MARK 11:18 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.”
The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching — the response of the religious establishment to the temple cleansing is the same as their response to the first healing in the synagogue (Mark 3:6) — a plot to kill. They feared him because of the crowd: the establishment's fear is not theological but political. The crowd's amazement at the teaching is the protection that prevents immediate action.
Church Fathers on Mark 11:18
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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