He poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their
tables; and to them that sold the doves He said, Take these things
hence; make not My Father's house a house of merchandise. His
disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house
shall eat me up. The Jews therefore answered and said unto Him, What
sign showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, Forty and six
years was this temple in building, and wilt Thou raise it up in
three days? But He spake of the temple of His body. When therefore
He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He spake
this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had
said."--JOHN ii. 12-22.

Whether the Nazareth family returned from Cana to their own town before
going down to Capernaum, John does not inform us. Neither are we told
why they went to Capernaum at all at this time. It may have been in
order to join one of the larger caravans going up to Jerusalem for the
approaching Feast. Not only the disciples, some of whom had their homes
on the lake-side, accompanied Jesus, but also His mother and His
brothers. The manner in which the brothers are spoken of in connection
with His mother suggests that He and they bore to her the same relation.
They remained in Capernaum "not many days," because the Passover was at
hand. Having come to Jerusalem, and appearing there for the first time
since His baptism, He performed several miracles. These John omits, and
selects as more significant and worthy of record one authoritative act.

The circumstances which occasioned this act were familiar to the
Jerusalem Jew. The exigencies of Temple worship had bred a flagrant
abuse. Worshippers coming from remote parts of the Holy Land, and from
countries beyond, found it a convenience to be able to purchase on the
spot the animals used in sacrifice, and the material for various
offerings--salt, meal, oil, frankincense. Traders were not slow to
supply this demand, and vying with one another they crept nearer and
nearer to the sacred precincts, until some, under pretence perhaps of
driving in an animal for sacrifice, made a sale within the outer court.
This court had an area of about fourteen acres, and was separated from
the inner court by a wall breast high, and bearing intimations wh