The following comments are repeated here from March 17, 2008 (Monday of Holy Week, Year Two), when comments were based on those of April 10, 2006 (Monday of Holy Week, Year Two) and comments on Lam. 1:1-5 (6-9) 10-12 from October 23, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 19, Year One). In both instances, material was drawn from earlier comments, from April 5, 2004 (Monday of Holy Week) included in an E-mail sent Saturday April 3, 2004, for Holy Week (April 4-10) for the former, and comments on Lamentations 1:1-5 (6-9) 10-12 of October 18, 2005 (Tuesday in the week of the Sunday closest to October 19, Year One) for the latter.

For all of the weekdays this week, Monday through Saturday, the Old Testament lessons are from Lamentations (but the story of Exodus is resumed on Easter Sunday and through Easter week). These selections fit the somber tone of the pre-resurrection part of Holy Week. The first four chapters of Lamentations are in the form of alphabetic acrostics. In chapters one, two and four, each has twenty-two verses, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet: verse one begins with aleph (x), verse two with beth (b), verse three with gimmel (g), and so forth. (This pattern is found in several of the Psalms, e.g. Pss. 9-10, 25, 34, 37 and others.) Chapter three of Lamentations has three lines–three verses–for each letter. (Ps. 119 has eight lines–verses–for each letter, 176 verses in all = 8 times 22. Some printed English Bibles present the Hebrew letter and its name before each eight-verse stanza.) But each verse in Lamentations 1 and 2 has three lines–except 1:7 and 2:19 (where for each the BHS apparatus marks a line, 1:7b and 2:19d, as “added”); chapter 4 has two lines per verse. This makes the chapters, except chapter 4, which is a little shorter, approximately the same length as chapter 3 with its three lines per stanza.

You might wonder (as I have) how spontaneous emotion or rigorous reflection can be made to fit in such a strict formal pattern. But then, poetry has been defined as “emotion remembered in tranquillity” (Wordsworth), and Shakespeare’s sonnets, with their strict fourteen line form, are profound expressions of emotion. The following paragraphs are marked by the Hebrew words which form the alphabetic acrostic. One will note that often the Hebrew sentence word order begins with the verb, which facilitates the alphabetical order.

R. B. Y. Scott and Roland E. Murphy call today’s lamentations reading a “Lament over Zion (NOAB, 2^nd ed., 1994, on Lam. 1:1-11a). This reading is the first half of the chapter 1 acrostic, and and is followed Tuesday by what Scott and Murphy call a “Lament Uttered by Zion” (ibid., on vv. 11b-22). The lament is for the desolation brought about by the Babylonian captivity of the sixth century and its aftermath. But all of us, as God's people, face times of loss and adjustment with feelings that seem best expressed in lament. For Jesus' disciples, events of Holy Week seemed at first to lead into darkness.

1. Hk!yx1 (’êkāh). As noted above this reading from Lamentations (aleph through lamed) laments the present state of Jerusalem. “How lonely sits the city / that once was full of people!” (Lam. 1:1a, b). Jerusalem’s loneliness is compared to that of a widow, in stark contrast to her former state. “How (’êkāh, understood) like a widow she has become, / she that was great among the nations! / She that was a princess among the provinces / has become a vassal” (v 1c, d, e, f). The New Jewish Publication Society translation (1985, 1999) renders the verse as follows:

In comment, Daniel Grossberg says, “Alas! This mournful cry is characteristic of the Hebrew elegy and also opens chs 2 and 4 (cf. Isa. 1:21; 2:1; 4:1). It suggests a contrast between a former glorious state and the current state of misery. The image of the widow evokes loneliness and bereavement, and also vulnerability” (The Jewish Study Bible, 2004, on Lam. 1:1).

