- Matthew 21:13
And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. - Mark 11:17
And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. - Luke 19:46
Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
In verse 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: it can be seen that Jesus was more upset about where they were doing it than what they were doing. This occurred in the outermost court, the Court of the Gentiles, which was where the buying and selling of animals took place.
Non-jews were allowed to worship God in only one area of the temple and the leaders of the temple pushed them out in favor of the sellers of sacrifices since people were coming from great distances and did not bring their animals for fear of thieves on their journey.
Much has been said about the reason for the leaders making that decision because of one verse of text.
Mark 11:18 King James Version
18 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine.
Because this verse follows Mark 11:17 so closely some accuse those scribes and priest of corruption, taking a portion of the profits for themselves. There is no scriptural evidence of that but we can see that they were losing influence over the people who began believing Jesus.
It is my personal opinion that Jesus was more upset with them denying the gentiles an area to come and worship God. His mission from the beginning was all about true worship of His Father.
The placement of this event up front in John’s gospel as opposed to the late entries in the synoptic gospels tells me that God hates those who deny others the right to worship Him.