct, which are unmercifully condemned by holy zeal!
III THIS ZEAL EXERCISED IN THE REFORMATION OF ABUSES. As illustrated in the conduct of our Lord, we see that:
1. It is ever active and aggressive. It does not. remain in mere speech and sentiment, but ever rushes into aggressive action. It can no more remain long in the presence of evil without attacking it, than a hungry lion in the presence of his prey, or a powerful army in the presence of the foe.
2. It is most sweeping in its demands. It will not be satisfied with anything short of a complete reform. Our Lord entered the temple and drove out all that sold oxen, etc., and even the innocent doves had to leave. The language of holy zeal with reheard to social and religious evils, is, "Take these things hence; make not my Father"s house," etc. Between good and evil, truth and error, there is an eternal difference, there can be no compromise; an eternal war, there can be no truce; nothing will satisfy it but a complete surrender.
3. It is intensely earnest. How intensely earnest was our Lord on this occasion! He made a scourge of small cords, a sign, not merely of authority, but also of terrible earnestness. This instrument was not apparently adapted to attain the end in view, but it was the best he could get, and answered his purpose. He wished to destroy the merchandise, not the merchants. Holy zeal, while not regardless of adaptation, will ever use the one available means. It will attack the walls of Jericho with ram"s horns, go forth against the giant with a shepherd"s sling, and clear the temple with a scourge of small cords. The intensely earnest man is never idle for want of suitable weapons.
4. It is heroically courageous. It carries its possessor away to attack foes who from a human point of view he can never hope to vanquish. What was Jesus to the mighty opposition he confronted? He had:
(1) The opposition of interested persons. Those in the trade the host of dealers in oxen, etc.
(2) The opposition of interested patrons. The rulers of the people and the governor of the temple.
(3) The opposition of a consenting and benefited public. The crowd who would be more likely to sympathize with the aristocracy of the place than with the carpenter"s Son of Nazareth. But this combined opposition he fearlessly confronted, and commenced his task almost alone. Holy zeal is ever courageous, and makes its possessor, if not beside himself, far beyond and above himself.
5. This zeal is entirely self-sacrificing. Liberty, personal safety, and even life is set at nought. It was so with Jesus now. He purified his temple at the risk of his life, and at last he gave himself as a sacrifice, not to the fury of his foes, but to the flames of his burning zeal. "The zeal of thy house," etc. And those under its influence are ever ready to sacrifice even life to their master passion and purpose.
IV WE HAVE THIS ZEAL GLORIOUSLY TRIUMPHANT. Our Lord drove out the merchants and their merchandise with scarcely any opposition; and did, as one has said, what a powerful army could not do so quickly and completely. How did this zeal triumph, and how must it ever triumph?
1. By its own inherent strength. It is powerful in itself, even when it has only comparatively weak men as its instruments; but how much more powerful when swaying great and well balanced souls, such as Luther, Wickliffe, Paul, and especially our Lord, who is the Son of God as well as Son of man! In such as these, its voice is thunder, its deeds are lightning, its words are two-edged swords, and its chariots and horses are of fire. Its march is majestic, its consciousness of success is supreme, and, should a cloud appear in its firmament, it must soon vanish before its dazzle. It ever goes forth conquering and to conquer, and in its own energy and majesty is terrible.
2. By the strength and justice of its cause. Its demands are ever reasonable, and its cause is just. Jesus was right, and these merchants and their patrons were wrong, and, in the presence of holy enthusiasm, they felt it. He had a scourge of small cords, but he had a more terrible scourge than this he made a scourge of their guilty consciences, and with it whipped them out. They writhed under the lashes; and corruption slunk away before the majesty of burning holiness; and the unrighteous practice gave way before the heat of embodied justice on fire. Right is ever stronger than wrong, good than evil, and truth than error. Let true principles blaze in the lives and actions of their adherents; they must be triumphant.
3. By its ever-accompanying Divinity. Jesus was a Divine Person, and his act in the temple was miraculous. True; but is not God ever against evil, and on the side of good? Holy zeal is ever accompanied with Divine authority and power; it is really the natural expression of all virtue, the burning presence of holiness, and the flaming manifestation of God"s holy nature, who is a consuming Fire. The act of Christ in the temple was symbolic. God is ever on the side of purity and order, and the feeblest voice raised for them and against evil. God is in that voice, and it must triumph.