2. hK!b4t9 OkB! (bākô tivkāh). Jerusalem “weeps bitterly in the night, / with tears on her cheeks” (v. 2a, b). The infinitive absolute (OkBA, bākô) intensifies the verb hKAb4T9 (tivkāh, “she weeps,” cf. E. Kautzsch, ed., and A. E. Cowley, trans., Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2^nd English ed., 1910, reprinted 1985, sec. 113 l, m). The prophets have accused Jerusalem of unfaithfulness to the LORD, comparing her idolatry to adultery. Now, “among all her lovers / she has no one to comfort her” (v. 2c, d), because “all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, / they have become her enemies” (v. 2e, f). F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp sees her “Lovers” here as “literally Judah’s political allies, but metaphorically her loved ones who have neglected their obligation of compassion” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Lam. 1:2). “For the metaphor of allies as lovers,” he adds, “see Ezek. 16:26-28.” Grossberg sees the term “friends” as related to both metaphorical senses, that is, “her political allies who should have aided and comforted her, [but] the term also points to Judah’s idolatry, her pursuit of ‘friends’ other than her ‘husband,’ God” (op. cit., p. 1590, on Lam. 1:2). According to Kathleen O’Connor, “Some of these former allies made common cause with the Babylonians when they attacked Jerusalem (see 2 Kings 24:2; Ezek. 25:12-17)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Lam. 1:2).

3. ht!l4G4! (gāl^etāh). “Judah has gone into exile (gāl^etāh) with suffering / and hard servitude” (v. 3a, b). For “suffering and hard servitude” (NRSV), the NJPS translation has “misery and harsh oppression,” which Grossberg says “recall the enslavement in Egypt (Gen. 15:13; Exod. 1:11; Deut. 26:6)” (op. cit., on v. 3). “Judah’s exile to Babylon,” he adds, “is like a second Egyptian enslavement.” As the lament continues, we are told that Judah “lives now among the nations, / and finds no resting place; / her pursuers have all overtaken her / in the midst of her distress” (v. 3c,, d, e, f).

4. NOy>c9 yker4D1 (darkê tsiyôn). “The roads to Zion (darkê tsiyôn) mourn, / for no one comes to the festivals” (v. 4a, b). Various aspects of “greater Jerusalem” share her mourning, the roads over which people should come to the festivals, “her gates,” which are “desolate” (v. 4c), her priests and young girls (v. 4d, e); in fact, “her lot is bitter” (v. 4f). According to Grossberg, “The once-busy thoroughfares are empty of pilgrims to the Temple, for the Temple is destroyed and the people are gone” (op. cit., on v. 4).

5. Uyh! (hāyû). “Her foes have become (hāyû) the masters, / her enemies prosper, / because the LORD has made her suffer / for the multitude of her transgressions; / her children have gone away, / captives before the foe” (v. 5). For “the multitude of her transgressions,” the NJPS translation has “her many transgressions” (a trivial difference), which Grossberg sees as “the first of several admissions (1:8, 9, 14, 18, 20) that the sins of Israel brought on the destruction” (ibid., on v. 5). Dobbs-Allsopp observes that “although 2 Kings attributes Judah’s destruction to specific transgressions (2 Kings 21:10-15), here the sins are not specified” (op. cit., on v. 5).

6. xceY20v1 (wayyētsē’ [Gk. kai; ejxhvrqh, kai exērthē = xcAY0_v1, BHS apparatus]), “From daughter Zion has departed (wayyētsē’) / all her majesty / Her princes have become like stags / that find no pasture; / they fled without strength / before the pursuer” (v. 6). The BHS suggestion based on the Septuagint, makes the verb passive: “All her majesty has been removed.” The city of Jerusalem, called here “daughter Zion,” has lost all her glory and charm as her princes fled before their enemy.

7. hr!k4z! (zāk^erāh). “Jerusalem remembers, / in the days of her affliction and wandering, / all the precious things / that were hers in days of old. / when her people fell into the hand of the foe, / and there was no one to help her, / the foe looked on mocking / over her downfall” (v. 7). This verse, or stanza, is the first of two that break the three-lines-per-stanza [six-half-lines-per-stanza] pattern. As noted above, the second line of verse 7, “all the precious things / that were hers in days of old,” is marked as a probable addition in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. If this is correct, the emphasis would fall on remembering the disaster of Jerusalem’s devastation rather than the mere loss of “precious things.” Could the lines about the “precious things” (v. 7c, d) have been added to reflect the lost majesty (v. 6, cf. v. 10)?

