Luke 19:45-46

Cleansing the Temple

19:45 Then ¹  Jesus ²  entered the temple courts ³  and began to drive out those who were selling things there, ⁴  19:46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ ⁵  but you have turned it into a den ⁶  of robbers!” ⁷ 

[19:45]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[19:45]  ² tn Grk “he.”

[19:45]  ³ tn Grk “the temple” (also in v. 47).

[19:45]  ⁴ sn Matthew (21:12-27), Mark (11:15-19) and Luke (here, 19:45-46) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John (2:13-16) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in John 2:14 for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another.

[19:46]  ⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

[19:46]  ⁶ tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

[19:46]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.