The Rightly-Guided Injil

Section 20: The entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple

The Gospel According to Islam · Chapter 5, Jerusalem · Section 20

The entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple. 28 verses.

20

1And Jesus and those with him came nigh to Jerusalem unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives. 2And being in Bethany in the house of a man called Simon, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head and annointed his feet with oil. 3Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Why was not this costly annointment sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? And some other disciples also murmured against her.

4But Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? For she hath wrought a good work upon me.1 5Then Jesus sent two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: 6And as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied by the door without, where the two ways met; loose him and bring him. 7And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Teacher has need of him; and straightway he will send him hither. 8And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door as Jesus told them; and they loose him.

9And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt? 10And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go. 11And they brought the colt to Jesus, and they cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. 12And many spread their garments in the way: and cut down branches off the trees, and stawed them in the way. 13And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, Hosanna; 14Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.2

15And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and thus was fulfilled one part of the prophecy of Esias, in which it is written, He saw two riders, one of them was a rider upon an ass, and the other a rider upon a camel3 16And about the first rider, it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy king cometh, sitting upon a colt the foal of an ass.4 17And when he was come into Jerusalem, people asked each other, saying, Who is this? 18And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.5

19And Jesus went into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.6 20And he said unto them, I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 21And I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I pressed until it is accomplished. 22Think not that I am come to send peace, but a sword. 23For from henceforth there shall be five in a household divided, three against two, and two against three. 24The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, and the brothers and sisters against the brothers and sisters.7

25And on the morrow, they returned to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves. 26And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. 27And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer,8 but ye have made it a den of thieves. 28And the scribes and chief priests heard about it, but could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.9

  1. Mark 14:3-9; Matt. 26:6-13; Luke 7:36-50; John 12:3-8. It was probably Jesus himself who arranged for his anointment by the woman, just as he himself arranged for the colt that he rode when he entered Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-5). The anointing was a symbolic action formally installing Jesus as the Messiah (= the anointed one) before he entered Jerusalem riding a colt (cf. note 162). The Gospel of John, in fact, puts the anointment just before entry into Jerusalem, and Luke, too, relates a similar incident much before the passion. However, when under the influence of Paul of Tarsus the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus began to be viewed as his main messianic and saving acts, the anointing was interpretted as anointing for his burial; in other words, Jesus was the Messiah who was anointed to die, be buried, and raised to life. ↩
  2. Mark 11:1-11; Matt. 21:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-16. ↩
  3. A possible translation of Isaiah 21:7. ↩
  4. Zech. 9:9. Jesus might have been acting as suggested by the Scriptural passage in arranging for a colt and entering Jerusalem on it. But, as John 12:16 suggests, he did not declare openly why he was doing it. Actually, the whole incident is capable of another, rather ordinary, interpretation: it was not uncommon for a rabbi to ride on a beast at the head of his pupils, and, therefore, in entering Jerusalem on a colt at the head of his disciples, Jesus could possibly appear as just another rabbi. Indeed, this is how he must have appeared to most of the crowd (who probably did not have Zech. 9:9 in mind).

    The chants like “Hosanna, save us, we beseech thee,” and “Blessed be the kingdom of our father David” were also capable of double interpretation: such cries were customary at Jewish gatherings and could be taken as such. On the other hand, anyone could use or understand the words in specific reference to Jesus, expressing rejoicing at the coming of the messianic kingdom under that Messiah. Jesus’ disciples and sympathizers probably did take the words in the second, more specific sense, and later Christian tradition even modified the chants to make the sense clearer, using sentences like “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9) or “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matt. 21:9). ↩
  5. Matt. 21:10-11. It is because Jesus did not openly enter into Jerusalem as the Messiah-King that people could still refer to him as “the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.” ↩
  6. Mark 11:11. Matthew and Luke omit this part, but it seems historically true. The first day Jesus maintained a low profile, entering Jerusalem in a way that most outsiders took him for a rabbi. He took stock of the situation, and upon his return to Bethany in the evening, he thought about his subsequent course of action. He decided that he must use the festival to introduce himself to a maximum number of people (of course, by a drastic action). ↩
  7. Matt. 10:34-37; Luke 12:49-53; 14:25-26, Thomas 10; 17. The Gospels put these sayings in various other contexts, but they are more appropriate on the eve of the fiery and divisive action Jesus had decided to take the next morning. ↩
  8. Mark 11:15-17; Matt. 21:12-13; Luke 19:45-47. The “cleansing of the temple” was an action that won Jesus instant prominence. The whole crowd must have talked about it, and except for the few whose interests were threatened, people must have admired it. Perhaps, it was after this action, and not before, that people asked each other who Jesus was and were told that he was the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. ↩
  9. Luke 19:48. Jesus’ daring action in the temple naturally disturbed the authorities there, but they found themselves helpless, at least for the time being. Jesus was protected by the admiration and attention he had gained among the people. Moreover, the case for a legal action against him was not very clear. The chief priests, therefore, gave themselves time to think of a way of dealing with Jesus. ↩

← Section 19 · Contents · Section 21 →