8. hx!F4H! xF04H2 (chēt^e’ chāt^e’āh). “Jerusalem sinned grievously (chēt^e’ chāt^e’āh), / so she has become a mockery; / all who honored her despise her, / for they have seen her nakedness; / she herself groans, / and turns her face away” (v. 8). The BHS apparatus suggests another correction, xFoHA (chātō’ ) for xF04H2 (chēt^e’), substituting the intensifying infinitive absolute (cf. above, on v. 2) for the noun “sin.” The confession that Jerusalem has “sinned grievously” is sincere (cf. v. 14). But the consequent punishment through defeat, devastation and captivity are disgraceful. According to Kathleen O’Connor, “Nakedness was considered shameful and humiliating (see Gen. 9:22-23; Ex. 20:26; Isa. 47:3; Ezek. 16:37-39. Ancient reliefs show prisoners being marched into captivity stark naked” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Lam. 1:8). The New Jewish Publishing Society translation (1985, 1999) has “For they have seen her disgraced” (Lam. 1:8 NJPS) where others have “For they have seen her nakedness” (NRSV). Grossberg notes that “disgraced” is literally “nakedness” (op. cit., on v. 8).

9. h0t!x!m4t_ (tum’āthāh). “Her uncleanness (tum’āthāh) was in her skirts; / she took no thought of her future; / her downfall was appalling, / with none to comfort her. / ‘O LORD, look at my affliction, / for the enemy has triumphed!” (v. 9). The lamenting tone continues with a notable shift to the first person in the third line here, as the poet lets personified Jerusalem speak for herself (v. 9e, f). But the poet resumes his third person account in verse 10.

10. Ody! (yādô). “Enemies have stretched out their hands (yādô) / over all her precious things,” says the lament; “she has even seen the nations / invade (UxB!6, bā’û) her sanctuary, / those whom you forbade / to enter your congregation” (v. 10). By “precious things,” says F. W. Dobbs Alsopp, is meant “Temple treasures (cf. 2 Chr. 36:10)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on v. 10). According to Grossberg, “The Temple has been violated as a woman is sexually violated” (op. cit., on v. 10). Dobbs-Allsopp says that “Invade elsewhere connotes sexual intercourse (Gen. 6:4; 2 Sam. 16:21; Ezek. 23:44; Prov. 6:29), suggesting rape” (on v. 10); the word xvb (b-w-’ ) is, of course, a very common word for all kinds of coming and going (William L. Holladay, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 1971, 1988, s.v. xvb). But Jerusalem certainly has been violated metaphorically, if not literally.

11. h.m.!f1-lK! (kol-‘ammāh). “All her people (kol-‘ammāh) groan / as they search for bread; / they trade their treasures for food / to revive their strength” (v. 11a, b, c, d). Wars and military sieges often lead to famine. One of the provisions for Jeremiah at the end of the siege was “an allowance of food and a present” (Jer. 40:5; cf. the later provision of dining privileges for King Jehoiachin in Babylonian captivity, 2 Kgs. 25:30).

At this point the poet allows the first-person voice of Jerusalem to return for the rest of the chapter (except v. 17). “Look, O LORD,” she says, “and see / how worthless I have become” (v. 11e, f).

