Cleansing of the Temple
The cleansing of the Temple, in which the Christ expelled the merchants and money changers from the Temple in Jerusalem because it was to remain reserved for worship as a "house of prayer", is described in all four gospels (Matthew 21:12ff, Mark 11:15ff, Luke 19:45ff, John 2:13–16), but with different chronology. While it is mentioned very early in John's Gospel, the Synoptics place it only at the beginning of the Holy Week.
Gospel of John
In the Gospel of John, the expulsion from the Temple is reported in the 2nd chapter directly after the wedding at Cana and is thus still at the very beginning of Christ's earthly ministry. Here it also becomes clear that the Christ in truth meant the temple of his body and had already proclaimed his resurrection in advance.
„13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.“
Rudolf Steiner illuminates the background:
„The writer of the Gospel of John tells us how he appears as the temple cleanser to those who pay homage to egoism and desecrate the temple by selling all kinds of things in it. Thus he gains the possibility of saying that now he has made the astral body so powerful that, if the physical body decayed, he would be able to build it up again in three days.“ (Lit.:GA 112, p. 193)
The astral body of the Christ had in the meantime already become so powerful that it could move freely outside the physical and etheric body. This made it possible for him to visit the initiate Nicodemus "by night", i.e. outside the body. The expression "by night" is chosen because the I and the astral body are (partially) outside the body at night in sleep, albeit unconsciously. The Christ, however, could move freely outside his body in his astral body consciously and willingly.
„This indicates that this shell, which has been sacrificed to him, now has the power to direct this physical body in such a way that it is master in this physical body. But then this body, which has now become so free, can move everywhere independently of the laws of the physical world, then this body, regardless of the other laws of the space world, can bring about and direct events in the spiritual world. Does it do this? Yes. This is indicated to us in the chapter that follows the chapter on the cleansing of the temple.
"Now there was a certain man among the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; who came to Jesus by night, and spoke unto him..." (John 3:1–2)
Why does it say "by night"? It is of course the most trivial explanation imaginable to say that the Jew was only afraid to come to Jesus in broad daylight and sneaked in through the window by night. Of course, anyone can give such an explanation. "By night" means nothing else here than that this meeting between the Christ and Nicodemus took place in the astral world, in the spiritual world, and not in the surroundings in which one is in ordinary daytime consciousness. That is to say, the Christ could now negotiate with Nicodemus outside the physical body, "by night," when the physical body is not present, when the astral body is outside the physical body and the etheric body.“ (Lit.:GA 112, p. 194)
Gospel of Matthew and Luke
According to Matthew and Luke, the cleansing of the Temple took place immediately after Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, that is, while it was still Palm Sunday.
„45 And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” 47 And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, 48 but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.“
„10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” 12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.“
It was not until the morning of the following day that the cursing of the fig tree took place, according to Matthew:
„18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.“
Gospel of Mark
In the Gospel of Mark, the expulsion from the temple does not take place until Holy Monday and is framed by the description of the cursing of the fig tree:
„Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”“
Literature
- Rudolf Steiner: Das Johannes-Evangelium im Verhältnis zu den drei anderen Evangelien, GA 112 (1984), ISBN 3-7274-1120-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
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References
- ↑ Shimon Gibson: Die sieben letzten Tage Jesu. Die archäologischen Tatsachen. München 2010, p. 66; dgl. Martin Stowasser: Jesu Konfrontation mit dem Tempelbetrieb von Jerusalem – ein Konflikt zwischen Religion und Ökonomie? Berlin 2007, p. 42.
