And his disciples remembered that it was written,
The zeal of your house has consumed me.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
His disciples remembered, &c. This zeal of Christ was righteous indignation, says Euthymius, or rather ardour to do away with what was repugnant to God"s honour, so that He boldly exposed Himself, His life and His good name, to defend the honour of God, whom He loved above all things. For Christ did this before the proud and covetous Scribes and Pharisees, who opposed Him. The meaning then Isaiah , "The zeal, that Isaiah , the burning desire, of caring for the glory of Thy Temple, in which thou, 0 Lord, dwellest as Thine abode, and the indignation which I have conceived against the traders who profane it, have eaten, that Isaiah , have absorbed Me." Symmachus translates consumed Me, as fire eats away iron, and so transmutes it into itself, that it no longer seems to be iron, but fire itself.
S. Augustine asks, "Who is eaten up with zeal for the house of God?" and answers, "He who strives to amend everything which he sees amiss. He does not rest if he cannot rectify it. He groans and b...
But the Jews did not remember the Prophecy, and said, What sign showest Thou unto us? Psalm 69:9, both grieving that their shameful traffic was cut off, and expecting by these means to stop Him, and also desiring to challenge Him to a miracle, and to find fault with what He was doing. Wherefore He will not give them a sign; and before, when they came and asked Him, He made them the same answer, A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. Matthew 16:4 Only then the answer was clear, now it is more ambiguous. This He does on account of their extreme insensibility; for He who prevented them without their asking, and gave them signs, would never when they asked have turned away from them, had He not seen that their minds were wicked and false, and their intention treacherous. Think how full of wickedness the question itself was at the outset. When they ought to have applauded Him for His earnestness a...
