The Temple Cleansing Part 2: Beware of a Priori History

In the second part of my series on the Temple cleansing, I discuss what one sometimes hears vaguely referred to as "other" reasons why many scholars reject two Temple cleansings. These reasons consist of the insistence that Jesus would not have been allowed to cleanse the Temple twice or would not have been allowed to continue to live and carry out a ministry for several years as described in the Gospel of John if he really cleansed the Temple early as John reports. I show that this is completely unfounded speculation. The Gospel of John presents a coherent and believable account in itself in which Jesus does just that--cleanses the Temple early and continues his ministry thereafter. The Synoptics all by themselves show that it is false to think of the Temple cleansing, all by itself, as a sufficient cause to determine that Jesus would die within a short time thereafter.  

This episode was originally uploaded to YouTube Oct 1, 2020.