John 2:13 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And the Jews’ passover was at hand. — Here, again, we are on common ground with the earlier Gospels. They place a cleansing of the Temple at the close of our Lord’s ministry at the only Passover which comes within the scope of their narrative. The subject has been dealt with in Notes on Matthew 21:12 et seq. (Comp. also Introduction: The Chronological Harmony of the Gospels, p. 35) The careful reader will not fail to observe the graphic touches peculiar to this narrative — the money-changers sitting, the sacrificial animals, the making of the scourge, the money poured out, the order to remove the doves which could not be driven out. We feel all through in the presence of an eye-witness. It is worth remembering that on the eve of the Passover the head of every family carefully collected all the leaven in the house, and there was a general cleansing. He was doing in His Father’s house, it may be, what was then being done in every house in Jerusalem. The remark will be seen to have an important bearing on the question of the repetition of the cleansing.