Matthew 21:12

εἰσῆλθεν, etc. He entered the Temple. When? Nothing to show that it was not the same day (vide Mk.). ἐξέβαλεν. The fourth Gospel (Matthew 2:14 f.) reports a similar clearing at the beginning of Christ's ministry. Two questions have been much discussed. Were there one or two acts of this kind? and if only one was it at the beginning or at the end as reported by the Synop.? However these questions may be decided, it may be regarded as one of the historic certainties that Jesus did once at least and at some time sweep the Temple clear of the unholy traffic carried on there. The evangelists fittingly connect the act with the first visit of Jesus to Jer. they report protest at first sight! πάντας τοὺς πωλ. καὶ ἀγ.: the article not repeated after καὶ. Sellers and buyers viewed as one company kindred in spirit, to be cleared out wholesale. τὰς τραπέζας, etc.: these tables were in the court of the Gentiles, in the booths (tabernae) where all things needed for sacrifice were sold, and the money changers sat ready to give to all comers the didrachma for the temple tax in exchange for ordinary money at a small profit. κολλυβιστῶν, from κόλλυβος, a small coin, change money, hence agio; hence our word to denote those who traded in exchange, condemned by Phryn., p. 440, while approving κόλλυβος. Theophy. says: κολλυβισταί εἰσιν οἱ παρʼ ἡμῖν λεγόμενοι τραπεζῖται · κόλλυβος γὰρ εἶδός ἐστι νομίσματος εὐτελῆς, ὥσπερ ἔχομεν τυχὸν ἡμεῖς τοὺς ὀβολοὺς ἢ τὰ ἀργύρια (vide Hesychius and Suicer). τὰς περιστεράς, doves, the poor man's offering. The traffic was necessary, and might have been innocent; but the trading spirit soon develops abuses which were doubtless rampant at that period, making passover time a Jewish “Holy Fair,” a grotesque and offensive combination of religion with shady morality.