He made a whip of cords and drove all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers’ money and overthrew their tables.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 15. He drove them all out of the temple. According to Saint John Chrysostom (hom. lxvii in Matt.) this casting out was different from that which is there related, chapter 21 verse 12. Witham.—How could the Son of the carpenter, Joseph, whose divinity was yet unknown to the people, succeed in expelling so great a multitude from the temple! There was undoubtedly something divine in his whole conduct and appearance, which deterred all from making resistance. The evangelist seems to insinuate this by putting these words: “The house of my Father,” into our Saviour’s mouth, which was making himself immediately the Son of God. This made Origen consider this miracle, in overcoming the unruly dispositions of so many, as a superior manifestation of power to what he had shewn in changing the nature of water at Cana. A.—Jesus Christ here shews the respect he requires should be shewn to the temple of God; and Saint Paul, speaking of the profaners of God’s Church, saith: If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy. 1 Corinthians 3:17. Which in a spiritual sense may be understood of the soul of man, which is the living temple of the living God. A.