ISB ~ John 2 v14 - 22

The cleansing of the Temple is recorded in all four Gospels. One difference among them is that John places the event at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, while the other Gospels place it at the end of his ministry. Two explanations for this are possible. (1) All four accounts may refer to the same event. If so, John moved the episode to the beginning of his narrative to highlight an important truth. As it stands, the Temple cleansing makes the same theological point as that in the preceding Cana episode:Jesus brings a New Covenant that supersedes the institutions of the Old. (2) Jesus may have cleansed the Temple twice. In fact, some have dated the episode in John around A.D. 27 or 28, calculating “forty-six years” from the time Herod the Great began renovating the Temple in 19 or 20 B.C. (2:20). This date fits more easily into the early period of Jesus’ ministry than the latter part of it.