When did the Cleansing of the Temple happen?

Answer 1

A:

The synoptic gospels say that the event known as the Cleansing of the Temple, in which Jesus asserted his authority in the house of his father by driving out the money-changers and those who sold sacrifices, occurred at the very end of Jesus' mission, just before his arrest and trial. This event was portrayed as the trigger for the arrest of Jesus.

The author of John's Gospel wrote a story of the resurrection of Lazarus, loosely based on a parable found in Luke's Gospel, and made this the trigger for the arrest of Jesus (John 12:10,19). The Cleansing of the Temple was no longer relevant to the arrest of Jesus and the author of John simplified his storyline by moving this event to the very beginning of the mission of Jesus.

Seeing the disjunction between the synoptic account and John's account, many theologians say there were two Cleansing of the Temple episodes, but this defies logic. In the synoptic gospels, especially in Mark, Jesus went out of his way to avoid the attention of the high priest and religious authorities until he was ready, and to have created pandemonium in the Temple at the beginning of his mission would have contradicted this. Moreover, a second attack on the moneychangers would not have achieved the surprise necessary for its success, nor made a worthwhile point.