What did Jesus do twice in the Bible?

Answer 1

A:Conservative Christians believe that Jesus twice overturned the tables of the moneychangers - once at the beginning of his ministry, as described in the synoptic gospels, and once just before his arrest, as described in John's Gospel. However, there are many grounds for dismissing this. Mark's Gospel says that Jesus went to great pains to avoid becoming known before it was his time, even telling those whom he helped not to tell others about him. Had the moneychangers already been attacked by Jesus on a year or two earlier, they would have recognised him the second time and been prepared to meet and repel him. John has Jesus go to Jerusalem for the Passover on three occasions before his death, and we would need to explain why he only assaulted the moneychangers on the first and last occasions.

In the synoptic gospels, the Cleansing of the Temple was the final trigger for the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. The author of John's Gospel wanted to use the more theologically sound explanation of the resurrection of Lazarus as the final trigger for the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. He needed to remove the distraction of the Cleansing of the Temple from his account of the last week, but still wanted to use this dramatic material and therefore moved it to the very beginning of the mission of Jesus. Thus, there were not two separate Cleansing of the Temple events, and Jesus did not overturn the tables of the moneychangers twice.