And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. How close is the resemblance of these remarkable words to those in Luke 2:49, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business!" or 'at my Father's' (see on that passage). Both express the same consciousness of intrinsic relation to the Temple, as the seat of His Father's most august worship, and so the symbol of all that is due to Him on earth. Only, when but a Youth with no authority, He was simply "a Son IN His own house;" now He was "a Son OVER His own house" (Hebrews 3:6), the proper Representative, and in flesh "the Heir," of His Father's rights. There was nothing wrong in the merchandise; but to bring it, for their own and others' convenience, into that most sacred place, was a high-handed profanation which the eye of Jesus could not endure.