Jesus and the Temple

Abstract

This chapter turns to the prediction of the temple's destruction which introduces Jesus' eschatological speech in all three synoptic gospels. There are differing approaches towards the temple within the early church and frustrating range of disagreements in modern scholarly evaluation of Jesus' temple act and sayings. His last journey to Jerusalem together with the Twelve shortly before Passover and his focus on the temple after the arrival in the city are not coincidental, but on the contrary, constitute direct and conscious links to his kingdom message. The targets of Jesus' temple act were the money-changers, the vendors of doves, and the vessels used for transport of either money or sacrificial ingredients between the Royal Stoa and the inner parts of the temple. Keywords:early church; eschatological; Jerusalem; Jesus; kingdom message; Passover; Royal Stoa; synoptic gospels; temple; vendors of doves