Chapter LXVII.—Of the Expulsion of the Sellers and Buyers from the Temple, and of the Question as to the Harmony Between the First Three Evangelists and John, Who Relates the Same Incident in a Widely Different Connection.

129. Matthew goes on with his narrative in the following terms: “And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple;” and so on, down to where we read, “But ye have made it a den of thieves.” This account of the multitude of sellers who were cast out of the temple is given by all the evangelists; but John introduces it in a remarkably different order.641    Matt. xxi. 10–13; Mark xi. 15–17; Luke xix. 45, 46; John ii. 1–17. For, after recording the testimony borne by John the Baptist to Jesus, and mentioning that He went into Galilee at the time when He turned the water into wine, and after he has also noticed the sojourn of a few days in Capharnaum, John proceeds to tell us that He went up to Jerusalem at the season of the Jews’ passover, and when He had made a scourge of small cords, drove out of the temple those who were selling in it. This makes it evident that this act was performed by the Lord not on a single occasion, but twice over; but that only the first instance is put on record by John, and the last by the other three.

CAPUT LXVII. De expulsis templo vendentibus et ementibus, quemadmodum tres isti non repugnent Joanni qui hoc idem longe alibi dicit.

129. Sequitur Matthaeus, et dicit: Et cum intrasset Jerosolymam, commota est universa civitas, dicens: Quis est hic? Populi autem dicebant: Hic est Jesus propheta a Nazareth Galilaeae. Et intravit Jesus in templum Dei, et ejiciebat omnes vendentes et ementes in templo, etc., usque ad eum locum ubi ait, Vos autem fecistis illam speluncam latronum. Hoc de turbis vendentium ejectis e templo, omnes commemorant, sed Joannes longe diverso ordine (Matth. XXI, 10-13; Marc. XI, 15-17; Luc. XIX, 45, 46; et Joan. II, 1-17). Nam post testimonium Baptistae Joannis de Jesu, cum eum commemorasset isse in Galilaeam, quando aquam convertit in vinum, inde post commemorationem paucorum in Capharnaum dierum, dicit eum ascendisse in Jerosolymam, cum esset Pascha Judaeorum, et facto flagello de resticulis expulisse de templo vendentes. 1140 Unde manifestum est, non semel, sed iterum hoc esse a Domino factum: sed illud primum commemoratum a Joanne, hoc ultimum a caeteris tribus.