Mark 11:16

ἤφιεν : vide Mark 1:34. The statement that Jesus did not allow any one to carry anything (σκεῦος, Luke 8:16) through the temple court is peculiar to Mk. It does not point to any attempt at violent prohibition, but simply to His feeling as to the sacredness of the place. He could not bear to see the temple court made a bypath or short cut, not to speak of the graver abominations of the mercenary traffic He had sternly interrupted. In this feeling Jesus was at one with the Rabbis, at least in their theory. “What reverence is due to the temple? That no one go into the mountain of the house (the court of the Gentiles) with his staff, shoes, purse, or dust on his feet. Let no one make a crossing through it, or degrade it into a place of spitting” (Babyl. Jevamoth, in Lightfoot, ad loc.).