LESSONS.
1. Our Lord was a Reformer. One of his first acts was to reform the worship of the temple. His followers should be the same; the disciples should follow their Master, and the motto of their lives should be reform.
2. Before we can be true reformers, we must be inspired with holy and burning zeal. This is an essential element of a reformer, as the revealer of evil and the inspiring motive of attack. Without it we cannot see as Jesus saw, we cannot act as he acted; but with it we shall be true reformers. Jesus will have true representatives, holiness will have a voice, and iniquity a scourge.
3. When holy zeal becomes absorbing and universal, abuses and evils in the Church and the world must retire, and the Church and even the earth will indeed be the house of God and the gate of heaven. B.T.
Vers. 13-22. The honour of the Father"s house.
Going to Jerusalem meant going to the temple, so far as Jesus was concerned. Where could he go more fittingly than to what he calls his Father"s house? Jesus could not but think how often the Divine glory had been manifested in that temple, how many generations of worshippers had trodden its courts, what countless offerings had been presented, what multitudes of beasts had been slain. All places of religious assembly are a grand testimony to man"s need of God. How it must have helped Jesus to direct his ministries, as he observed the people in their professions of approach to their Maker! Consider here
I AN INSTANCE OF THE WRATH OF JESUS, AND WHAT CAUSED IT. Jesus pitied men far oftener than he was angry with them; and yet there were times when not to have been angry would have argued an imperfect sense of right. To be downright angry with a man is sometimes the best way of approaching him for his good. The anger of Jesus on this occasion must have done good. Jesus found buyers and sellers turning a religious duty into a trade transaction. The offering to God was forgotten; only the making of a good bargain was remembered. Both the claims of God and the religious needs of men were utterly neglected.
II AN ABSURD QUESTION AND A PUZZLING ANSWER. When our hearts do not perceive the truth that is laid right before them, then we are very likely to ask absurd questions. The very expelling of the traffickers gave the clearest sign that he who expelled had the right to expel. Still, Jesus can take the greatest absurdities of men as occasions for uttering the profoundest truths. The cleansing of a defiled temple is reckoned an insufficient sign, so now he adds that, if the Jews will give him the opportunity, he will rebuild a destroyed temple. No one understood his meaning at the time; it was enough if people remembered his words. The meaning would appear when it was wanted. "He spake of the temple of his body." Compared with that body, the temple at Jerusalem, in all its glory, beauty, and service, was but a poor, profitless structure. We must ever be on the alert to see realities, and not let our eyes be deceived by mere appearances.
III THE PROMISED SIGN. Note what Christ does not ask for. He does not say, "Defile this temple." It was not in the power of the Jews to defile the temple of the Body of Jesus. The temples of our bodies are more or less defiled to begin with; but there was in Jesus a vital power repelling every taint of disease, and a heart that in its purity kept evil far away. Men could destroy what they could not defile. They were able to take away the natural life of Christ, though they could not lead him into the smallest act of sin. Thus we see how the so called destruction is a small evil compared with defilement. We call it destruction for want of a better word, but it is really glorification and freedom. The building of men, held in such veneration by the Jews, was utterly destroyed before many years had passed away, and no mighty hand was reached down from heaven to put it together again. Its work being done, it was better gone from the sight of men. But these same Jews, not knowing what they were doing, destroyed a temple which God raised again, and raised in a glory and a power which it bad not known before. So may it be with the temple of our body. Service will not cease with the glorified body; it will but rise into higher opportunities and higher joys. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain After this, He went down into Capernaum
Joh_2:12
After this, He went down into Capernaum
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Christ at Capernaum
It is not needful to inquire what His errand was there, and upon what occasion His mother and brethren went with Him; whether because Joseph was new dead, and so He took care of His mother, or because they would convey Him on His way, or because His brethren were to go up to Jerusalem with Him; only this voyage was before that Mat_4:13), when He came to dwell in Capernaum, for then John was cast in prison (Mat_4:12), but now he was not (Joh_3:24).
I. Christ was content to submit Himself to the wanting of a certain abode and settled dwelling in the world, that He might sanctify our pilgrimage and tossed condition to us, and to invite His followers willingly to be removed from place to place, as He hath service for them. So much are we taught by this His removal.
