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those who obey Him. For Bethany means, the house of obedience.
Pseudo-Jerome: He went in the morning to the Jews, and visits us in the eventide of the world.
Bede: Just in the same way as He speaks parables, so also His deeds are parables; therefore He
comes hungry to seek fruit off the [p. 227] fig tree, and though He knew the time of figs was not
yet, He condemns it to perpetual barrenness, that He might shew that the Jewish people could
not be saved through the leaves, that is, the words of righteousness which it had, without fruit,
that is, good works, but should be cut down and cast into the fire.
Hungering therefore, that is, desiring the salvation of mankind, He saw the fig tree, which is, the
Jewish people, having leaves, or, the words of the Law and the Prophets, and He sought upon it
the fruit of good works, by teaching them, by rebuking them, by working miracles, and He found it
not, and therefore condemned it. Do thou too, unless thou wouldest be condemned by Christ in
the judgment, beware of being a barren tree, but rather offer to Christ the fruit of piety which He
requires.
Chrys.: We may also say, in another sense, that the Lord sought for fruit on the fig tree before its
time, and not finding it, cursed it, because all who fulfil the commandments of the Law, are said to
bear fruit in their own time, as, for instance, that commandment, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery;" but he who not only abstains from adultery but remains a virgin, which is a greater
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thing, excels them in virtue. But the Lord exacts from the perfect not only the observance of
virtue, but also that they bear fruit over and above the commandments.
15. And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them
that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the
seats of them that sold doves;
16. And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.
17. And He taught, saying unto them, "Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the
house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves."
18. And the Scribes and Chief Priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy Him: for they
feared Him, because all the people was astonished at His doctrine.
[p. 228]
Bede: What the Lord had done in figure, when He cursed the barren fig tree, He now shews more
openly, by casting out the wicked from the temple. For the fig tree was not in fault, in not having
fruit before its time, but the priests were blameable; wherefore it is said, "And they come to
Jerusalem; and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in
the temple." Nevertheless, it is probable that He found them buying and selling in the temple
things which were necessary for its ministry. If then the Lord forbids men to carry on in the temple
worldly matters, which they might freely do any where else, how much more do they deserve a
greater portion of the anger of Heaven, who carry on in the temple consecrated to Him those
things, which are unlawful wherever they may be done.
It goes on: "and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers."
Theophylact: He calls moneychangers, changers of a particular sort of money, for the word
means a small brass coin.
Bede: Because the Holy Spirit appeared over the Lord in the shape of a dove, the gifts of the
Holy Spirit are fitly pointed out under the name of doves. The Dove therefore is sold, when the
laying on of hands by which the Holy Spirit is received is sold for a price. Again, He overturns the
seats of them who sell doves, because they who sell spiritual grace, are deprived of their
priesthood, either before men, or in the eyes of God.
Theophylact: But if a man by sinning gives up to the devil the grace and purity of baptism, he has
sold his Dove, and for this reason is cast out of the temple.
There follows: "And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple."
Bede: He speaks of those vessels which were carried there for the purpose of merchandise. But
God forbid that it should be taken to mean, that the Lord cast out of the temple, or forbade men to
bring into it, the vessels consecrated to God; for here He shews a type of the judgment to come,
for He thrusts away the wicked from the Church, and restrains them by His everlasting word from
ever again coming in to trouble the Church. Furthermore, sorrow, sent into the heart from above,
takes away from the souls of the faithful those sins which were in them, and Divine grace assists
them so that they should never again commit them.
It goes on: "And He [p. 229] taught, saying unto them, My house shall be called of all nations the
house of prayer."
Pseudo-Jerome: [This] according to Isaiah [Isa 56:7]. "But ye have made it a den of thieves,"
according to Jeremiah. [Jer 7:11]
Bede: He says, "to all nations," not to the Jewish nation alone, nor in the city of Jerusalem alone,
but over the whole world; and he does not say a house of bulls, goats, and rams, but of prayer.
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Theophylact: Further, He calls the temple, "a den of thieves," on account of the money gained
there; for thieves always troop together for gain. Since then they sold those animals which were
offered in sacrifice for the sake of gain, He called them thieves.
Bede: For they were in the temple for this purpose, either that they might persecute with corporal
pains those who did not bring gifts, or spiritually kill those who did. The mind and conscience of
the faithful is also the temple and the house of God, but if it puts forth perverse thoughts, to the
hurt of any one, it may be said that thieves haunt it as a den; therefore the mind of the faithful
becomes the den of a thief, when leaving the simplicity of holiness, it plans that which may hurt
others.
Augustine, de Con. Evan, ii, 67: John, however, relates this in a very different order, wherefore it
is manifest that not once only, but twice, this was done by the Lord, and that the first time was
related by John, the last, by all the other three.
Theophylact: Which also turns to the greater condemnation of the Jews, because though the
Lord did this so many times, nevertheless they did not correct their conduct.
Augustine, de Con. Evan, ii, 68: In this again, Mark does not keep the same order as Matthew;
because however Matthew connects the facts together by this sentence, "And He left them, and
went out of the city into Bethany," [Matt 21:17] returning from whence in the morning, according
to his relation, Christ cursed the tree, therefore it is supposed with greater probability that he
rather has kept to the order of time, as to the ejection from the temple of the buyers and sellers.
Mark therefore passed over what was done the first day when He entered into the temple, and on
remembering it inserted it, when he had said that He found nothing on the fig tree but leaves,
which was done on the second day, as both testify.
Gloss: But the Evangelist shews what effect the correction of the Lord had on the ministers of the
temple, when he adds: "and the Scribes and Chief Priests heard it, and sought how [p. 230] they [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]