• 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.

John 2:16

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.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

At this point in our experience, having lived a life without Jesus at the helm, we might have had moments when conversations occurred about the differences in the synoptic gospels and what John has presented. The order of events are different. If we are to believe that all the gospels are inspired by God then why they are different might come into play.

When a story is being told there is often a historical background, origins. Origin stories often mean something important to the hearer. Look to the beginnings of each of the synoptic gospels to understand how they were inspired with purpose.

Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Mark 1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Luke 1:3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus,

Each synoptic gospel gave us an orderly account from their own perspective. Matthew from a Jewish perspective. Mark wrote to a gentile audience as an eye witness. Luke the physician was a historian, the only gentile writer, relating an orderly account of those things he had heard from various sources, perhaps his patients, who included women.

During this search I found one other thing interesting to me.

Daniel 4:2 It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.

What is most important to each and every new convert is what God has done for them personally. The bible has a way of relating itself to each of us in a very personal way and that should not be ignored since God is the author of His plan for each of us. It is a personal perspective that God the Father understands and knows best how to present His Son to the individual.

John’s perspective is one of relating his experiences as a matter of importance and not a chronological timeline. His gospel was written much later than the others, after decades of living a life obeying His Lord. He was remembering them with the help of the Holy Spirit in order of importance to God.