12. Mk,ylex3 xOl (lô’ ’^a lêkem). “Is it nothing to you (lô’ ’^a lêkem), all you who pass by?” cries out lady Jerusalem. “Look and see / if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, / which was brought (llaOf, ‘ôlal ) upon me (yl9 llaOf, ‘ôlal lî), / which the LORD inflicted (hg!6Oh, hôgāh) / on the day of his fierce anger” (v. 12). Again Dobbs-Allsopp calls attention to the strong language. “The Heb. word translated weakly as was brought properly conveys violence: torture or rape (1 Sam. 31:4; Jer. 38:19; Judg. 19:25)” (op. cit. on v. 12). He refers to the words yl9 llaOf, ‘ôlal lî ), “be inflicted on” (Holladay, op. cit., s.v. llf, ‘ll, poal conjugation). The following lines refer to what “the Lord inflicted (hg!6Oh, hôgāh),” with a term translated “torment” in Isaiah 51:23 (Holladay, ibid., s.v. hgy (ygh). The violent actions are difficult to attribute to God, but the prophets had incessantly warned that God would use the foreign nations to punish Israel.

To the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints throughout Achaia:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4 who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. 6 If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation. (2 Corinthians 1:1-7, NRSV)

The following comments are based on those of March 17, 2008 (Monday of Holy Week, Year Two), when comments on 2 Corinthians 1:1-7 were selected from comments on 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 from May 28, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to May 25, Year One), when they were combined with revision and adaptation from May 23, 2005, (Monday in the week of Pentecost Sunday, Year One), and from April 10 and 11, 2006 (Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week, Year Two).

Paul begins this Letter to the Corinthians with his customary salutation, first identifying the senders. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother” (2 Cor. 1:1a). To this, compare the opening of 1 Corinthians, in which Paul also identifies a fellow worker and co-sender, Sosthenes (1 Cor. 1:1). In both he identifies himself as “an apostle (ajpovstoloV, apostolos) of Christ Jesus by the will of God,” but he does not include a lengthy definition of what that means (cf. Rom. 1:1-6). For the church at Philippi, with which Paul had excellent relations, he simply identifies the senders as “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:1a). According to John T. Fitzgerald, “The co-sender of the Letter is Paul’s protégé Timothy, who was with him when the church was established at Corinth (Acts 18:5; 2 Cor. 1:19) and later returned there as his intermediary (Acts 19:22; 1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10-11)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on 2 Cor. 1:1).

The salutation continues by naming the recipients as “the church of God that is in Corinth, including all the saints (a[gioi, hagioi) throughout Achaia” (v. 1b). Compare the words, “sanctified (hJgiasmevnoi, hēgiasmenoi) in Christ Jesus, called to be saints (a[gioi, hagioi)” in 1 Corinthians 1:2, used there with a touch of irony, perhaps, in light of the problems which Paul addresses in that letter. In some versions the words “to be” are in italic print, indicating that they are supplied by the translators (1 Cor. 1:2 AV/KJV; ASV, NASV). Achaia was “the Roman province consisting of the southern half of the Greek peninsula” (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, rev. ed., 1996, s.v. Achaia), and Paul’s reference to “all the saints throughout Achaia” here, refers to the Christian believers of the province, likely those in or near Corinth, for the most part. According to Fitzgerald, “Saints, lit. ‘holy ones’ [was] a popular early designation of Christians as consecrated to God (see 1 Cor. 1:2; 6:1-2). Since 27 BCE, Corinth had served as the capital of the Roman senatorial province of Achaia” (op. cit., on 2 Cor. 1:1). Paul’s salutation in 2 Corinthians includes his customary adapted form of the Greek and Hebrew greetings: cavriV (charis, “grace”; cf. caivrein, chairein, “greetings,” Jas. 1:1; Acts 15:23; 23:26), and eijrhvnh (eirēnē, “peace,” cf. MOlwA, šālôm, Judg. 19:20).

