Church Fathers Commentary Matthew 21:10-16

"And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, Who is this? And the multitudes said, This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of he money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves; and he saith unto them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer: but ye make it a den of robbers. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were moved with indignation, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these are saying? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea: did ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise?" — Matthew 21:10-16 (ASV)

St. Jerome: When Jesus entered with the multitudes, the whole city of Jerusalem was moved, wondering at the crowds but not knowing His power.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: They were moved with good reason at the sight of something so amazing. A man was praised as God, but it was God who was praised in the man. I suppose, however, that those who praised Him did not know what they were praising, but the Spirit that suddenly inspired them poured forth the words of truth.

Origen of Alexandria: Moreover, when Jesus entered the true Jerusalem, they cried out, wondering at His heavenly virtues, and said, “Who is this King of glory?” (Psalm 24:8).

St. Jerome: While others were in doubt or inquiring, the common multitude confessed Him: “But the people said, This is Jesus the Prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” They begin with the lesser so that they may come to the greater. They hail Him as that Prophet whom Moses had said should come like himself,ⁱ which is rightly written in Greek with the testimony of the article, “From Nazareth of Galilee,” [marg. note: ο προφητης] for He had been brought up there, so that the flower of the field might be nourished with the flower of all excellencies.

Rabanus Maurus: It should be noted that His entry into Jerusalem was five days before the Passover. For John relates that six days before the Passover He came to Bethany (John 12:1), and on the next day, sitting on the donkey, entered Jerusalem. In this, observe the correspondence between the Old and New Testaments, not only in events but also in seasons. For on the tenth day of the first month, the lamb that was to be sacrificed for the Passover was to be taken into the house,ⁱ because on the same day of the same month—that is, five days before the Passover—the Lord was to enter the city in which He was to suffer.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: “And Jesus entered into the temple of God.” This was the role of a good Son: to hasten to His Father's house and do Him honor. Therefore, as an imitator of Christ, as soon as you enter any city, first run to the Church.

Furthermore, it was the role of a good physician that, having entered to heal the sick city, he should first apply himself to the source of the sickness. For just as everything good comes out of the temple, so also does every evil. When the priesthood is sound, the whole Church flourishes, but if it is corrupt, faith is impaired. Just as when you see a tree with pale-colored leaves you know that it is diseased at its root, so when you see an undisciplined people, conclude without hesitation that their priesthood is unsound.

St. Jerome: “And he cast out all them that sold and bought.” It should be known that in obedience to the Law, in the Temple of the Lord—venerated throughout the whole world and visited by Jews from every quarter—innumerable victims were sacrificed, especially on festival days: bulls, rams, and goats. The poor offered young pigeons and turtle-doves, so that they might not omit all sacrifice. But it would happen that those who came from a distance would have no victim.

The priests therefore contrived a plan for making a profit from the people, selling to those who had no victim the animals they needed for sacrifice, and then receiving them back again as soon as they were sold. But this fraudulent practice was often defeated by the poverty of the visitors, who, lacking the means, had neither victims nor the money to purchase them. They therefore appointed bankers who could lend to them under a bond. But because the Law forbade usury, and money lent without interest was profitless—and sometimes even resulted in a loss of the principal—they devised another scheme. Instead of bankers they appointed “collybistae,” a word for which Latin has no equivalent.ⁱ

They called sweetmeats and other small gifts “collyba,” such as, for example, parched pulse, raisins, and apples of various sorts. Since they could not take usury, they accepted the value in kind, taking things that are bought with money, as if this was not what Ezekiel preached, saying, “You shall not receive usury nor increase” (Ezekiel 18:17). Seeing this kind of traffic, or rather cheating, in His Father's house, the Lord was moved with spiritual zeal and cast this great multitude of men out of the Temple.

Origen of Alexandria: For because they ought neither to sell nor to buy, but to give their time to prayer while assembled in a house of prayer, it follows, “And he says to them, It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:7).

St. Augustine of Hippo: Let no one, therefore, do anything in the oratory except that for which it was made and from which it got its name. It follows, “But you have made it a den of thieves.”¹

St. Jerome: For he is indeed a thief, and turns the temple of God into a den of thieves, who makes a profit from his religion. Among all the miracles performed by our Lord, this seems to me the most wonderful: that one man, and He at that time so lowly that He was afterward crucified, was able, by the blows of one scourge, to cast out so great a multitude, even while the Scribes and Pharisees were exasperated against Him, seeing their profits thus cut off. Surely a flame and starry ray darted from His eyes, and the majesty of the Godhead was radiant in His countenance.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is clear that the Lord did this not once but twice; the first time is told by John, this second occasion by the other three.²

St. John Chrysostom: This aggravates the fault of the Jews, who, after He had done the same thing twice, still persisted in their hardness.³

Origen of Alexandria: Mystically, the Temple of God is the Church of Christ, in which there are many who live not spiritually, as they should, but according to the flesh. By their actions, they make that house of prayer, which is built of living stones, into a den of thieves. But if we must describe more closely the three kinds of men cast out of the Temple, we may say this: Whoever among a Christian people spends their time in nothing else but buying and selling, continuing only a little in prayer or other right actions—these are the buyers and sellers in the Temple of God. Deacons who do not manage well the funds of their Churches, but grow rich from the poor man's portion—these are the money-changers whose tables Christ overturns.

