Chapter LXVII.-Of the Expulsion of the Sellers and
Buyers from the Temple, and of the Question as to the Harmony Between the
First Three Evangelists and John, Who Relates the Same Incident in a Widely
Different Connection.
129. Matthew goes on with his narrative in the following terms: "And
when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is
this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of
Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that
sold and bought in the temple." and so on, down to where we read, "But
ye have made it a den of thieves." This account of the multitude of sellers
who were cast out of the temple is given by all the evangelists; but John
introduces it in a remarkably different order.479 For, after
recording the testimony borne by John the Baptist to Jesus, and mentioning
that He went into Galilee at the time when He turned the water into wine,
and after he has also noticed the sojourn of a few days in Capharnaum,
John proceeds to tell us that He went up to Jerusalem at the season of
the Jews' passover, and when He had made a scourge of small cords, drove
out of the temple those who were selling in it. This makes it evident that
this act was performed by the Lord not on a single occasion, but twice
over; but that only the first instance is put on record by John, and the
last by the other three.
479 Matt. xxi. 10-13; Mark xi. 15-17; Luke xix. 45, 46; John
ii. 1-17.