Paul typically follows the salutation with a section called the “thanksgiving,” often a “prayer of thanksgiving” (cf. Rom. 1:8-15; 1 Cor. 1:4-9; Phil. 1:3-11). But in 2 Corinthians, the thanksgiving is not so specifically thanksgiving for the faith and witness of the readers, as in 1 Corinthians and Philippians, for example, but a more general blessing. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he says, “the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis), who consoles (oJ parakalw:n, ho parakalōn) us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console (parakalei:n, parakalein) those who are in any affliction with the consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis) with which we ourselves are consoled (parakalouvmeqa, parakaloumetha) by God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). For these words about consoling and consolation (continuing in vv. 5, 6, 7), compare the designation of the Holy Spirit as “Advocate” (Jn. 16:7 oJ paravklhtoV, ho paraklētos, ‘the Comforter’ AV/KJV), and Jesus as an “advocate” (1 Jn. 2:1 paravklhtoV, paraklētos). According to Sze-kar Wan, “the designation of God as Father of mercies is common in Jewish worship; see Rom. 12:1; Phil 2:1” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on 2 Cor. 1:3-4). Fitzgerald says “Affliction and consolation are central themes both of the blessing and of the Letter as a whole; see 1:3-8; 2:4; 4:8, 17; 6:4; 7:4-7; 8:2, 13” (op. cit., on v. 4). On the words, “so that we may be able to console . . . ,” Wan says, “Paul asserts that whatever he experienced was for the sake of the Corinthians” (loc. cit.). Paul compares Christ’s sufferings for us to our consolation through Christ. “For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis) is abundant through Christ” (v. 5). “The sufferings of Christ,” says Fitzgerald, “indicates not only the afflictions Christ himself experienced, but also those his followers suffer in his name and on his behalf (4:10-11; Phil. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:11; 4:13)” (op. cit., on v. 5).

This thankfulness for consolation, generally stated here, anticipates the joy Paul later expresses about his catching up with Titus, finding him well and with good news about reconciliation with the church at Corinth (2 Cor. 7:5-16). But it is also for the Corinthian believers. “If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis) and salvation; if we are being consoled (parakalouvmeqa, parakaloumetha), it is for your consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis), which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering” (v. 6). Whether Paul is afflicted or consoled, it is for the consolation of the Corinthian believers. He expresses his hope and confidence in the Corinthian believers. “For Paul,” says Fitzgerald, “divine consolation may occasionally take the form of deliverance from suffering (as in vv. 8-10), but it consists more fundamentally in the gift of divine power (4:7-9) that enables one to endure (see 6:4; Rom. 5:3-5; 2 Thess. 1:4; Rev. 1:9) an abiding adverse circumstance (12:7-10)” (ibid., on v. 6). “Our hope for you is unshaken,” says Paul; “for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation (paravklhsiV, paraklēsis)” (v. 7). This, says Fitzgerald, is “one of several expressions of Paul’s confidence in the Corinthians; see also v. 24; 7:4, 14, 16; 8:7).

Ben Witherington III compares the thanksgiving or blessing in Paul’s letters to the exordium in ancient rhetoric. “In the first sections of a rhetorical piece (exordium, narratio, and proposition),” says Witherington, “it was considered important to win the audience over and thus gain a hearing.” And he adds, thinking of the intensity of Paul’s arguments later in the letter (especially chaps. 10-13), “In a delicate case such as Paul is dealing with here, it was important to establish rapport and ēthos first, and not deal with contentious matters at the outset lest the audience be alienated from the start” (Conflict and Community in Corinth; A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1994, p. 356, on 2 Cor. 1:3-7).

12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 He said to it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16 and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written,

18 And when the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him; for they were afraid of him, because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. 19 And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

20 In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 Then Peter remembered and said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered." 22 Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. 23 Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. 24 So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

25 "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses." (Mark 11:12-25, NRSV)

[NRSV note c: Other ancient authorities add verse 26, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”]

The following comments are based on those of August 17, 2009 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year One), when comments were repeated from February 17, 2009 (Tuesday in the week of the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), when comments were repeated from March 17, 2008 (Monday of Holy Week, Year Two), when comments on Mark 11:12-25 were repeated with editing and supplement from August 20, 2007 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year One), when comments were repeated with further editing and supplement from comments of February 13, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year One), when comments were combined with revision and supplement from August 15, 2005 (Monday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 17, Year One), and from April 10, 2006 (Monday of Holy Week, Year One).

