20. And Jesus entered into the temple of God and cast out all who were buying and selling in the temple, etc. ^[331].

The remaining three Evangelists^[75] have all set forth the things [recounted] with respect to this passage, but it is not for the present time to explain the differences these have from one another. For it will be sufficient, insofar as we are able, to expound on the Gospel being investigated [at present]. <But> since the four Evangelists [all] recorded the things pertaining to this passage, we made a fuller inquiry as able when we expounded on the [Gospel] according to John^[76] and, as it were, were explaining, “And he found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves” ^[332] etc. There^[77] we demonstrated that [the work of Jesus in] the passage at hand is in no way inferior to the extraordinary mighty works^[78] of Jesus because he who is deemed to be a son of a builder ^[333] made use of such boldness and authority, casting out those people mentioned from the temple during a festal celebration, and the leader of the nation recklessly using that sort of [boldness and authority] would not achieve the same result that Jesus did.^[79] And after serving the letter, we offered a figurative reading, as we were able, to the intention of John.^[80] But since also now the sequence compels us to say something with regard to the text of Matthew that is at hand, come, let us call on the Father of Wisdom and see if we might be able to say something worthy about this passage with Jesus’ bold action. Indeed, we should first <on the one hand> say something about the temple of God, which God confesses when He says by the prophet, My house will be called a house of prayer. Corresponding, then, with the circumcision according to the flesh and with the somatic feasts and sacrifices of the law the temple of God was deemed to be that construction built first by Solomon from insensate stones and was again rebuilt by Ezra, but was then destroyed by the Romans after the Incarnation (οἰκονομία) of the Savior. Indeed this house was supposed to be for prayer (εὐχῆς),^[81] and since it was destroyed, one must say that the Jews, since they no longer have a house of prayer, no longer have the special status of the oversight^[82] of God, which they presumed to have by praying in the house of prayer, nor [are they able] to perform the worship service according to the law. And let our Savior cast out from it those who were buying and selling in a bodily way, which he brings about as symbols of these properly spiritual acts, and let him cast down the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those selling doves. Let him also say the things set forth about the overturning of the nation at that time, which instead of performing a noble festival in the name of God were devoting themselves to buying and selling, not in the prescribed area in which one should buy and sell, but in the temple, where those who came together should have been praying as though in a house of prayer, but they were doing things in it opposed to prayer, buying and selling as though in a house of merchandise and changing money with silver and were sitting on seats, in order that they might sell doves. And let our Jesus destroy the indecency of the things taking place at the hands of the Jews at that time, reproving those who, instead of keeping festival according to the law, were acting as merchants and living in somatic extravagance.

21. Now I also consider the Church to be a temple built from living stones ^[334], and that there are certain people in it who are not living as though in the Church, but as waging war “according to the flesh” ^[335]. These people also turn the house of prayer <built> from living stones into a lair of brigands on account of their vice. For, after considering the sins committed in some of the churches by <those Christians> who deem “piety to be” another “means of gain” ^[336], when one should live only “from the gospel” ^[337]—who do not do this, but instead collect wealth and many possessions—what person will not say that the great mystery of the Church has become a lair of brigands? Consequently, to those who are sinning in the living temple that he built, Jesus address the passage from the Psalms that reads in this way: “What benefit is there in my blood, in me descending unto corruption?” ^[338] and the passage (I think) from Hosea, where the soul of Jesus, displeased by the life of those sinning and who seem to be in the temple, says, “Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers straw in harvest and as [one who gathers] grape-gleanings in the vintage, when there is no cluster to eat the first-ripe fruit. Woe is me, O soul! For the devout person has perished from the earth; and there is none among men that directs himself aright” ^[339]. If you might stumble at the idea that Jesus says these things and that when he mourns over our failures he says, “Woe is me, O soul!,” do give attention to these things together with [the passage] from the Gospel, where it is written that when [Jesus] saw Jerusalem “he wept over it, and he spoke” ^[340]. And what is more, since he with good reason wept over Jerusalem, he will weep over the Church with even more good reason, for it was built so as to be a house of prayer, but has become a lair of brigands on account of the foul covetousness and decadence of certain people (but would that they were not in fact the leaders of the people!).

But at that time Jesus entered into the temple of God and he purified it, casting out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturning the tables of the moneychangers along with the seats in which those who were selling doves were sitting. But now, to some extent they are not being overseen, those who are “together” <in> the name of Jesus Christ ^[341] in the synagogues who are buying and selling in the temple and doing <all> the other things, and Jesus is in no way manifested to them, so that after casting <them> out, he might save the rest or make those who have been cast out aware of [their] sin so as to enter back into the temple, no longer with selling and buying, or doing the rest. But when he oversees our sins and, out of his love for us, might visit [us], in order that he might discipline and scourge [us] as sons when he receives us ^[342], then the power of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit will enter those of us who are gathered together, and after entering, will cast out all those selling and buying in the temple; [with] those selling [it is] as if they are betraying^[83] even the useful thing they have, but are buying things that are worthless instead of the [useful] things, and are then putting these things in practice in the temple of God, the Church. But would that when [Jesus] enters into the temple of the Father, the Church, the house of prayer, he might cast down the tables of the moneychangers and <those with foul covetousness and> lovers of money, who indeed convert the valid money into an abundance of things that are cheap and worthy of no account, so that they might damage those with whom they change money, while they themselves put the money to use for what is not necessary. There are also others in the temple selling and buying the doves of Christ and betraying those who, as though doves, are without guile and pray, saying: “Who will give to me wings as of a dove, that I might fly away and I might be at rest?” ^[343], and who are obedient to rulers to whom it is not necessary.^[84]

