John 2:15-17

2:15 So he made a whip of cords ¹  and drove them all out of the temple courts, ²  with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers ³  and overturned their tables. 2:16 To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make ⁴  my Father’s house a marketplace!” ⁵  2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal ⁶  for your house will devour me.” ⁷ 

[2:15]  ¹ tc Several witnesses, two of which are quite ancient (Ì^66,75 L N ˹ 33 565 892 1241 al lat), have ὡς (Jws, “like”) before φραγέλλιον (fragellion, “whip”). A decision based on external evidence would be difficult to make because the shorter reading also has excellent witnesses, as well as the majority, on its side (א A B Θ Ψ Ë¹³ Ï co). Internal evidence, though, leans toward the shorter reading. Scribes tended to add to the text, and the addition of ὡς here clearly softens the assertion of the evangelist: Instead of making a whip of cords, Jesus made “[something] like a whip of cords.”

[2:15]  ² tn Grk “the temple.”

[2:15]  ³ sn Because of the imperial Roman portraits they carried, Roman denarii and Attic drachmas were not permitted to be used in paying the half-shekel temple-tax (the Jews considered the portraits idolatrous). The money changers exchanged these coins for legal Tyrian coinage at a small profit.

[2:16]  ⁴ tn Or (perhaps) “Stop making.”

[2:16]  ⁵ tn Or “a house of merchants” (an allusion to Zech 14:21).

[2:17]  ⁷ tn Or “Fervent devotion to your house.”

[2:17]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Ps 69:9.