II. Christ hath errands in eminent places as well as obscure, and will not despise them for their eminency more than the base for their baseness; and He can make the work of His kingdom in a land advance from obscure beginnings and places, to be more eminent and conspicuous. So much may we gather from Christs going out of obscure Cana to Capernaum, a chief city in Galilee.
III. As it is wisdom in Christs own to go still in His company, so others also may be with Him so long as His way and theirs lieth together, or when He is working gloriously and His gospel hath credit; for, after this miracle, we find not only His mother and disciples, but His brethren or kinsfolk with Him, who yet believed not in Him (Joh_7:5).
IV. Christ may stay longer or shorter while, and do little or much in a place, as He pleaseth; and particularly He stayeth or removeth according as may contribute to advance the great work of His glory and of sinners salvation; for He continued there not many days, as having more to do at this time in Jerusalem. (D. Dyke.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 6
Chapter 6
THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE.
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After this He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples: and there they abode not many days. And the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and He made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the changers money, and overthrew their tables; and to them that sold the doves He said, Take these things hence; make not My Fathers house a house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house shall eat me up. The Jews therefore answered and said unto Him, What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou raise it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body. When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He spake this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.- Joh_2:12-22.
Whether the Nazareth family returned from Cana to their own town before going down to Capernaum, John does not inform us. Neither are we told why they went to Capernaum at all at this time. It may have been in order to join one of the larger caravans going up to Jerusalem for the approaching Feast. Not only the disciples, some of whom had their homes on the lake-side, accompanied Jesus, but also His mother and His brothers. The manner in which the brothers are spoken of in connection with His mother suggests that He and they bore to her the same relation. They remained in Capernaum not many days, because the Passover was at hand. Having come to Jerusalem, and appearing there for the first time since His baptism, He performed several miracles. These John omits, and selects as more significant and worthy of record one authoritative act.
The circumstances which occasioned this act were familiar to the Jerusalem Jew. The exigencies of Temple worship had bred a flagrant abuse. Worshippers coming from remote parts of the Holy Land, and from countries beyond, found it a convenience to be able to purchase on the spot the animals used in sacrifice, and the material for various offerings-salt, meal, oil, frankincense. Traders were not slow to supply this demand, and vying with one another they crept nearer and nearer to the sacred precincts, until some, under pretence perhaps of driving in an animal for sacrifice, made a sale within the outer court. This court had an area of about fourteen acres, and was separated from the inner court by a wall breast high, and bearing intimations which forbade the encroachment of Gentiles on pain of death. Round this outer court ran marble colonnades, richly ornamented and supported by four rows of pillars, and roofed with cedar, affording ample shade to the traders.
There were not only cattle-dealers and sellers of pigeons, but also money-changers; for every Jew had to pay to the Temple treasury an annual tax of half a shekel, and this tax could be paid only in the sacred currency. No foreign coin, with its emblem of submission to an alien king, was allowed to pollute the Temple. Thus there came to be need of money-changers, not only for the Jew who had come up to the feast from a remote part of the empire, but even for the inhabitant of Palestine, as the Roman coinage had displaced the shekel in ordinary use.
There might seem, therefore, to be room to say much in favour of this convenient custom. At any rate, it was one of those abuses which, while they may shock a fresh and unsophisticated mind, are allowed both because they contribute to public convenience and because they have a large pecuniary interest at their back. In point of fact, however, the practice gave rise to lamentable consequences. Cattle-dealers and money-changers have always been notorious for making more than their own out of their bargains, and facts enough are on record to justify our Lord calling this particular market a den of thieves. The poor were shamefully cheated, and the worship of God was hindered and impoverished instead of being facilitated and enriched. And even although this traffic had been carried on under careful supervision, and on unimpeachable principles, still it was unseemly that the worshipper who came to the Temple seeking quiet and fellowship with God should have to push his way through the touts of the dealers, and have his devotional temper dissipated by the wrangling and shouting of a cattle market. Yet although many must have lamented this, no one had been bold enough to rebuke and abolish the glaring profanation.
