Matthew 21:13

21:13 Jesus’ actions were justified, because God’s glory was being desecrated through financial exploitation.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Mat 21:13. Ὁ οἶκός Μου οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται· ὑμεῖς δὲ αὐτὸν ἐποιήσατε σπήλαιον λῃστῶν, My house shall be called ([918] or the) house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.—The LXX., in Isa 56:7, have—ὁ γὰρ οἶκός Μου, οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, My house shall be called ([919] or the) house of prayer for all nations; and in Jer 7:11, μὴ σπηλαιον λῃστῶν ὁ οἶκός Μου; is My house become a den of thieves?—προσευκῆς, of prayer) Prayer is the principal part of public worship; see 1 Kings 8; therefore prayer is put before the apostolic ministry of the Word in Act 6:4. The synagogues also were places for teaching and houses of prayer as well. In the temple there was more prayer, in the synagogues more teaching.—σπήλαιο λῃστῶν, a den of thieves) A severe and proverbial expression, used of a place which admits all infamous characters and all profane things. He does not say, A market-place. in a den, thieves do not so much attack others, as house themselves.

[918] Vercellensis of the old ‘Itala,’ or Latin Version before Jerome’s, probably made in Africa, in the second century: the Gospels.

[919] Vercellensis of the old ‘Itala,’ or Latin Version before Jerome’s, probably made in Africa, in the second century: the Gospels.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat_21:13. Free combination of Isa_56:7 and Jer_7:11, and taken from the Sept.

κληθής.] how sacred the purpose for which it was intended, but ye, etc.

ποιεῖτε (see critical notes) censures this desecration of the temple as a thing in which they are still persisting.

σπήλαιον λῃστῶν] The strong language of the prophet (otherwise in John) was in keeping with the emotion that was awakened in Jesus. The use of such language is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that avarice had taken up its abode in those sacred precincts to carry on its huckstering and money-changing: τὸ γὰρ φιλοκερδὲς λῃστρικὸν πάθος ἐστι, Theophylact. Differently Fritzsche: Vos undequaque pecuniam, animalia hue congerere sustinetis, ut latrones praedam comportant in speluncam,where, however, due prominence is not given to the distinctive point of comparison, viz. the robbery.

In Mat_21:12-13, Jesus acts with higher authority than that of a mere zealot (Num_25:11): He addresses Himself to the purifying of the temple and its worship with such a reforming energy as, according to Mal_3:1-3, befitted the Messiah. Comp. Bertholdt, Christol. p. 163; Ullmann, Sündl. p. 177. And the acquiescence of the astonished multitude is all the more intelligible on the occasion of this cleansing, that the indignant reformer had just celebrated His triumphal march into the city in the character of Messiah. But even on the first occasion, John 2, their acquiescence is sufficiently explicable from the sudden and decided nature of the proceeding, taken in connection with the spiritually-imposing character of the Lords person and bearing (divinitatis majestas lucebat in facie, Jerome), so that it is quite needless to resort to the hypothesis of a miracle (Origen, Jerome).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mat 21:13 . γέγραπται , it stands written, in Isa 56:7 ; from the Sept [115] but with omission of πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν , retained in Mk., and a peculiarly appropriate expression in the circumstances, the abuse condemned having for its scene the court of the Gentiles. σπήλαιον λῃστῶν , a den of robbers, a strong expression borrowed from another prophet (Jer 7:11 ), pointing probably to the avarice and fraud of the traders ( τὸ γὰρ φιλοκερδὲς ληστρικὸν πάθος ἐστί , Theophy.), taking advantage of simple provincials. This act of Jesus has been justified by the supposed right of the zealot (Num 25:6 ; Num 25:13 ), which is an imaginary right: “ein unfindbar Artikel” (Holtz., H. C.), or by the reforming energy befitting the Messiah (Meyer). It needed no other justification than the indignation of a noble soul at sight of shameless deeds. Jesus was the only person in Israel who could do such a thing. All others had become accustomed to the evil.

[115] Septuagint.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 13. My house shall be called the house of prayer] This is taken from Isa 56:7.

But ye have made it a den of thieves.] This is taken from Jer 7:11.

Our Lord alludes here to those dens and caves in Judea, in which the public robbers either hid or kept themselves fortified.

They who are placed in the Church of Christ to serve souls, and do it not, and they who enjoy the revenues of the Church, and neglect the service of it, are thieves and robbers in more senses than one.

