Texts in Conversation
Jeremiah 7 urges people not to trust in the Temple for safety while ignoring social injustice. In Mark, Jesus quotes Jeremiah to similarly condemn commercial activity in the Temple courts.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
LXX Jeremiah 7:11
Septuagint
10 yet you have come, and stood before me in the house, on which my name is called, and you have said, We have refrained from doing all these abominations. 11 Is my house, on which my name is called, a den of robbers in your eyes? And, look, I have seen it, says the Lord. 12 For go to my place which is in Selo, where I caused my name to dwell before, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
Mark 11:17
New Testament
15 Then they came to Jerusalem. Jesus entered the temple area and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 16 and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 Then he began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!” 18 The chief priests and the experts in the law heard it, and they considered how they could assassinate him, for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching.
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Notes and References
... Along with citing rapacious scribes, Jesus's disruption of Temple activities (Mark 11:15–17; Matthew 21:12–13; Luke 19:45–46; John 2:14–16) is often read as a protest against Temple exploitation... He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? But you have made it a den of robbers." (11:15–17) The problem Mark depicts is not exploitation or domination, plundering or robbing; it is the act of "doing business" itself. John's version accentuates the point; in it Jesus rages, "Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (2:16)... Jesus's action in the Temple echoes the prophetic critique in Jeremiah 7:11, "Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?" ...
Levine, Amy-Jill
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus
(pp. 151-152) HarperSanFrancisco, 2006
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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