And said unto them,
It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves.
Read Chapter 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
My house shall. That man is a thief, and turns the temple of God into a den of thieves, who makes religion a cloak for his avarice. Of all the innumerable miracles which Jesus performed, none appear greater in my eyes than this: that one man, at that time so contemned and despised, who was afterwards nailed to the tree of the cross, should with his single power be able to expel from the temple that multitude of Scribes and Pharisees, who were so maliciously bent upon his destruction, and so greedy of gain. Something more than human appeared in his celestial countenance on this occasion, and the majesty of the divinity showed itself in his looks and gestures. Igneum quid dam, atque sidereum radiabat ex oculis ejus, et divinitatis majestas lucebat in facie. (St. Jerome)
Hence it is not to be wondered at, if in the utmost fear and consternation they fled away. (Menochius)
But not even so were they persuaded, but were sore displeased, and this while they heard the prophet crying aloud, and the children in a manner beyond their age proclaiming Him. Wherefore also He Himself sets up Isaiah against them as an accuser, saying, My house shall be called a house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7
. As Master of the house, which is the temple, He cast out the sellers, showing that the things of the Father are also His own. He did this out of concern for the good order of the temple, but also to show the transformation that would take place in the sacrifices. He cast out the cattle and the doves and thus foretold that there would no longer be any need of animal sacrifice and slaughter, but rather, of prayer. For My house, He says, is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves, in which there is slaughter and bloodletting. But He also called the temple a den of thieves because of the hawkers and the buyers and sellers, for the love of profit is a thieving passion. The "money changers" [in Greek, kollybistai] take their name from the kollybos, a coin of small denomination. Those who sell doves are also those who sell the ranks of ordination in the churches, for they are selling the gift of the Holy Spirit, which once appeared in the form of a dove (Mt. 3:16); as a res...