22. I also consider the word concerning those selling doves to be fitting to those bishops, presbyters, and deacons who betray the churches by their greed, tyrannical rule, faithlessness, and irreverence. Wherefore Matthew and Mark mention the seats only of those selling doves, which they say were overturned by Jesus. O, would that those presumptuously sitting “on the seat of Moses” ^[344] and selling the whole Church of doves and betraying them to those who are governing^[85], would listen to these things with the meaning befitting the divine Scripture, concerning whom one might cite that which was said by the Lord in Jeremiah: “The leaders of my people do not know me; foolish sons they are, and not understanding; they are wise in doing evil, and they do not know [how] to do good” ^[345], and what is said in this way (I think) in Micah: “The rulers of my people shall be cast out of their house of luxury” ^[346]. For if they were listening, they would not have sold the doves of Christ, but they would have ordained their rulers who take care of the doves, who provide for their salvation, and who do not look about for certain ones, such that after sacrificing fattened doves, they might have a feast for themselves. Jesus says to those who are being cast out, since they are selling and buying and changing money and selling the doves, putting them to shame from the prophecies spoken in the person of the Father, that it is written, “My house will be called a house of prayer” ^[347]. For in [the] Church of God there must be nothing other than the prayer of every holy practice which indeed invites the oversight^[86] of God, being reckoned by God for prayer, insofar as it is possible to “pray without ceasing” ^[348]. But, woe to you, you who have made the house of prayer [into] a lair of brigands by your vices. Indeed one can find many places, in brief, where the matters of the Church so-deemed are conducted in such a manner, as though the congregation gathered together in the name of Christ differs in no way from a lair of brigands, so that it is said to them, “On your account My Name is continually blasphemed among the nations” ^[349].

If those who would contend over the clarity of Scripture require a more careful explanation of the three forms^[87] occurring of the things here recounted,^[88] perhaps those among the people who occupy themselves in the world with nothing other than maintaining their livelihood by selling and buying, and who seldom adhere to prayers and to such works as the divine Logos demands, are those selling and buying in the temple of God. And the deacons who do not manage the possessions of the Church well, but are continually groping after these things, and do not manage them well, but hoard the so-deemed wealth and possessions, in order that they might become wealthy from what the poor give to the Word,^[89] these are the money-changers who have tables of wealth, which Jesus overturned. And the bishops and [their] presbyters who have been entrusted the first seats of the people, and yet are, as it were, delivering the whole Church over to those whom they should not and installing those who should not be leaders, these are the ones selling doves, whose seats Jesus overturned. Each of those, therefore, who are seated on an ecclesiastical seat and who love “the first seats in the synagogues” ^[350], let him attend, lest he who is seated upon his own seat in the same way [may be found] worthy of being overturned when Jesus comes to overturn it. But also each of those who, from [diaconal] service, gathers <for himself wealth and defrauds the poor> of [their] possessions, after understanding the present Scripture let him no longer hoard money on the tables, so that Jesus might not overturn them. But also let those give heed who are <continually> going to the [places of] buying and selling for the sake of concern for the cares of this life, lest perhaps when Jesus comes, he might cast them out of the temple <of God>, and from the point he was cast out he has no hope of [re-]entering. It is suggested to me, as well, as I interpret the present Scripture that perhaps Jesus might perform these things with respect to his second coming or with respect to the anticipated divine judgment. For after entering into the temple of God completely, [that is,] the whole Church, which assembles in the name of Christ (from whom the Church consists)^[90] until the consummation of the age, those whom he finds occupying themselves with the selling and buying of those deemed to be in the temple, he will cast them out <as though unworthy of the temple> of God; and those whom he finds setting up tables and becoming money-changers, he will reprove [them], overturning their tables and with the word showing that, as it were, in regard to money they have sinned. Then also, he will overturn the tables (as we have explained [them]) of those selling doves. But if someone does not have these three forms and he is found in the temple of God, let him be bold, for neither will he be cast out by Jesus nor will anything of his be overturned, nor will he be reproached as a brigand, as though [he were] turning the house of prayer into a lair of brigands, at the time when those who are making the house of prayer into a lair of brigands by their own thievery and injustice will be destroyed.

23. Having said what occurs to us with regard to the letter [of the passage] and having offered a twofold explanation with regard to the Church, come let us see if the things according to this passage can be understood in this way. ^Every rational nature is no less a temple of God by nature than is the Church, having been prepared so that it might receive the glory of God^,^[91] with the account of its appearing in the temple after its construction having been recorded (in the second [book] of the Paraleipomenon [5.14] and in the third [book] of Kingdoms ^[351]). Now, by sinning, we have filled this temple of God by nature, the soul, with thoughts (λογισμῶν) of selling and buying and with other thoughts (διαλογισμῶν) that examine all things in terms of money. And we, when sinning, have also filled up [the temple] with other [thoughts of] selling and bartering even a certain holy remnant that exists in our soul, which is the dove. Jesus says, then, to those who are sinning and who have been filled with brigands, [that is, these] thoughts, what has been written: My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a lair of brigands. Jesus, therefore, on the one hand, casts out of the temple those who are making the house of prayer [into] a lair of brigands, while on the other hand those who think in the same way as the brigands say [concerning Christ], “Crucify, crucify him” ^[353], but concerning the brigand Barabbas, “Release to us Barabbas” ^[354]. Wherefore until this day Jews do not have Jesus (for they have not believed on the Son of God), but they have among themselves the Barabbas from the spiritual [forces] “of evil” ^[354], the brigand who has already been condemned ^[355] and has been confined “to prison” ^[356], whom of their own accord they requested to be released. On this account, Barabbas the brigand leads the faithless Jews.