The Meaning of Jesus' Cleansing of the Temple

I was asked the following questions about Jesus' cleansing of the Temple.

“You mentioned the Temple cleansing(s). What do you make of Jesus's words/actions there?

And the post-exilic Jews did not believe God was at the Temple?”

Here are my replies.

I think the Temple cleansing (Matt 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–48) was a prophetic act symbolizing and proclaiming imminent judgment. Jesus quotes from two Old Testament prophecies: Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. The first verse is from a prophetic oracle about God bringing together Gentiles, foreigners, eunuchs, and outcasts from all the world, from all nations, to worship him, not excluding anyone because of their ethnicity or station in life. That’s God’s intention for the Temple. If you read the entire prophetic oracle of Jeremiah 7 though, you learn that it’s about God preparing to bring down judgment upon the whole of Judah for its sins against God and man. This prophecy was fulfilled with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE.

Put together with his actions to temporarily halt the legitimate business of the Temple, it seems that Jesus’ intention was to enact a prophetic oracle announcing God’s imminent judgment upon the Temple itself and Israel in general. This prophecy was fulfilled with the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. This interpretation is strengthened by the episode being bracketed by Jesus’ withering of the fig tree for not bearing fruit (Mark 11:12-14, 20-12). God is visiting his chosen people and they have not borne fruit. Note, many of Jesus’ parables are about an authority figure returning to check up on his subordinates (Mark 12:1-11; 13:33-37; Matt 25:14-30).

Now both the Greek version of Jeremiah 7:11 and in Mark 11:17, the word used for robbers/thieves is lestes. In Mark 14:48, when the crowds come to arrest Jesus and take him to be crucified, Jesus says, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me, as you would against a robber (lestes)?” In Mark 15:27, it is recorded that “They crucified two robbers (lestes) with him, one on his right and one on his left.”

The Romans put Jesus to death between two robbers or brigands, all deemed revolutionary by Roman authorities and deserving of a death reserved for those who went up against the Empire and were to be made an example to everyone else (Mark 15:7). This was the same death that Roman meted out to the Jews who revolted during the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE) when Roman soldiers were crucifying upwards of 500 Jews a day and when the Temple was permanently destroyed. It was general and future Caesar, Titus, who refused to accept the wreath of victory for winning the war, saying, “There is no merit in vanquishing a people forsaken by their own God."

On a certain level, Jesus’ crucifixion was a final enacted parable showing what the final exile would look like. It would be Rome destroying the Temple and the Jewish people as a nation and crucifying them like revolutionary robbers (lestes). When Jesus is carrying his cross and the woman wail, he replies, “Do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children … For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:26-31). Basically, Jesus is saying, “If the Romans are doing this to one who is innocent, what do you think they will do to those who truly are guilty of insurrection.”

Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is him proclaiming destruction because God’s people were exclusionary, violent revolutionaries. This is why when Jesus approaches Jerusalem, all he can do is weep that they didn’t accept peace (Luke 19:41-44). This is why many of Jesus’ teachings are about peace and loving enemies (Matt 5-7); yes, they were eternal truths, but they also had immediate, urgent applications.

Whether or not post-Exilic Jews believed God was at the Temple is a matter of debate. The OT prophetic writings definitely say that God left the Temple (Ezek 10); that was why Babylon could destroy it. There isn’t any indication that he ever returned. The Temple was rebuilt (Ezra 6:15-16), but there’s no story of the glory returning as when it first came (2 Chronicles 7:1). The departure of God was one of the consequences of the exile, but it’s also the case that, while the physical exile ended, a spiritual exile continued (Deut 30; Ezra 9:7; Neh 9:36-37; Dan 9:24-25), though this is also hotly debated. For the first century Jew, the biggest indication that exile was still in effect and God had not returned would be that Israel was under foreign, pagan rule. This is why I lean against the idea that there was a general Jewish belief that God was currently residing in the Temple in the first century CE.