upon this space of ground was included the Temple proper; the court of the Jews, the court of the women, and the court of the Gentiles: heathens, mourners, lepers, and others who came to the public service of the Temple, had the freedom of this latter or outer court; and a too ready sense of the convenience of the market had brought that also into this same outer court 6. The money-changers, whose tables were also established here, were those who furnished the Jews who came from foreign parts with cash money for their bills; or those who came from distant parts of Judæa and Samaria with the current money of the city, for that of their own country, or changed larger pieces of money into smaller'. The Temple was at this time in very great perfection. Herod had began to re-embellish and almost rebuild it sixteen years before the birth of Christ. Forty-six years had now elapsed, yet the repair was not yet completed; for it appears that, although Herod had so far finished it as to make it fit for use, it continued long after increasing in splendour and magnificence, through the pious donations of the people, till the time of Nero. It is mentioned that "when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them out of the Temple;" the reason of which was 8 Dr. Lightfoot. Archbishop Sumner. 7 Dr. Whitby. 9 2 Dr. Whitby. this that no man might come into the Temple with his staff; and it is probable that the small cords were readily at hand upon the floor, having been employed to tie up the animals there for sacrifice, or some other purpose. This action of the Saviour in driving the buyers from the Temple fulfilled the prophecy of Malachi: "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple, but who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth1?” It would seem that Christ twice drove the buyers from the Temple; once at the beginning, and once again towards the close of His ministry. The other three Evangelists say nothing of this present incident. It is related by St. John, chiefly as giving occasion to the words we are now about to consider respecting the destroying of the Temple; for, indeed, this was afterwards brought as a matter of accusation against Him, and it was in fact the only evidence on which He was condemned to death; accordingly it was necessary to the full elucidation of the story, and throws much light on the history of His passion. It does not appear that the driving of the market out of the Temple created any opposition on the part of the people; it was a thing so reasonable and so religious, that they could not open their mouth against it. Dr. Lightfoot. 2 Ibid. But He had indirectly recalled to their minds that He was the Son of God, or the Messiah, by calling God His Father, which, if it did not occasion offence, made it at least reasonable in them to require from Him a "sign." Neither prophet nor miracle had appeared for 400 years; no wonder, then, the people were suspicious. They therefore say, What evidence dost Thou bring, or what miracles dost Thou perform, to show that Thou art really invested with such authority as these Thine acts pretend to? Christ does not give them the sign they ask for, otherwise than by telling them of that great sign that He should shortly show, and which would mightily declare Him to be the Son of God. The answer He gave was very suitable to the occasion; for, as He had purged the Temple, which they had defiled, and for which they thus question His authority, He says, "Destroy this temple; and in three days I will raise it again." "But he spake of the temple of His body;" meaning this: that, whereas, they would shortly destroy His body as a more holy temple than that which they had thus profaned, He would, by His own Divine power, within three days, raise it up again. It must be confessed, however, that there was something sufficiently startling in the figure of speech here employed by our Lord, almost to justify His hearers, when they retorted upon Him that a building which had required so many years' labour only to renew, could never be "raised up" in three days. The prediction thus uttered by our Lord, concerning "the temple of His body," though for the present dark, and hard to be understood, yet afterwards, when the accomplishment made it clear in the event, it proved a great confirmation to the faith of the disciples; and the elucidation of it seems to have been added by the Evangelists, on purpose to show that this answer of our Lord, although at the time obscure, was no unprofitable or lost saying ". If we consider how much the second Temple, notwithstanding its now renovated splendour, came behind that of the first, it will the more readily appear, why our blessed Saviour should call His body the Temple. In Solomon's temple, there had been the fire from heaven, the Ark with the mercy-seat, and the Urim and Thummim these had been all accounted a plenary type of the Messiah; and, therefore, not being in the second temple, but being in Himself, He says, This temple of yours, O ye Jews, does not answer its pattern and exemplar, these things are wanting in this which were the chief glory of the former temple. I am in My own body the antitype of the first Temple; and I will make my Father's Temple eternal, by raising • Dr. Clagett. it into the heavenly Jerusalem, after My three days of temporal death. It was the custom of the nation to come up to Jerusalem some days before the Passover, that they might purify themselves against the festival. Now Jesus, in this interval, had purified "His Father's house ;" and then, when He had been asked for a miracle, would not do one; but now, when He was "in the feast," He began to work miracles; and " many believed in His Name, when they saw the miracles which He did." He now also began plainly and publicly to perform His ministry in the chief city of His nation, in the general concourse of all, at the greatest solemnity in the year'. Thus the faith of our Lord's followers was originally founded, not on blind credulity, but on rational conviction; not on internal persuasion alone, but on clear and stupendous miracles; proofs submitted to their senses, and approved by their reason, which enthusiasm could not have counterfeited, and never could have required; and, at every step of its progress, as their faith was called to signalize itself by new exertions, and to sustain new trials, it was fortified by new proofs. SECT. XIX.-Christ's Conference with Nicodemus.— THE Evangelist having warned us that " many believed in the Name of Jesus, when they saw 7 Dr. Lightfoot. S Dr. Graves. |