Jesus on entering the Temple finds Himself in the midst of this incongruous scene-the sounds and movements of a market, the loud and eager exclamations of competing traders, the bustle of selecting one animal out of a flock, the loud talk and laughter of the idle groups of onlookers. Jesus cannot stand it. Zeal for the honour of His Fathers house possesses Him. The Temple claims Him as its vindicator from abuse. Nowhere can He more appropriately assert His authority as Messiah. Out of the cords lying about He quickly knots together a formidable scourge, and silently, leaving the public conscience to justify His action, He proceeds single-handed to drive out cattle and traders together. A scene of violence ensued,-the cattle rushing hither and thither, the owners trying to preserve their property, the money-changers holding their tables as Jesus went from one to another upsetting them, the scattered coin scrambled for; and over all the threatening scourge and the commanding eye of the Stranger. Never on any other occasion did our Lord use violence.
The audacity of the act has few parallels. To interfere in the very Temple with any of its recognized customs was in itself a claim to be King in Israel. Were a stranger suddenly to appear in the lobby of the House of Commons, and by sheer dignity of demeanour, and the force of integrity, to rectify an abuse of old standing involving the interests of a wealthy and privileged class, it could not create a greater sensation. The Baptist might be with Him, cowing the truculent with his commanding eye; but there was no need of the Baptist: the action of Christ awakening conscience in the men themselves was enough to quell resistance.
No doubt Jesus began His work at the house of God because He knew that the Temple was the real heart of the nation; that it was belief in God which was their strength and hope, and that the loss of that belief, and the consequent irreverence and worldliness, were the most dangerous features of Jewish society. The state of matters He found in the Temple could not have been tolerated had the people really believed God was present in the Temple.
Such an act could not pass without being criticised. It would be keenly discussed that evening in Jerusalem. At every table it would be the topic of conversation, and a most serious one wherever men in authority were meeting. Many would condemn it as a piece of pharisaic ostentation. If He is a reformer, why does He not turn His attention to the licentiousness of the people? Why show such extravagant and unseemly zeal about so innocent a custom when flagrant immoralities abound? Why not spend His zeal in clearing out from the land the polluting foreigner? Such charges are easy. No man can do everything, least of all can he do everything at once. And yet the advocate of temperance is twitted with his negligence of other causes which are perhaps as necessary; and he who pleads for foreign missions is reminded that we have heathen at home. These are the carping criticisms of habitual fault-finders, and of men who have no hearty desire for the advancement of what is good.
Others, again, who approved the act could not reconcile themselves to the manner of it. Might it not have been enough to have pointed out the abuse, and to have made a strong representation to the authorities? Was it fair to step in and usurp the authority of the Sanhedrim or Temple officials? Was it consistent with prophetic dignity to drive out the offenders with His own hand? Even those most friendly to Him may have felt a little jarred as they saw Him with uplifted scourge and flaming eyes violently driving before Him men and beasts. But they remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house will consume Me. They remembered perhaps how the most popular king of Israel had danced before the ark, to the scandal indeed of dull-souled conventionalists, but with the approval of all clear-seeing and spiritually-judging men. They might also have remembered how the last of their prophecies had said, Behold, the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple. But who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth?
This zeal at once explained and justified His action. Some abuses may be reformed by appeal to the constituted authorities; others can be abolished only by the blazing indignation of a righteous soul who cannot longer endure the sight. This zeal, conquering all consideration of consequences and regard to appearances, acts as a cleansing fire, sweeping before it what is offensive. It has always its own risks to run: the authorities at Jerusalem never forgave Jesus this first interference. By reforming an abuse they should never have allowed, He damaged them in the eyes of the people, and they could never forget it. Zeal also runs the risk of acting indiscreetly and taking too much upon it. In itself zeal is a good thing, but it does not exist in itself. It exists in a certain character, and where the character is imperfect or dangerous the zeal is imperfect or dangerous. The zeal of the proud or selfish man is mischievous, the zeal of the ignorant fraught with disaster. Still, with all risks, give us by all means rather the man who is eaten up, possessed and carried away, by a passionate sympathy with the oppressed and neglected, or with unquenchable zeal for rectitude and honourable dealing or for the glory of God, than the man who can stand and be a spectator of wrong because it is no business of his to see that injustice be withstood, who can connive at unrighteous practices because their correction is troublesome, invidious, hazardous. He who lays a sudden hand on wrong-doing may have no legal authority to plead in his defence when challenged, but to all good men such an act justifies itself. It was a similar zeal which at all times governed Christ. He could not stand by and wash His hands of other mens sins. It was this which brought Him to the cross, this which in the first place brought Him to this world at all. He had to interfere. Zeal for His fathers glory, zeal for God and man, possessed Him.
