business seems to have been carried on in the “Court of the Gentiles,” an area beyond which Gentiles were not permitted to go, into the forecourts and the sanctuary, lest they face the death penalty. The ongoing business and profit making consequently prevented the Gentiles from entry into the temple to pray and worship,11 although the temple was to be the house of prayer for “all nations” (Mark 11:17). John’s phrase “a house of trade” alludes to Zech 14:21, where it appears in the context of Zechariah’s prophecy about coming of the non-Jews into the temple to worship Yahweh the King (Zech 14:16–17). Thus, one of the reasons, if not the sole reason,12 for Jesus’ vehement action was the preventing of Gentiles by the Jewish authorities from entering the court by making it a commercial place.
The narrator comments that Jesus’ disciples remembered what is written in the Scripture, “The zeal for your house will consume me” (John 2:17; cf. Ps 69:9). They realized that Jesus’ vehement action to preserve the purification of the house of the Lord was due to his consuming zeal for the Father’s house (cf. Luke 2:49). Psalm 69 actually speaks of the suffering of a righteous one and it was used by first-century Christians to proclaim the suffering and death of Jesus (cf. Ps 69:21 with Matt 27:34, 48; Luke 23:36; John 19:30; Rom 11:9–10). Jesus’ words “will consume me” anticipate his suffering and death in order to build a new temple, that is, a community with a new life to worship the Father in spirit and in truth (4:23–24).
That Jesus spoke of his death is further confirmed by 2:19, where he asks “the Jews” to destroy “this temple,”13 his body, with a challenge that he will raise it up in three days (cf. Matt 26:61; 27:40; Mark 14:58; 15:29). He spoke in response to the Jerusalem authorities, who asked for a sign from him to prove that he had authority from God to disrupt the cultic worship by chasing out the animals kept for sacrifice (2:18). In 2:19 Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection in terms of destroying the old temple with all its legal system of animal sacrifices and building a new temple to be a place of life-giving power. In this sense, 2:17–22 foreshadows the death and resurrection of Christ,14 a “sign” to be seen by his adversaries.
Jesus’ cleansing of the temple, as a whole, is a prophetic and symbolic act that points to the “greater reality” that is coming (e.g., Isa 8:16–18; Ezek 4:1–3). It is also Jesus’ non-miraculous sign that anticipates his sacrifice on the cross (cf. Matt 12:39–40). John’s addition of “sheep and oxen” that were driven out of the temple is to symbolize that Jesus removes the need for animal sacrifices to obtain forgiveness of sins and deliverance. The Jerusalem temple is now replaced by a new Temple, Jesus, in whom the offering of animals has no place (cf. 2:19). Jesus himself is the sacrifice to remove human sin and he is the one who offers it (e.g., Heb 9:11–14). His life and work thus mark the end of the temple worship and the beginning of a new and life-giving worship. The action of Jesus in the temple is not merely that of a Jewish reformer or merely a protest against the irreverence and corruption of Jewish worship, but is a sign to convey the truth that the end of animal sacrifice is at hand.15 In this act of Jesus, one can see the shadow of the cross again.
This is confirmed in 2:20–22. The temple authorities misunderstood Jesus’ statement that he was boasting himself of rebuilding the destroyed temple in three days, while it took originally forty-six years to build (2:19–20).16 They ridiculed him for saying so (cf. Matt 27:40) without understanding that Jesus would give up his body to be destroyed on the cross and would raise it up in three days (2:21) to restore true spiritual worship for which the Jerusalem temple stood. Even his disciples only understood this after Jesus’ resurrection. John displays his literary device of non-understanding to lead his readers to a higher level of understanding.17
The resurrection of Jesus opened the eyes of Jesus’ community to see the reality behind his signs and symbolic acts. The comment “his disciples remembered” (2:17, 22) means an unveiling of truth by the Spirit after the death and resurrection of Jesus (14:26; 16:14) so that they might believe the Scripture that testifies to Jesus (cf. 1:45; 5:39). Such a new vision of Jesus is a partial fulfillment of “greater things” to be seen by his disciples (1:50–51).
Supernatural knowledge of Jesus (2:23–25)
Jesus was participating in the Passover feast (2:23a). John does not describe how the Passover was celebrated in the temple; his focus is always on Jesus and his deeds and on people’s response to him. Many believed in Jesus’ name by looking at the signs he performed (2:23b). The plural “signs” informs us that Jesus could have done other signs besides what is narrated in John 2. These could include his healing of many blind and lame people who came to him when he was in the temple (cf. Matt 21:14). Though many believed in Jesus, they did so because they saw signs. This kind of superficial faith springs up from common human nature. Those who saw Jesus’ signs were amazed and appreciated him probably as a wonder-worker without making a faith commitment to him.
In John faith based on “seeing” rather than on “hearing” the testimony about Jesus or his words is not genuine faith (cf. 1:50). Since Jesus himself knew all human beings and their secret thoughts (cf. 1:42, 47–48; 5:42; 6:15, 26, 61, 64; 16:19, 30), no human needs to bear witness about anyone to Jesus (2:25). The supernatural knowledge of God is portrayed in the OT: it is God alone who observes the deeds of all human beings and their secret thoughts, because he has fashioned their hearts and observes their deeds (Ps 7:9; 33:15; 139:1–24; Jer 17:10; cf. Wis 1:6). What is true with the God of the OT is true with the Jesus that John portrays! Since Jesus is the Son of God who is in oneness with the Father, no wonder he exhibits the same omniscience as God. Therefore Jesus did not entrust himself to those who seemed to believe in him by seeing his signs (2:24). This shows that Jesus expected the members of his society to believe in him with a commitment not just by seeing the miracles he performed but by hearing his words.
Excursus: “Sign” in John
The word “sign” (se¯meion in Greek) occurs seventeen times in John’s Gospel, out of which thirteen times it occurs in plural. “Signs” denotes the miracles of Jesus. In the Synoptic Gospels, the word “sign” bears mostly a negative connotation, as Jesus refuses his opponents’ demand to perform a sign (Matt 12:38–39; 16:1, 4; Mark 8:11–12; Luke 11:16, 29; 23:8; cf. John 2:18). Even false prophets and false Christs perform signs (Matt 24:24; Mark 13:22). Nevertheless, signs foreshadow the coming of Christ in glory (Matt 24:3, 30; Mark 13:4; Luke 21:7, 11, 25). The Greek version of Isa 8:18 has the word se¯meion with a non-miraculous connotation and in Ezek 4:3 the word indicates the prophetic activity that anticipates a greater reality of which the sign itself is a part. In Isa 66:18–19, se¯meion is used to denote the eschatological gathering of all nations to see his glory and the declaration of his glory among the Gentiles by the survivors of the Jewish nation.18
In the same line, in all his signs in John, Jesus reveals God’s glory in terms of his love and concern for humanity to fulfill their physical and spiritual needs (e.g., 2:1–11; 6:26–27; 11:4, 40). Jesus’ signs (works) in John reveal his oneness with the Father (5:18; 10:38) and his own identity as the Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of Man (9:38; 11:25–27; 20:30–31). Through a sign Jesus strengthened the faith of his disciples in him (2:11) and others could come to believe in him (4:53; 6:69; 9:35–38; 11:45; 12:42). Hence most of the signs are followed by a discourse. However, in some cases the signs cause enmity, which culminates in Jesus’ death on the cross (5:16, 18; 11:46–57; 12:9–11, 37). His exaltation on the cross is presented in John as the greatest sign in which the symbol and reality meet each other (2:18–22; 3:14–15).