We learn from the Acts of the Apostles that deacons preside over the tables of Church money.ⁱ Bishops who entrust churches to those they should not are the ones who sell the doves—that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit—whose seats Christ overturns.

St. Jerome: But, according to the plain sense, the doves were not in seats but in cages, unless indeed the sellers of the doves were sitting in seats. But that would be absurd, for the seat denotes the dignity of the teacher, which is brought to nothing when it is mixed with covetousness.

Also note that through the avarice of the Priests, the altars of God are called tables of money-changers. What we have said of churches, let each person apply to themselves, for the Apostle says, “You are the temple of God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). Let there not be, therefore, in the abode of your heart the spirit of bargaining or the desire for gifts, lest Jesus, entering in anger and sternness, should purify His temple not without a scourge, so that from a den of thieves He might make it a house of prayer.

Origen of Alexandria: Or, in His second coming, He will cast out and overturn those whom He finds unworthy in God's temple.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: For this reason also He overturns the tables of the money-changers: to signify that in the temple of God there should be no coin except spiritual coin, which bears the image of God, not an earthly image. He overturns the seats of those who sold doves, saying by that deed, “Why are there so many doves for sale in My temple, since that one Dove descended as a free gift upon the temple of My Body?”

What the multitude had proclaimed by their shouts, the Lord shows in deeds. From this it follows, “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.”

Origen of Alexandria: For in the temple of God, that is, in the Church, not all have sight, nor do all walk uprightly. Only those who understand that they need Christ and no one else to heal them, by coming to the Word of God, are healed.

Remigius of Auxerre: That they are healed in the Temple signifies that people can only be healed in the Church, to which is given the power of binding and loosing.

St. Jerome: For if He had not overthrown the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves, the blind and the lame would not have deserved to have their former sight and power of motion restored to them in the temple.

St. John Chrysostom: But even so, the Chief Priests were not convinced; instead, they were indignant at His miracles and the shouts of the children.

St. Jerome: For, not daring to lay hands on Him, the Priests slandered His works and the testimony of the children who cried, “Hosanna to the Son of David, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” as if this could be said only to the Son of God. Let Bishops and all holy men, then, be careful about allowing these things to be said to them, if this is charged as a fault in Him who is truly Lord—to whom this was said because the faith of the believers was not yet confirmed.

Pseudo-Chrysostom: For as a pillar that is a little out of the perpendicular, if more weight is placed on it, is driven to lean still more to one side, so also the heart of man, once it has turned aside, is only stirred to even greater jealousy by seeing or hearing the deeds of a righteous man. In this way the Priests were stirred up against Christ and said, “Do you hear what these say?”

St. Jerome: But the answer of Christ was cautious. He did not say what the Scribes wanted to hear: “The children do well to bear witness to me.” Nor, on the other hand, did He say: “They are doing wrong; they are only children, and you ought to be indulgent to their tender years.” But He brings a quotation from the eighth Psalm (Psalm 8:2), so that though the Lord was silent, the testimony of Scripture might defend the words of the children, as it follows, “But Jesus said to them, ‘Yea, have you never read...’”

Pseudo-Chrysostom: It is as though He had said, “So be it; it is My fault that these cry out this way. But is it My fault that so many thousand years ago the Prophet foretold that it would be so?”

But babes and sucklings cannot know or praise anyone. Therefore they are called babes, not in age, but in guilelessness of heart; they are called sucklings because they cried out, moved by their joy at the wonderful things they saw, as if by the sweetness of milk. Miraculous works are called milk because seeing miracles is no toil, but rather excites wonder and gently invites to the faith. Bread is the doctrine of perfect righteousness, which can only be received by those who have their senses exercised in spiritual things.

St. John Chrysostom: This was at once a type of the Gentiles and a great comfort to the Apostles. So that they would not be perplexed, wondering how they, having no education for the task, should preach the Gospel, these children going before them removed that fear. For He who made these children sing His praises will give speech to the Apostles.

This miracle also shows that Christ was the Framer of nature, seeing that the children spoke things full of meaning and in agreement with the Prophets, whereas the men uttered things that were meaningless and full of frenzy.

1. Regula ad Serv. Dei., 3
2. de Cons. Ev., ii, 68
3. Hom., lxvii