For recent comments on Matthew’s version of the Cleansing of the Temple, see the Archive file for December 1, 2009 (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Advent, Year Two); for Luke’s version, see yesterday’s comments (March 28, 2010, Palm Sunday, Year Two); and for John’s version, see the Archive file for January 16, 2010 (Saturday in the week of the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two). For a table of parallel versions of this event, see the separate file, Cleansing the Temple Parallels. The following is a table of the references for this and related episodes.

Matthew 21:10-22 and Parallel Passages *
Jesus in Jerusalem (Cleansing the Temple), Return to Bethany
Matthew 21:10-17	Mark 11:11	Luke 19:45-46
The Cursing of the Fig Tree
Matthew 21:18-19	Mark 11:12-14	Luke 13:6-9
The Cleansing of the Temple
Matthew 21:12-13	Mark 11:15-17	Luke 19:45-46	John 2:13-17
The Chief Priests and Scribes Conspire against Jesus
	Mark 11:18-19	Luke 19:47-48	John 11:45-53; 8:1-2
The Fig Tree is Withered
Matthew 21:20-22	Mark 11:20-26		John 14:13-14; 15:7; 16:23
* Based on Kurt Aland, ed., Synopsis of the Four Gospels, rev. printing, 1985, secs. 271-275, pp. 237-24

In Matthew, after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mt. 21:1-9; Mk. 11:1-10; Lk. 19:28-40; Jn. 12:12-19), he enters the city and people ask “Who is this?” (Mt. 21:10). The question is answered: “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee” (v. 11). Immediately “Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves” (v. 12). In Luke’s account, immediately following Jesus’ triumphal entry, it is reported that Jesus weeps over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41-44), an episode that is followed immediately by Jesus’ cleansing of the temple.

According to Mark, after the triumphal entry, Jesus enters the temple to reconnoiter, as it were. “Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve” (Mk. 11:11). Mark tells us that, “On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry” (Mk. 11:12). Matthew reports their return to the city (Mt. 21:18), but it follows the cleansing of the temple on the first day (vv. 12-13), which Mark puts later, on the second day (Mk. 11:15-17). In Luke, the cleansing (Lk. 19:45-46) follows Jesus’ weeping over Jerusalem (Lk. 19:41-44) on the day of the triumphal entry.

As Jesus returns the next morning, according to Mark, he sees “in the distance a fig tree in leaf,” and, being hungry (Mk. 11:12), “he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it” (v. 13a; cf. Mt. 21:19a). However, he was disappointed by the tree’s lack of fruit (Mk. 11:13b; cf Mt. 21:19b). Mark explains that “it was not the season for figs” (Mk. 11:13c), but why, then, would Jesus expect figs? According to C. Clifton Black, “Israel is likened to a fruitless fig tree by the OT prophets (Jer. 8:13; Hos. 9:10, 16-17; Joel 1:7; Mic. 7:1)” (HarperCollins Study Bible, 1^st ed., 1993, on Mk. 11:13), and similar warnings are addressed to Christians (e.g. John 15:6; Gal. 5:16-21). According to Patricia L. Crawford, the “fig (Ficus carica)” is “a fruit tree common in both wild and cultivated forms throughout the Near East since ancient times. . . . The pear-shaped fruit, which is produced more than once during the year, has a high sugar content and is very sweet when ripe” (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, rev. ed., 1996, s.v. fig). According to R. McL. Wilson, “Bishop (Jesus of Palestine (1955), 217) tells of a fig-tree bearing fruit on Good Friday” (Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, 1962, reprint 1972, p. 811, sec. 707 b, on Mk. 11:12-14). The problem that some have with accepting this account at face value is apparently not that figs do not bear fruit in the springtime Passover season, but the apparent conflict between Jesus’ expectation and Mark’s explanation that it was not the proper season for figs. Disappointed by the tree’s lack of fruit, Jesus says, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again” (v. 14). Then follows the cleansing of the temple (vv. 15-17; cf. Mt. 21:12-13; Lk. 19:45-46; Jn. 2:13-17). It is already the following morning when, in Mark, as Jesus returns again to the city, he finds the fig tree withered (v. 20; cf. Mt. 21:19, at the end). Luke’s only parallel to the cursing of the fig tree occurs in a separate context, the Parable of the Unfruitful Fig Tree (Lk. 13:6-9).

