The passage
      v13. A devout Jew was to "appear before Jehovah" at the feast of Passover to commemorate the salvation of the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. John records three visits, this being the first.
      v14. In one of the outer courts, probably the court of the Gentiles, sacrificial animals were on sale and money changes exchanged foreign coinage into Tyrian coinage, at a fee of course. Only Tyrian coinage was permitted for use in the temple offertory and this because it was of superfine quality.
      v15-16. Making a whip out of strong reeds, Jesus set about driving the traders out of the temple precincts. Unlike Mark, where they are described as a "den of robbers" (thieves), the issue here is over their trading in "my Father's house" - it's not a shop.
      v17. Quoting Psalm 69:9, albeit with a change of tense, the disciples recognize in Jesus' behavior messianic qualities: a passion to honour, even at personal risk, the dwelling place of the divine.
      v18. The Jewish authorities are most likely aware that the trading is anything but proper for the temple precincts and that Jesus' denouncing of the practice has messianic overtones. Yet, if Jesus is the messiah, possessing the "authority" to perform such an act, the authorities want a few messianic miracles to conform his authority and thus, his messianic credentials.
      v19. Jesus offers a sign, but to his hearers it is a dark saying. "Destroy this dwelling place of the deity and I will rebuild/raise it up again." The saying can apply just as easily to the temple sanctuary as to the person of Jesus. It's meaning alludes the authorities, although they will use it as evidence at Jesus' trial in two years time by claiming that he spoke against the temple. The fact is that deity no longer dwells in the temple, but rather in Jesus. The sanctuary at Jerusalem will be destroyed as will the sanctuary of the messiah, but "within three days" the messiah's sanctuary will be rebuilt.
      v20. Construction on the new temple got underway some 46 years earlier and it would not be completed until 63AD. The authorities were rather sceptical that Jesus could rebuild it in three days if it were destroyed.
      v21. John now explains the meaning of Jesus' mysterious saying. The temple Jesus is speaking about is his body, a building "not made by man", Mk.14:58.
      v22. Only after the resurrection and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (cf. 14:26), were the disciples able to understand the meaning of Jesus mysterious words. It was only then that they "believed" his words and the scripture that they rested on.

The house of the Lord
      "Zeal for your house will consume me."
      There is an interesting pseudo scientific theory floating around that inanimate objects, such as stone, can absorb, or better, record significant events that are played out beside them. The theory is used to explain ghosts. A haunted house has simply recorded some horrific event in the past and replays it when triggered by a particular set of environmental factors. It's true isn't it, that some houses we enter give us a warm sensation while others leave us with a chill up the spine?
      Church buildings are often warm and comforting. Maybe they have absorbed something of the wonder and beauty of all that is played out in them Sunday by Sunday. Maybe it's just that the building triggers special memories, a christening, a dedication, a marriage, even the farewell. Of course, it's common to speak of the church as the sanctuary of the Lord, his dwelling place, his shrine, temple. If that were so, there would certainly be a special buzz in the building, but of course, God's dwelling place is in a building not made by hands.
      Jesus knew well that the Shekinah glory, the radiant presence of God, once resided in the Jerusalem temple. Even the memory of this fact fired his zeal to cast the traders out of the temple precincts, yet its destruction was still inevitable. The "Father's house", the temple, was now a building "not made by man." The divine resided in another sanctuary, the very person of Christ. Yet, as the stone of the temple mount must face destruction, so to will Christ's divine temple face destruction. Zeal for the divine sanctuary will take Christ to the cross, but unlike the temple of stone, Christ will rise again within three days.
      When two or three gather in worship, in adoration to our risen Lord, an amazing miracle is enacted. The presence of the divine in and through the risen Lord, is realized in the midst of his people. So, the Lord's new sanctuary is in the midst of the body of Christ gathered, and the divine presence is made manifest in word and sign, in the gospel proclaimed and in the sacraments enacted.
      Although a church building is not really the Lord's Sanctuary, it houses that sanctuary and so is for us a special place.

v13
      anebh (anabainw) aor. "went up" - went up, go up. Going up to the hill country of Judah, but also the term was used of going on a pilgrimage. "Jesus went to Jerusalem", CEV.

v14
      iJerw (on) "temple" - obviously the outer court of the temple, the court of the Gentiles.
      pwlountaV (pwlew) pres. part. "selling" - There is no extant evidence that this was excessively corrupt, other than a trader's profit margin and a fee to the authorities for use of the site. That's not to say it wasn't corrupt. The issue is that the temple has a higher purpose and this purpose is being prostituted by trading, even if the trading is of animals for sacrifice and exchange of foreign coinage for Tyrian coinage.
      touV kermatistaV kaqhmenouV (kaqhmai) part. "others sitting at tables exchanging money" - coindealers/coinchangers sitting. Commonly used of a person who exchanges money in denomination terms, although here of exchanging one type of coinage for another. The Tyrian coinage was prescribed, not because it was free of idolatrous images, which it wasn't, but probably because it was of fine quality and exact weight. "The money changers sitting at their tables", Barclay.

