The Gospel According to St. John
⭑ Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 ⭑
- Chapter 2 -
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Jesus Cleanses the Temple
(Matthew 21:12–17; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–48)
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Footnotes
(a)2:3 Mary is saying that they lack the wine of a true Sacrament of marriage, for all they have is the water of an Old Testament (natural) marriage.(Conte)
(b)2:4 Jesus replies that He has not yet died on the Cross, which is the source of all the Sacraments. But she knows that time is no obstacle to God.(Conte)
(c)2:4
What is that to me, etc: These words of our Saviour, spoken to his mother, have been understood by some commentators as harsh, they not considering the next following verse: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye, which plainly shows that his mother knew of the miracle that he was to perform, and that it was at her request he wrought it; besides the manner of speaking the words as to the tone, and the countenance shown at the same time, which could only be known to those who were present, or from what had followed: for words indicating anger in one tone of voice, would be understood quite the reverse in another.(Challoner)
(d)2:10 Jesus turned the water of the Old Testament marriage into the wine of the New Testament marriage.(Conte)
(e)2:19 The word ‘Solvite’ is not so much ‘destroy’ as it is to loosen or release or set free. Jesus is referring primarily to his own death, which is not his destruction, but the separation of his soul from his body, a kind of loosening or release.(Conte)
(f)2:20 The length of time, 46 years, is divided into 40 plus 6 providentially. The 46 years is counted as the 46th Passover since the completion of the rebuilding of the Temple Sanctuary, which took 1.5 years. Josephus tell us that the Temple more generally, not merely the Sanctuary alone, took 8 years. Subtracting 1.5 years gives us 6.5 years: the length of time from the completion of the Sanctuary (at which time the rebuilt Temple was consecrated to God and the count of the years began) to the completion of the other buildings related to the Sanctuary. Then 40 more years are counted until Christ cleansed the temple by driving out the buyers and sellers.(Conte)
(g)2:20 Since Jesus was referring to his body as a temple, of which the temple building is merely a symbol, this passage also refers symbolically to the length of time since the Immaculate Conception. This was now the 46th Passover since the Immaculate Conception, when God began to build the temple of Christ’s body by first building the temple of Mary’s body, in which God dwelt for 9 months (in the womb).(Conte)