When they came to Jerusalem, Jesus “entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves” (Mk. 11:15; cf. Mt. 21:12; Lk. 19:45). Mark add a further detail, that Jesus “would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple” (Mk. 11:16). According to Richard A. Horsley, “Jesus took forcible action against the sellers and buyers in the large Court of the Gentiles, the principal open public space in Jerusalem, where anyone–including non-Israelites–could go. Commerce, including money-changing, was necessary in connection with sacrifices and offerings in the semi-monetarized economy” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., augmented, 2007, on Mk. 11:15-16). Jesus quotes Isaiah: “ ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? / But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mk. 11:17, citing Isa. 56.7). The Isaiah text reads as follows: “these [i.e. ‘the foreigners,’ v. 6] I will bring to my holy mountain, / and make them joyful in my house of prayer; / their burnt offerings and their sacrifices / will be accepted on my altar; / for my house shall be called a house of prayer / for all peoples” (Isa. 56:7). Matthew and Luke omit the words, “for all the nations” (cf ‘foreigners,’Isa. 56:6, to which Mark’s version alludes; Mt. 21:13; Lk. 19:46).

Mark “sandwiches” the cleansing between the cursing of the fig tree (Mk. 11:13-14) and its withering, which they observed on the next day (v. 20). (In Matthew’s one account, Mt. 21:18-19, “the fig tree withered at once.”) By this sandwiching device, according to C. M. Tuckett,

Mark clearly wants the one story to interpret the other. Hence the fig tree incident provides the hermeneutical key for the temple account, at least as far as Mark is concerned. Thus for Mark, Jesus’ action in the temple is probably not a cleansing (as it is traditionally described), but a ‘cursing’, a final and definitive act of judgement against the temple and, perhaps, Israel. (The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001, p. 909, on Mk. 11:12-26)

Some would call Mark’s account of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple an acted out prophecy of its destruction, or they interpret the account as symbolic. M. Eugene Boring, for example, says,

That Mark inserts the ‘cleansing’ of the temple into the framework of the fig tree episode also suggests that the fig tree symbolically represents the temple. Mark seems intentionally to exclude a literal interpretation by having the narrator comment that it was not the season for figs, which appear at the end of May at the earliest (the Markan event is set at Passover, in late March or early April [but see the quote from Wilson, above]). The fig tree seems to represent the temple: its leaves, notable from a distance, give it an impressive appearance (cf. 13:1-3). Jesus approaches to inspect it, looking for fruit, as he had inspected the temple (v. 11). Like Yahweh seeking fruit from Israel, Jesus is disappointed (cf. Jer. 8:13; Joel 1:7; Ezek. 17:24; Mic. 7:1; Hos. 9:10, 16-17). The use of ‘fruit’ in verse 14, where ‘figs’ is expected, links to this tradition and strengthens the interpretation here presented. Like the prophets of Israel, Jesus pronounces God’s judgment on the unfruitful tree. (Mark; A Commentary, The New Testament Library, 2006, p. 319, on Mk. 11:13-14).

Other’s see Jesus’ action as “the renewal of the temple in the new age” (Sanders, 1985, cited by Tuckett), or an attack on “the exploitation and oppression of the poor which the temple system engendered” (also suggested by Tuckett). Regardless, for the chief priests and scribes it was a further incentive to find “a way to kill him” (Mk. 11:18). But the withering of the fig tree, treated as a miracle, becomes a lesson in faith for the disciples (Mk. 11:22-24; cf. Mt. 21:21). According to Horsley, if the mountain (v. 23) is the temple mount, Jesus’ promise that faith would remove it is “astounding” (op. cit., on vv. 20-24), and “says, in effect, to trust God to do what has been prophesied.”

