there were not two cleansings of the temple

Another theological article from Timing Revelation and More,

There were not two cleansings of the Temple

By Diane M. Hoffmann, B.Th., M.Th., PhD/Th., Ord./IAOG-Canada

1. Because it does not make chronological sense.
2.Because the Bible shows otherwise.

Some people teach that Jesus cleansed the Temple twice, but the Bible does not say that... it shows only one cleansing in the final week of Jesus ministry on earth.

I'm sure that most of you who are Christians, remember this story when Jesus was angered at the commercialization of the House of God and made a whip of small cords and drove the merchants out and poured out the changers' money, overthrowing tables, etc...

There are two scripture readings from the perspective of the apostle John's recording that seem to be placing this event at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and the other three apostles' recordings of Matthew 21, Mark 11 and Luke 19 that place it at the end in Jesus' last week of ministry.

Because of this seeming difference many people believe there were two cleansings – one at the beginning of Jesus' ministry and another at the end...

...however that cannot be, for several reasons:

First off, such a situation on the part of Jesus would not be wise to do at this time of the very beginning of his public appearances for many common-sense and spiritual reasons.

Secondly, the other three gospel writers are all writing about this to be taking place in the very last period of the gospel story, when they speak of end times events that will take place and when reporting the triumphant entry of Jesus in Jerusalem. All this places the timing at the very end of the eschatology of events.

We can make an educated analysis that, since John wrote his gospel later on in his life, between the time-line reported of between 70 – 96 A.D., as opposed to the other writers around 50 to 60 A.D., the placement of John's event of the cleansing of the Temple would be at the beginning for various reasons as detailed in the outline chart that I make available below.

This makes perfect sense because, again, the gospel is always delivered with the Jews first in mind, and this event that took place in the very venerated Jewish Temple would have created total havoc against Jesus whom the Jews did not yet recognize as Messiah...

Within the contrasting narrative of John's presentation of Jesus as the Son of God, this would have been something prominent to bring up in the opening narrative of John's writing years after Jesus' ministry, crucifixion and resurrection had already occurred.

For the comprehensive detail and outline of the contextual time-line of the apostles' gospel recordings, click on the following link for the .pdf chart that I prepared for you...

Click this link

to read the article in pdf file format...

Once you have read the article, you are welcome to send your thought...

just click on this graphic...

or:

Back to portal for theological articles

Click on the graphic to go to Christianbook affiliate store products

or click on the following link to go directly to the page on

Apologetics

P.S.: For your information I am a participant of the Christianbook affiliate program and as such will receive a small commission on purchases made by my readers. I want to thank you for buying your Christian products through here... all of this helps me with the expenses of providing this important ministry and operating this web site.
Blessings,