Matthew 21:12-22

The cleansing of the temple and the cursing of the barren fig tree were closely connected. According to the fuller account of Mark, on the day of His triumphal entry our Lord looked round about the temple, passed out to Bethany and lodged there. The next day (Monday), on His way to Jerusalem, He pronounced the curse on the barren fig tree, after wards cleansing the temple. The discourse about the fig tree took place the next morning (Tuesday). The order of Matthew, in accordance with his habit and purpose, points out more emphatically the unbelief of the chief priests and scribes (Matthew 21:15), as represented by the fig tree.

THE TEMPLE was built on Mount Moriah, the top of which was enlarged by building walls from the valley (of Jehosaphat) and filling in. The first edifice was erected by Solomon, in seven years (B. C. 1005), destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (B. C. 584). The second by Zerubbabel, seventy years afterwards, on the same site. It was interior to the first, not in size but in magnificence; the ark had been burnt with the first temple, and the Shekinah (or visible Glory) did not return. (Its real return was the visit of Christ.) This building was frequently desolated and profaned, last of all by the Romans under Herod the Great, who, to gain favor with the Jews, afterwards restored it and rendered it more magnificent in some respects than before. The word ‘temple' was applied to the whole inclosure, which was square in form. Inside its high wall were the ‘porches,' or covered walks. Of these there were two rows; on the south side three. Solomon's porch was on the east side towards the Mount of Olives, and so was the ‘Beautiful Gate,' a magnificent entrance to the inclosure, directly facing the entrance to the temple proper. A second wall within the first divided the more sacred part of the inclosure from that into which Gentiles might enter: hence the outer court was called the court of the Gentiles. This was largest on the south side. The more sacred inclosure was an oblong square; the part nearest the Beautiful Gate was called the court of the women, and here the Jews commonly worshipped. On the western side of this court was a high wall, beyond this the court of the Israelites, entered after an ascent of fifteen steps by the Gate Nicanor. All around this court were rooms for the use of the Levites, and within it, separated from it by a low wall, was the court of the priests. At the eastern end of this court stood the altar of burnt offering and the laver, and here the daily service of the temple was performed. Within this court was the temple itself. In front of it was an elevated porch, and by the entrance, on the east side, stood the pillars Jachin and Boaz. The Holy place, a room sixty feet long and thirty broad, contained the golden candlestick, the table of shew-bread and the altar of incense. Beyond this was the Holy of Holies, a square apartment, separated from the Holy Place by a costly veil. Into this the High Priest entered once a year. White marble was the material chiefly used in the whole structure, and gold and silver plating was frequent in the more sacred parts of the edifice. Elevated as it was, and dazzling to the eye, as one came over ‘the mountains of Jerusalem,' it could not fail to produce a powerful impression. Designed to convey a spiritual lesson, it too often only awakened pride. It has been regarded as the symbol of the dwelling-place of Jehovah; a figure of the human form; a symbol of heaven; a figure of the Jewish theocracy. But its highest significance was as a type of the body of Christ (John 2:21). In this view it was none the less the dwelling-place of Jehovah.

The court of the Gentiles, the scene of the incident we are about to consider, did not exist in the first or second temple. Owing to the advancement of proselytism and the fact that devout Gentiles (‘proselytes of the gate') brought gifts to the temple, it grew in importance. See the Bible Dictionaries.