Verse 25, a separate paragraph (NRSV), treats a separate topic. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mk. 11:25; cf. Mt. 21:22). The similar promises of answered prayer in John are found in different contexts (Jn.14:13-14; 15:7; 16:23). Verse 26, “But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses,” is relegated to a text note (NRSV text note h); it is lacking in most of the oldest and best manuscripts (x B L W D Y 565 700 etc., cf. the old Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Armenian and Georgian versions; contrast A D K X Q P etc.). For these witnesses, see Kurt Aland and others, eds., The Greek New Testament, 2^nd ed., 1968, on Mk. 11:25-26). Bruce M. Metzger says, “Although it might be thought that the sentence was accidentally omitted because of homoeoteleuton [i.e., similar line endings], its absence from early witnesses that represent all text-types makes it highly probable that the words were inserted by copyists in imitation of Mt. 6:15” (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 1^st ed., 1971, for use with the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament, 3^rd ed., comment on Mk. 11:26).

So Mark presents one of his “sandwich stories,” with the Cursing of the Fig Tree, the Cleansing of the Temple, and the discovery “in the morning” (Mk. 11:20), as Peter remarks, “The fig tree that you cursed has withered” (v. 21). Matthew “disassembles” the sandwich, presenting the cleansing of the temple first (Mt. 21:12-17), followed by the withering of the fig tree as a single episode (vv. 18-22). As we look ahead we see that in both Matthew and Mark, the next event is a confrontation in the temple about Jesus’ authority (Mt. 21:23-27; Mk. 11:27-33), but the transition to this event is more direct in Matthew, whereas Mark implies a new beginning: “Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes and the elders came to him . . .” (Mk. 11:27).

By his actions in the temple, Jesus condemns present practice, and points to the temple’s true purpose as “a house of prayer for all nations” (Mk. 11:17). According to Horsley, “Quoting Is. 56:7, and Jeremiah’s prophecy against the first Temple (Jer. 7:11), Jesus interprets his action as a prophetic demonstration of God’s condemnation of the Temple” (op. cit., on Mk. 11:17).

Daily Scripture Readings
Monday (March 29, 2010)*
Daily Office Lectionary, The Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A., 1979	Daily Lectionary, Book of Common Worship, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1993	Daily Lectionary, Book of Worship Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship, c. 1978 (2002 printing) ‡
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/index.htm http://www.pcusa.org/lectionary
‡ Daily Lectionary, Evangelical Lutheran Worship, ELCA, 2006. In the Evangelical Lutheran Worship book of 2006, the Daily Lectionary (pp. 1121-1153) is revised to correlate with the Sunday Lectionary (the Revised Common Lectionary) on the three year cycle: Year A, Year B (now current), Year C. “The readings are chosen so that the days leading up to Sunday (Thursday through Saturday) prepare for the Sunday readings. The days flowing out from Sunday (Monday through Wednesday) reflect upon the Sunday readings” (p. 1121).
Unless otherwise indicated, the scripture texts quoted are from The New Revised Standard Version (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers), 1989.
Monday in Holy Week: AM Psalm 51:1-18(19-20) PM Psalm 69:1-23 Lam. 1:1-2, 6-12 2 Cor. 1:1-7 Mark 11:12-25 From the Sunday Lectionary: Psalm 36:5-11; Isaiah 42:1-9; Hebrews 9:11-15; John 12:1-11	Monday Morning Pss.: 119:73-80, 145 Lam. 1:1-2, 6-12 2 Cor. 1:1-7 Mark 11:12-25 Evening Pss.:121, 6	Monday Morning Pss.: 119:73-80, 145 Lam. 1:1-2, 6-12 2 Cor. 1:1-7 Mark 11:12-25 Evening Pss.:121, 6
	Monday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 36:5-11 Hebrews 9:11-15 John 12:1-11	Monday in Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 36:5-11 (7) Hebrews 9:11-15 John 12:1-11
* Monday of Holy Week, Year Two