Our Lord is represented here as purifying his temple; and this we may judge he did in reference to his true temple, the Church, to show that nothing that was worldly or unholy should have any place among his followers, or in that heart in which he should condescend to dwell. It is marvellous that these interested, vile men did not raise a mob against him: but it is probable they were overawed by the Divine power, or, seeing the multitudes on the side of Christ, they were afraid to molest him. I knew a case something similar to this, which did not succeed so well. A very pious clergyman of my acquaintance, observing a woman keeping a public standing to sell nuts, gingerbread, &c., at the very porch of his Church, on the Lord's day, "desired her to remove thence, and not defile the house of God, while she profaned the Sabbath of the Lord." She paid no attention to him. He warned her the next Sabbath, but still to no purpose. Going in one Lord's day to preach, and finding her still in the very entrance, with her stall, he overthrew the stall, and scattered the stuff into the street. He was shortly after summoned to appear before the royal court, which, to its eternal reproach, condemned the action, and fined the man of God in a considerable sum of money!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13) It is written.—The words which our Lord quotes are a free combination of two prophetic utterances: one from Isaiah’s vision of the future glory of the Temple, as visited both by Jew and Gentile (Isa_56:7); one from Jeremiah’s condemnation of evils like in nature, if not in form, to those against which our Lord protested (Jer_7:11).

A den of thieves.—The pictorial vividness of the words must not be passed over. Palestine was then swarming with bands of outlaw brigands, who, as David of old in Adullam (1Sa_22:1), haunted the lime-stone caverns of Judæa. The wranglings of such a company over the booty they had carried off were reproduced in the Temple, and mingled with the Hallelujahs of the Levites and the Hosannas of the crowds. We ask, as we read the narrative, how it was that the work of expulsion was done so effectively, and with so little resistance. The answer is found (1) in the personal greatness and intensity of will that showed itself in our Lord’s look and word and tone; (2) in the presence of the crowd that had followed Him from the Mount of Olives, and had probably filled the courts of the Temple; and (3) in the secret consciousness of the offenders that they were desecrating the Temple, and that the Prophet of Nazareth, in His zeal for His Father’s house, was the witness of a divine truth.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. My house shall be called the house of prayer] Isa_56:7, “Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people,” or for all nations, not of all nations (Mark).

a den of thieves] Rather, a cave of robbers or bandits. Cp. Jer_7:11, “Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?” The context of these words is strikingly suggestive: “if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings … and shed not innocent blood in this place … then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.” The caves of Palestine had always been refuges for the lawless, and in the reign of Herod the Great the robbers dwelling in caves had rebelled against him and resisted his power, Jos. Ant. i. 12. Possibly this thought may be present here: “Ye have made my house a stronghold of rebels against God and the Messiah, when it ought to be a garrison of loyal subjects.” Also the disputes of the traffickers resembled the wrangling of bandits in their caves.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And said unto them, it is written,.... In Isa 56:7.

My house shall be called the house of prayer. These are the, words of God, calling the temple his house, which was built according to the plan he gave; and was the place of his worship, and where he dwelt, and vouchsafed his presence to his people; and signifying, that in time to come, it should be an house of prayer; not for the Jews only, but for the Gentiles also: "for all people", as it is expressed by the prophet, and cited by Mark; and particularly this part of it, in which were the money changers and sellers of doves; for that was the court of the Gentiles, where they were admitted to pray, and perform other parts of worship. These words are rightly applied by Christ to the temple; nor can the Jews themselves deny it; for their own Targum paraphrases it thus, , "the house of my sanctuary shall be called an house of prayer"; or shall be one; for the meaning is not that it should go by such a name, but should be for such use, and not for buying and selling, and merchandise, to which use the Jews now put it: hence it follows,

but ye have made it a den of thieves. These are the words of Christ, affirming what is complained of in Jer 7:11 and applying it to the present case, on account of the wicked merchandise, unlawful gain, avarice and extortion, of the priests and other officers of the temple, who had a considerable share in these things; and to whom the temple was, and by them used, as a den is to and by thieves and robbers, where they shelter themselves; for these persons robbed both God and man, and the temple was a sanctuary to them: here they screened themselves, and, under the appearance of religion and devotion, devoured widows' houses, plundered persons of their substance, and were full of extortion and excess.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

13 And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Ver. 13. Shall be called the house of prayer] A principal piece of God’s public worship, and here put for the whole. Christ himself never came into this house but he preached as well as prayed. In the sanctuary was the incense altar in the middle, a type of prayer; the table of shewbread on the one side, betokening the twelve tribes, and the candlestick, a type of the word, on the other: to teach us that there is a necessity of both ordinances to all God’s people.