It was therefore no concern of Jesus to make Himself very intelligible to those who could not understand the action itself and demanded a sign. They did not understand His answer; and it was not intended they should. Frequently our Lords answers are enigmatical. Men have opportunity to stumble over them, if they will. For frequently they asked foolish questions, which admitted only of such answers. The present question, What sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things? was absurd. It was to ask for a light to see light with, a sign of a sign. His zeal for God that carried the crowd before it, and swept Gods house clean of the profane, was the best proof of His authority and Messiahship. But there was one sign which He could promise them without violating His principle to do no miracle merely for the sake of convincing reluctant minds. There was one sign which formed an integral part of His work; a sign which He must work, irrespective of its effect on their opinion of Him-the sign of His own Resurrection. And therefore, when they ask Him for a sign of His authority to reform the abuses of the Temple, He promises them this sign, that He will raise the Temple again when they destroy it. If He can give them a Temple He has authority in it. Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
What did He mean by this enigmatical saying, which not even His disciples understood till long afterwards? We cannot doubt that in their resistance to His first public act, righteous and necessary, and welcome to all right-hearted men, as it was, He plainly saw the symptom of a deep-seated hatred of all reform, which would lead them on to reject His whole work. He had meditated much on the tone of the authorities, on the religious state of His country-what young man of thirty with anything in him has not done so? He had made up His mind that He would meet with opposition at every point, and that while a faithful few would stand by Him, the leaders of the people would certainly resist and destroy Him. Here in His very first act He is met by the spirit of hatred, and jealousy, and godlessness which was at last to compass His death. But His rejection He also knew was to be the signal for the downfall of the nation. In destroying Him He knew they were destroying themselves, their city, their Temple. As Daniel had long ago said, The Messiah shall be cut off ... and the people of a prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.
To Himself therefore His words had a very definite meaning: Destroy this Temple, as you certainly will by disowning My authority and resisting My acts of reform, and at length crucifying Me, and in three days I will raise it. As by denying My authority and crucifying My Person you destroy this house of My Father, so by My resurrection will I put men in possession of Gods true dwelling-place, and introduce a new and spiritual worship. It is in Christs person this great drama is enacted. The Messiah perishes: the Temple falls. The Messiah lives again: the true Temple rises on the ruins of the symbolical temple. For in the kingdom of God there is no simple restoration. Every revival is at the same time an advance (Godet). A living Temple is better than a Temple of stone. Human nature itself, possessed and inspired by the Divine, that is the true Temple of God.
This sign was in two years given to them. As Jesus drew His last breath on the cross the veil of the Temple was rent. There was no longer anything to veil; the unapproachable glory was for ever gone. The Temple in which God had so long dwelt was now but a shell, mocking and pathetic in the extreme, as the clothes of a departed friend, or as the familiar dwelling that remains itself the same but changed to us for ever. The Jews in crucifying the Messiah had effectually destroyed their Temple. A few years more and it was in ruins, and has been so ever since. That building which had once the singular, wonderful dignity of being the spot where God was specially to be found and to be worshipped, and where He dwelt upon earth in a way apprehensible by men, was from the hour of Christs death doomed to vacuity and destruction.
But in three days a new and better Temple was raised in Christs body, glorified by the presence of the indwelling God. Forty and six years had the Jews spent in rearing the magnificent pile that astonished and awed their conquerors. They had thus themselves rebuilt more splendidly the Temple of Solomon. But to rebuild the Temple they destroyed in crucifying the Lord was beyond them. The sign of rebuilding their Temple of marble, which they scouted as a ridiculous extravagance, was really a far less stupendous and infinitely less significant sign than that which He actually gave them in rising from the dead. If it was impossible to rear that magnificent fabric in three days, yet something might be done towards it: but towards the raising of the dead body of Christ nothing could be done by human skill, diligence, or power.
