MARK 11:15 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;”
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves — the temple cleansing has been the intended action since the survey of verse 11. The driving out, overturning, and scattering of the commercial operations in the temple courts is a prophetic action — a dramatic enactment of the temple's corruption and the judgment it faces. The money changers and dove sellers occupied the Court of the Gentiles — the only area available to non-Jews for prayer.
Church Fathers on Mark 11:15
What the Lord had done in figure, when He cursed the barren fig tree, He now shews more openly, by casting out the wicked from the temple. For the fig tree was not in fault, in not having fruit before its time, but the priests were blameable; wherefore it is said, 'And they come to Jerusalem; and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple.' Nevertheless, it is probable that He found them buying and selling in the temple things…
He calls moneychangers, changers of a particular sort of money, for the word means a small brass coin.
[This] according to Isaiah [Isa 56:7]. 'But ye have made it a den of thieves,' according to Jeremiah. [Jer 7:11]
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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