Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 2 Study # 2
February 27, 2024
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: What Jesus did in The Temple was a harbinger of things to come, in terms of "wrath", but it was done in the very week that He was to offer Himself to resolve the unimaginable distortions of His glory by men.
Introduction: Last week we focused upon the "season" issue involved in the curse of the fig tree and it was my conclusion that there is no foundation for any "season of fruitfulness"; fruit-bearing is not to be "seasonal" for the people of God.
Tonight we are going to look into Jesus' violent confrontation of the nation's participation in a so-called "season of fruitfulness".
- I. The Structure Of This Section.
- A. Following the chiasm of 9:1-11:11.
- B. The record of "rejection" begins with Jesus' curse upon the fig tree (11:12-26); a record that is structured in terms of "The Curse", "The Reason", and "The Necessity for Faith".
- C. The record of the "interruption" between the segments of Jesus' treatment of the fig tree.
- 1. "And they are coming into Jerusalem" [Note: the explanation of the asterisk].
- a. This is the second time (first time is in 11:11) we are told that He was entering into Jerusalem [Note: at this "season"] and into the Temple.
- 1) Jerusalem is the Capital City of the nation.
- 2) The Temple is the central focus for the City and the national status of Israel as "God's elect nation".
- b. It is the run up to Passover.
- 1) There are thousands upon thousands of people who live elsewhere who have been summoned ("all your males"; Exodus 23:17) to Jerusalem for the Passover events (it was one of three "festivals" of Israel in which all are called to attend (Exodus 23:14-17 -- The Feast of Unleavened Bread in Abib; The Feast of Harvest ((firstfruits)); The Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year).
- 2) Of all of the festivals, Passover is the first and most critical because it is the memorial of the deliverance of the nation by God from Egypt by reason of the death of all of the first-born of Egypt and the "passing over" of all of the first-born of Israel. Its central feature is the Passover Lamb whose blood is the mechanism for the angel of death passing over the homes of those with the blood on the lintel and door posts of the entrance into the house.
- 2. "And having entered (Aorist Singular Nominative) into the Temple..."
- a. In the pre-curse time of entrance into the Temple, Jesus "looked around at all things".
- b. An event, with the same details, is recorded in John 2:14-22 with a strong intimation that Jesus' outrage in the Temple took place shortly after the record of the "first sign".
- 1) If, in fact, Jesus did this same thing twice, it would serve as a kind of "book-ends" to His entire ministry.
- 2) There is no good reason to think that John, the author of this record, would pull something from the last week of Jesus' earthly life to put it into this beginning of his records regarding Jesus' "signs".
- c. In the pre-curse time, Jesus' "look around at all things", laid the ground work for the "explosion" on the following morning.
- 3. "He began (Aorist Singular Indicative) to cast out (Present Active Infinitive)..."
- a. "Those 'exchanging' (Present Active Participle Plural)..."
- b. "And those buying (Present Active Participle) in the Temple..."
- c. "And the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those 'exchanging' the doves to overturn (Aor. Act. Indica. Sing.)..."
- 4. "And He was refusing (Imperfect Active Indicative Singular) to permit..."
- a. "In order that anyone should carry (Aorist Active Subjunctive Singular) a vessel through the Temple..."
- b. "And He was teaching (Imperfect Active Indicative Singular) and He was saying (Imperfect Active Indicative Singular)..."
- 1) "Has it not been written (Perfect Passive Indicative Singular)..."
- a) "That (or the use of "hoti" as)..."
- (1) "The house of Me a house of prayer it shall be called (Future Passive Indicative Singular) to all the nations...": 1 Kings 8:41 and following.
- (2) "But you have made (Perfect Active Indicative Plural) it a cave of thieves."
- b) The original purpose "has been written" so that there is no good reason for violating the atmosphere of "prayer": the transactions indicated could have easily been done elsewhere.
- 2) From the beginning, the Temple was to be a "place where God placed His name" and everything about it should have been a reflection of God's true character.