But it is not the stupendous difficulty of this sign which should chiefly engage our attention. It is rather its significance. Christ rose from the dead, not to startle godless and truth-hating men into faith, but to furnish all mankind with a new and better Temple, with the means of spiritual worship and constant fellowship with God. There was a necessity for the resurrection. Those who became intimately acquainted with Christ slowly but surely became aware that they found more of God in Him than ever they had found in the Temple. Gradually they acquired new thoughts about God; and instead of thinking of Him as a Sovereign veiled from the popular gaze in the hidden Holy of holies, and receiving through consecrated hands the gifts and offering of the people, they learned to think of Him as a Father, to whom no condescension was too deep, no familiarity with men too close. Unconsciously to themselves, apparently, they began to think of Christ as the true Revealer of God, as the living Temple who at all hours gave them access to the living God. But not till the Resurrection was this transference complete-nay, so fixed had their hearts been, in common with all Jewish hearts, upon the Temple, that not until the Temple was destroyed did they wholly grasp what was given them in the Resurrection of Jesus. It was the Resurrection which confirmed their wavering belief in Him as the Son of God. As Paul says, it was the resurrection which declared Him to be the Son of God with power. Being the Son of God, it was impossible He should be held by death. He had come to the Temple calling it by an unheard-of name, My Fathers house. Not Moses, not Solomon, not Ezra, not the holiest of high priests, would have dreamt of so identifying himself with God as to speak of the Temple, not even as our Fathers house or your Fathers house, but my Fathers house. And it was the Resurrection which finally justified His doing so, declaring Him to be, in a sense no other was, the Son of God.
But it was not in the body of Christ that God found His permanent dwelling among men. This sacred presence was withdrawn in order to facilitate the end God has from the first had in view, the full indwelling and possession of each and all men by His Spirit. This intimate fellowship with all men, this free communication of Himself to all, this inhabitation of all souls by the ever-living God, was the end aimed at by all that God has done among men. His dwelling among men in the Temple at Jerusalem, His dwelling among men in the living Person of Christ, were preliminary and preparatory to His dwelling in men individually. Ye, says Paul, are built up a spiritual house. Ye are builded together for a habitation of God. Ye are the temple of the living God. This is the great reality towards which men have been led by symbol-the complete pervasion of all intelligence and of all moral beings by the Spirit of God.
For us this cleansing of the Temple is a sign. It is a sign that Christ really means to do thoroughly the great work He has taken in hand. Long ago had it been said, Behold the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. He was to come where holiness was professed, and to sift the true from the false, the worldly and greedy religious from the devoted and spiritual. He was not to make pretence of doing so, but actually to accomplish the separation. To reform abuses such as this marketing in the Temple was no pleasant task. He had to meet the gaze and defy the vindictiveness of an exasperated mob; He had to make enemies of a powerful class in the community. But He does what is called for by the circumstances: and this is but a part and a sample of the work He does always. Always He makes thorough, real work. He does not blink the requirements of the case. We shrug our shoulders and pass by where matters are difficult to mend; we let the flood take its course rather than risk being carried away in attempting to stem it. Not so Christ. The Temple was shortly to be destroyed, and it might seem to matter little what practices were allowed in it; but the sounds of bargaining and the greedy eye of trade could not be suffered by Him in His Fathers house: how much more shall He burn as a consuming fire when He cleanses that Church for which He gave Himself that it might be without spot or blemish. He will cleanse it. We may yield ourselves with gladness to His sanctifying power, or we may rebelliously question His authority; but cleansed the house of God must be.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 12. After this he went down to Capernaum. From…
12. After this he went down to Capernaum. From the hilly region of Cana to the low-lying shore of the Sea of Galilee. His mother and his brethren. Catholics and some Protestants have held that these “brethren” were not brothers in the flesh, but kinsmen. The phrase, “his brethren,” occurs nine times in the Gospels, and once in Acts. The natural interpretation is always that they were his brothers, sons of Mary. Two places (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3) mention his sisters. Had it not been for the dogma that Mary remained a virgin, a dogma that has no foundation in the Scriptures, it would never have been doubted that these “brethren” and “sisters” were her children.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XXIII. First Residence…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [XXIII. First Residence at Capernaum].
