Professor David Landry of the
University of St. Thomas says that "the importance of the episode is signalled by the fact that within a week of this incident, Jesus is dead. Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree that this is the event that functioned as the 'trigger' for Jesus' death."
Butler University professor James F. McGrath says that the animal sales were related to selling animals for use in the
animal sacrifices in the Temple. He also says that the money changers in the temple existed to convert the many currencies in use into the accepted currency for paying the Temple taxes. Sanders and
Bart D. Ehrman say that Greek and Roman currency was converted to
Jewish and
Tyrian money. A common interpretation is that Jesus was reacting to the practice of money changers routinely cheating the people, but Marvin L. Krier Mich says that a good deal of money was stored at the temple, where it could be loaned by the wealthy to the poor who were in danger of losing their land to debt. The Temple establishment therefore co-operated with the aristocracy in the exploitation of the poor. One of the first acts of the
First Jewish-Roman War was the burning of the debt records in the archives.
Pope Francis saw the cleansing of the Temple not as a violent act but more of a prophetic demonstration. In addition to writing and speaking messages from God, Israelite or Jewish ('spokespersons', 'prophets') often acted out prophetic actions in their life. According to
D. A. Carson, the fact that Jesus was not arrested by the Temple guards was due to the fact that the crowd supported Jesus's actions.
Maurice Casey agrees with this view, stating that the Temple's authorities were probably afraid that sending guards against Jesus and his disciples would cause a revolt and a carnage, while Roman soldiers in the
Antonia Fortress did not feel the need to act for a minor disturbance such as this; he also says that Jesus's actions probably prompted the authorities' decision to have Jesus
arrested some days later and later had him
crucified by the Roman prefect
Pontius Pilate. Some scholars such as those in the
Jesus Seminar as expressed in the book
The Acts of Jesus (1998) and others question the historicity of the incident as expressed in the Gospels in light of the fact of the vastness of the temple complex. In
The Acts of Jesus, the Jesus Seminar scholars assert the area of the temple complex is equivalent to "thirty-four football fields". In that book, those in Jesus Seminar further assert that during the great festivals such as Passover, there would be "thousands of pilgrims" in that area. Those in the Jesus Seminar feel Jesus "performed some anti-temple act and spoke some word against the temple".
John Dominic Crossan says that Jesus was not attempting to cleanse the Temple of any corruption. Instead, it was a radical protest against the institution of
animal sacrifice, which gave people a false sense of transactional forgiveness compared to
repentance. He believes these views aligned with
John the Baptist and
Jeremiah. == Interpretation of John 2:15 ==