But ye have made it a den of thieves] So Christ calleth not the money merchants only, but the priests also that set them to work. And whereas they cried, "the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (for to those was this speech first addressed, Jer 7:11), as if they could not do amiss because they served in the temple, the prophet tells them there, and our Saviour these here, that it is so much the worse. What should an angel of darkness do in heaven? Who required these things at your hands, to tread the courts of my temple? This is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous only should enter, Psa 118:20. The Papists in like sort cry out at this day, Ecclesia, Ecclesia, Nos sumus Ecclesia; and herewith think to shroud their base huckstering of holy things. For omnia Romae venalia, all things are saleable and soluble at Rome. But this covering is too short, and their gross thieveries are now made apparent to all the world, as their cross of grace and the blood of Hales were at Paul’s cross by that noble Cromwell; and as their cheating trade of indulgencies and pope’s pardons was by Luther, who by dint of argument overthrew those Romish money changers, and drove the country of those χριστοκαπηλοι and χριστεμποροι, as Nazianzen fitly calleth them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

My house shall. That man is a thief, and turns the temple of God into a den of thieves, who makes religion a cloak for his avarice. Of all the innumerable miracles which Jesus performed, none appear greater in my eyes than this: that one man, at that time so contemned [sic; condemned] and despised, who was afterwards nailed to the tree, should with his single power be able to expel from the temple that multitude of Scribes and Pharisees, who were so maliciously bent upon his destruction, and so greedy of gain. Something more than human appeared in his celestial countenance on this occasion, and the majesty of the divinity shewed itself in his looks and gestures. Igneum quiddam, atque sidereum radiabat ex oculis ejus, et divinitatis majestas lucebat in facie. (St. Jerome) --- Hence it is not to be wondered at, if in the utmost fear and consternation they fled away. (Menochius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

13. Den of thieves — Jer_7:11 : “Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in thine eyes?” Den of thieves is a terrible antithesis to the house of God. The word den probably is an allusion to the caves and recesses of rocks in Judea in which robbers and bandits found shelter.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is written. Jesus confirms his action by the word of Scripture. He combines in one severe sentence a passage from Isa_56:7 ("Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples"), and one from Jer_7:11 ("Is this house, which is called by my Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?"). He brings out in strong contrast the high design and use of the house of God (an allusion specially appropriate at the coming festival), and the vile and profane purposes to which the greed and impiety of men had subjected it. Ye have made it; Revised Version, ye make it; and so many modern editors on good manuscript authority. These base traffickers had turned the hallowed courts into a cavern where robbers stored their ill-gotten plunder. It may also be said that to make the place of prayer for all the nations a market for boasts was a robbery of the rights of the Gentiles (Lange). And Christ here vindicated the sanctity of the house of God: the Lord, according to the prophecy of Malachi, (Mal_3:1-3) had suddenly come to his temple to refine and purify, to show that none can profane what is dedicated to the service of God without most certain loss and punishment.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A den of thieves - A proverbial expression, for a harbour of wicked men. Isaiah lvi, 7; Jer. vii, 11.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

13. It is written. In Isa. 56:7. A house of prayer. A place of sacred worship. A den of thieves. A cave or den of robbers. The language indicates that it was a corrupt and fraudulent traffic, which a corrupt and fraudulent priesthood had permitted to encroach on the worship of God. It is a desecration of religious institutions to use them for worldly gain.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

13. ποιεῖτε (א B L) for ἐποιήσατε (C D E and the later uncials).

13. γέγραπται. See note, ch. Mat 2:5.

ὁ οἶκος κ.τ.λ. The passage is quoted from Isa 56:7, but, with the omission of the words πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, these are included in the quotation by St Mark but not by St Luke. The context in Isaiah treats of the admission of the Gentiles: ‘Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him’ (Mat 21:8).

ποιεῖτε σπήλαιον λῃστῶν, ‘are making it a cave of robbers or bandits,’ cp. Jer 7:11, ‘Is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?’ Thus two separate passages of the O.T. are combined in a contrasted or parallel form. The context of these words is strikingly suggestive: ‘If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings … and shed not innocent blood in this place … then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.’ The caves of Palestine had always been refuges for the lawless, and in the reign of Herod the Great the robbers dwelling in caves had rebelled against him and resisted his power, Jos. Ant. I. 12. Possibly this thought may be present here: ‘Ye have made my house a stronghold of rebels against God and the Messiah, when it ought to be a garrison of loyal subjects.’ Also the disputes of the traffickers resembled the wrangling of bandits in their caves. Comp. σπήλ. λῃστῶν with the less severe οἶκον ἐμπορίου of the first ‘cleansing’ (Joh 2:16).

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13.] Stier remarks that the verse quoted from Jeremiah is in connexion with the charge of murder, and the shedding of innocent blood (see Jer 7:6). Luther translates σπ. λῃστ., Mardergrube.

On the intention of this act of our Lord, see notes on Joh 2:15. It was a purely Messianic act; see Mal 3:1-3.

15,

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(M) 13. And saith to them, It stands written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye made1 it a lair of robbers.] Mk. has: “And was teaching, and saying, Does it not stand written that My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? but ye have made it a lair of robbers.”—ὁ οἶκός μου, κ.τ.λ.] the quotation is from the LXX. of Isa 56:7. Mk. seems to have carried the quotation too far. The temple was not, in fact, a house of prayer πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν. Mt. omits the words.—σπήλαιον λῃστῶν] seems to be a reminiscence of Jer 7:11.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thieves [ληστων] . Rev., correctly, robbers. See on Mt 26:55; Luk 10:30.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.