XXIII. JESUS' FIRST RESIDENCE AT CAPERNAUM. dJOHN II. 12.
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d12 After this he went down to Capernaum [The site of Capernaum is generally conceded to be marked by the ruins now called Tel-Hum. Jesus is said to have gone "down" because Cana is among the hills, and Capernaum was by the Lake of Galilee, about six hundred feet below sea level], he, and his mother, and i his brethren, and his disciples [There is much dispute as to what the New Testament writers mean by the phrase the "brethren of the Lord." This phrase, found in any other than a Jewish book, would be taken to mean either the full or half brothers of Jesus, and it has probably that meaning here. The Catholic Church, contending for the perpetual virginity of our Lord's mother, has argued that his brethren were either the sons of Joseph by a former marriage, or that they were sons of Alphæus (also called Clopas) and a sister of our Lord's mother, who, like her, was also called Mary ( Joh_19:25). This latter view is based upon the fact that two of the sons of Alphæus bear the same names as those borne by two of our Lord's brethren, which is far more conclusive, since the names James and Judas were extremely common. Moreover, we learn from Joh_7:5, that the Lord's brethren did not believe on him, and [119] harmonists place the time of this unbelief late in our Lord's ministry, when the sons of Alphæus were not only believers, but some of them even apostles. Our Lord's brethren are mentioned nine times in the New Testament, and a study of these references will give us some light. Three of them, viz.: Joh_7:3, Joh_7:5, Joh_7:10, 1Co_9:5, Gal_1:19, are rather noncommittal. The other six ( Mat_12:46, Mat_13:55, Mar_3:32, Mar_6:3, Luk_8:19, Luk_8:20, Joh_2:12) speak of his brethren in connection with his mother, and strongly indicate that Jesus was the first-born son of Mary, and that she had at least four other sons, besides daughters. These brethren of Jesus are constantly represented as attending his mother, without a hint that they were not her children. Against this conclusion there is but one argument which has any force; namely, that our Lord committed his mother into the keeping of the apostle John, rather than to his brethren ( Joh_19:25-27), but this fact may be easily accounted for. Many mothers are but scantily and grudgingly supported by their sons]; and there they abode not many days. [Because the passover was at hand, and he went up to Jerusalem. This notice of the brief sojourn of Jesus at Capernaum throws light on several things: 1. It shows where Jesus spent most of his time between his baptism and the first passover. 2. It helps to explain how the nobleman, who afterwards sought him at Cana, became acquainted with him. 3. It prepares us to look for his first visit to Nazareth at a later period. 4. It also explains why Jesus sought Capernaum as his place of residence after leaving Nazareth. Moreover, it shows that the natural ties of kindred were not immediately snapped by Christ. Until he went up to the first passover, he abode with his mother and his brethren.] [120]
[FFG 119-120]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain The First Purging of the Temple and Its Results.
The First Purging of the Temple and Its Results.
A brief stay at Capernaum:
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v. 12. After this He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples; and they continued there not many days.
John, in accordance with his purpose of supplementing the account of the first three gospels, has only brief references to the Galilean ministry of Jesus, narrating here only the important point that Jesus made Capernaum His second home. The location of this city on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, on the chief caravan road between Damascus and the Mediterranean Sea, made it a distributing center, a nucleus for all Galilee. The Apostle Paul followed Jesus in this, that he made the chief cities the centers of influence for his missionary work. Jesus was not alone on this trip. His mother Mary accompanied Him, as also the few disciples whom He had gained in Judea, who at this time, or shortly after, returned to their former occupation. His brothers are here mentioned with great definiteness. See Mat 12:46; Mat 1:25. "Here people are concerned how Christ the Lord could have had brothers, since He was the only son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary was not the mother of any more children. Therefore some say that Joseph, before he married Mary, had a wife, of whom he begot children, who were afterwards called brothers of Christ the Lord; or that Joseph had another wife in addition to Mary, which was permitted to the Jews that they had two wives at the same time... Since, then, these were begotten of Joseph and the other woman, they would be half-brothers of Jesus. This some have alleged; but I prefer to take the part of those that say that brothers here means cousins; for the Jews and the Scripture call cousins brothers. But let this be as it may be, not much depends upon it; it gives nothing to faith, nor does it take anything from faith, whether they were cousins or brothers, begotten of Joseph; they went down with Him to Capernaum."
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 went down
went down
This indicates that they went from a higher place to a lower place. Capernaum is northeast of Cana and is at a lower elevation.
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his brothers
The word "brothers" includes both brothers and sisters. All Jesus' brothers and sisters were younger than he was.
translationWords
Mary
brother
disciple
Capernaum
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.