Jesus at the Temple^(A)

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying^(B) and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers^(C) and the benches of those selling doves.^{(D) 13} “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’^[a](E) but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’^[b]”^(F)

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.^{(G) 15} But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,”^(H) they were indignant.^(I)

¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany,^(K) where he spent the night.

¹⁸ The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him,^(A) because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.^(B)

The Authority of Jesus Questioned^(A)

²³ Jesus entered the temple courts, and, while he was teaching, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him. “By what authority^(B) are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?”

²⁴ Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. ²⁵ John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?”

They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ ²⁶ But if we say, ‘Of human origin’—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”^(C)

²⁷ So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

⁴⁷ Every day he was teaching at the temple.^(A) But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him.^{(B) 48} Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words.