Yeshua Blows his Top

Mar 11:15-17 And they came to Jerusalem. And when Jesus entered into the temple, He began to throw out
those selling and buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of
those selling the doves. And He would not permit that anyone should carry a vessel through the temple. And
He was teaching, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the
nations'? But you have made it a 'den of thieves!' "

Mat 21:1-13 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and He cast out all those buying and selling in the temple,
and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those selling doves. And He said to them,
"It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"

Luk 19:45 And when He entered into the temple, He began to drive out those buying and selling in it, saying to
them, "It is written, 'My house is a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.' " And He was
teaching daily in the temple.

Joh 2:14 And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting
there. And having made a scourge out of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the
oxen, and He poured out the coins of the moneychangers, and He overturned the tables. And He said to those
selling the doves, "Take these things away from here! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

As is often the case in the synoptic gospels Matthew and Luke use Marks original story and alter it to suit their
purposes. Johns text is completely independent and takes place at the beginning of Yeshuas career rather than at the
end. This is unlikely given the inflammatory nature of the incident.
It is unclear why Yeshua acted as he did. The explanations provided in the texts are interpolations by the early church,
using Isa 56:7 and Jer 7:11. It would be very unusual for Yeshua to quote scripture in that manner. John uses Ps 69:9
and Zech 14:21 in a similar way.
The outer Temple area, also called the Court of the Gentiles was a massive area. Neither Yeshua nor his disciples would
have made much of an impact on the trading. They certainly, in contradistinction to Mark, could not have affected the
movement of people. But for the Temple authorities, hyper sensitive to anything that might provoke Roman
intervention, his actions would have been noted and caused concern.
Luke has him teaching in the Temple daily after this incident:
Luk 19:47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the
people were seeking to destroy Him,

This suggests that it was a minor event, although the authorities had had enough of this nuisance and started to plot his
downfall.

Given that Yeshua was fully human I think we can understand rather more than is evinced by the texts. We know that
he was proclaiming the coming Kingdom of God which encouraged a perception of God as close and accessible: the Our
Father. One can well understand his frustration with the rules and regulations of a cultic religion. He must also have
had a sense of urgency, knowing that his opponents would not allow him to preach and teach ad infinitum. And there
were the constant frustrations with his disciples, including the twelve:
Mar 9:16-19 Jesus asked, "What are you arguing about?" Someone from the crowd answered, "Teacher, I
brought my son to you. A demon keeps him from talking. Whenever the demon attacks my son, it throws him
to the ground and makes him foam at the mouth and grit his teeth in pain. Then he becomes stiff. I asked your
disciples to force out the demon, but they couldn't do it." Jesus said, "You people don't have any faith! How
much longer must I be with you? Why do I have to put up with you? Bring the boy to me."
Even in this short passage one can almost hear the exasperation in his voice. No doubt the early church would have
edited out all his disciples failures and Yeshuas frustrations, but it seems to have left this one in?
So, in the Temple grounds, he lost his rag or blew his top as they say. Turning over tables, seats and coins and
driving out a few animals are the actions of spontaneous physical rage, not of premeditated symbolism. He may have
upset those directly involved who he threw around according to Mark, but the rest of the trading would have continued
undaunted. He was so angry he couldnt stop himself, period. The justifications provided by the gospel writers are just
afterthoughts. At the time I doubt that Yeshua knew what he would do next or what the repercussions were.
I think we can identify with explosive emotions like that.
He was indeed human just like us.

Addendum
Daniel Goleman in his book, Emotional Intelligence, covers the whole range of human emotions and explores them in
the light of cognitive psychology and brain function. He has this to say about anger/rage:
anger is the mood people are worst at controlling. The self-righteous inner monologue that propels it along fills
the mind with the most convincing arguments for venting rage. Unlike sadness, anger is energising, even
exhilarating. P59.
Given the roots of anger in the fight wing of the fight-or-flight responsea universal trigger for anger is the sense
of being endangered. Physical threatsbut more often a symbolic threat to self-esteem or dignity: being treated
unjustly or rudely, being insulted or demeaned, being frustrated in pursuing an important goal. P60.
when the body is already in a state of edginess.the subsequent emotion of anger is of especially great
intensityBy then rage, unhampered by reason, easily erupts in violence, p61
Was Yeshua edgy? Well the Temple was not filled with his greatest admirers. He went there to teach so he would
have had to counter his detractors and cope with the noise and bustle of a public space thronging with pilgrims.
Did he feel threatened? The general consensus is that he avoided the temple in his earlier career because he knew his
presence there was dangerous. It seems that now he went there knowing he could no longer avoid the confrontation
with the Temple hierarchy.

Was he frustrated? His message had not caught on like wildfire. His disciples really didnt understand what he was
about. As his lonely death on the cross indicates, there were no followers willing to support him come what may.
Was he violent? Well Mark reports that: He began to throw out those selling and buying in the temple, which indeed
suggests he roughly manhandled the traders and affected their businesses. John suggests a more violent incident: And
having made a scourge out of cords, He drove them all out.
If Luke is right when he states that: And He was teaching daily in the temple, then it would appear that Yeshua did not
repeat his outburst. He let the traders continue unmolested with their business. One might be tempted to suggest hed
learned from his mistake. Just like the road-rage perpetrator who, once calmed down, cant understand what came over
him.
As said before using biblical texts as a justification is not the way Yeshua quotes from the bible, nor given the
circumstances would he have been calm enough to even think of appropriate texts. Johns gospel hints at the real
originators of the bible quotes:
John 2:17 The disciples then remembered that the Scriptures say, "My love for your house burns in me like a
fire."
Clearly these words were not from the disciples. They were not renowned for their scriptural knowledge or
understanding. Instead they were inserted by the early church which couldnt let his behaviour appear for what it was
an emotional outburst.