v15
      fragellion (on) "whip" - Lat. flagellum. scourge. Also a whip to drive animals which is most likely the meaning here. A whip of cords, or better, a whip of rushes.
      exebalen (ekballw) aor. "drove [all] from" - cast out. "He drove them all out (those engaged in trade), the sheep and the oxen as well", C.K. Barrett.
      anetreyen (anatrefw) aor. "overturned" - he turned/threw over. "He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their conins", TEV.

v16
      oikon (oV) emporiou (on) "market" - a house of merchandise, a place of trade. Unlike the synoptics where the phrase "den of thieves" indicates dishonest dealing in the market, here the sense is that trading pollutes the proper function of the temple. Don't you dare turn my Father's house into a market", Phillips.

v17
      emnhsqhsan (mimnhskomai) aor. pas. "remembered" - remember. "The disciples recalled the words of scripture", REB.
      katafagetai (katesqiw) fut. ind. mid. "will consume" - consume, eat up. In the Hebrew text the word is perfect, indicating that the psalmist is, at the present moment, undergoing suffering due to his zeal for the temple. The LXX has a variant reading where the word is in the future tense, although this may be a later Christian influence where the gospel quote is read back into the LXX text. The future tense gives the quote a messianic flavour.The consuming suffering of the messiah, even his destruction, due to his passion for God's dwelling place, is the salient point of the quote. "Burns in me like fire", CEV.

v18
      apekriqhsan (apokrinomai) aor. pas. "demanded" - answered [then the Jews and said to him]. "Answered" is used to introduce a direct statement rather than actually answering Jesus. It is the Jewish authorities who are now questioning Jesus regarding his actions. "The Jews intervened and said", NJB.
      deiknueiV (deiknumi) "you show" - [what sign do you] show [us that you do these things?]. John combines what are separate questions in Mark - "by what authority" at the cleansing, and the Pharisees "asked of him a sign." John goes on to explain that the only sign they will receive is the resurrection, although for the immediate audience it is not really a sign but rather a "dark" saying. Mark has no sign, Matthew and Luke have the sign of Jonah. For Matthew, 12:39f, Jesus' sign to his own sinful generation aligns to Jonah's three days in the belly of a large fish (another "dark" saying) , whereas in Luke it aligns to Jonah's ministry to Ninivah, 11:29. In Matthew 16:4 the phrase "sign of Jonah" is used without explanation. Preaching (the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ) to a "wicked generation" is most likely the meaning of the sign of Jonah. Although, note that Matthew, along with John, obliquely hints that the sign is itself the resurrection. "What sign ..... can you show as authority for your action?", NEB.

v19
      lusate (luw) aor. imp. act. "destroy" - loose, loose component parts and therefore "destroy", break down, even kill. The imperative may be used here to express a condition, "if you destroy / tear down...." None-the-less, the use of an imperative in an ironical sense has Old Testament precedence. Interestingly, in Mark the witnesses at Jesus' trial present a version of this statement in their testimony, Mk.14:58. It is even used as an insult against Jesus, Mk.15:29. Yet, there is no record of this statement in Mark, other than Jesus' prediction that the temple would be destroyed, Mk.13:2. There is strong textual support that Jesus linked enigmatic statements concerning both the destruction of the temple-sanctuary and the destruction of his temple (his body as a dwelling place of the divine) and that the resurrection of his temple (or more properly the proclamation of the resurrection) would serve as the only sign for this sinful generation. The problem for the witnesses at Jesus' trial is that the mysterious nature of his sayings meant that they contradicted each other. Was Jesus speaking about a sanctuary of stone, or "not made by man", or both? Of course, their problem is also ours.
      ton naon (oV) "temple" - Possibly the inner sanctuary of the temple, shrine. Jesus does seem to be playing with words here. Clearly the "temple" is his "body", v21, but he is also alluding to the destruction of the physical building on temple mount as well. Both will be destroyed, but his temple will be resurrected.
      egerw (egeirw) fut. "raise" - raise up. Like "destroy" the word can easily mean the raising up or rebuilding of buildings just as easily of the rebuilding of a body. "I will build it again", CEV, or "I will raise it up", NJB.
      en trisin hJmeraiV "in three days" - possibly "within the space of three days", C.K. Barrett.

v20
      oikodomhqh (oikodomew) aor. ind. pass. "It has taken [forty-six years] to build" - was built, erected. The temple was not completed until the 60's so the building work was still in progress and thus, an Aorist is an inappropriate tense. Do we stretch the grammar and add "so far"?

v21
      tou swomatoV (a atoV) "body" - In his play on words, the temple/shrine that Jesus is referring to is his body. The temple was to be the house of the Lord, but now the divine presence resides in Jesus. As with the temple buildings, his body will be destroyed, but not annihilated. From now on the divine presence will be accessed by those who come to the risen Lord rather than the temple mount. Some commentators have suggested that "body" here means the church, but this is unlikely. There are, of course, numerous other theories which require a rewriting of the text based on assumptions, for example, that John read far more into Jesus' words than were originally in them, Barclay. Given that all we have is the text, we are best to allow the text to control our interpretation rather than be controlled by our assumptions. We really can't identify the intentions of the author, only the intentions of the text.