ef of the priests, were to be found. Compared with
Jerusalem all other places were provincial and of small influence. A
Messiah, who had not from the outset given up hope of winning the capital,
cannot have long delayed his effort to find a following there.

114. Arriving at Jerusalem at the Passover season, in the early spring,
Jesus remained in Judea until the following December (John iv. 35).
Evidently the record which John gives of these months is most fragmentary,
and from his own statement (xx. 30, 31) it seems highly probable that it
is one sided, emphasizing those events and teachings in which Jesus
disclosed more or less clearly his claim to be the Messiah. Doubtless the
full record would show a much closer similarity between this early work in
Judea and that later conducted in Galilee than a comparison of John with
the other gospels would suggest; yet it is evident that Jesus opened his
ministry in Jerusalem with an unrestrained frankness that is not found
later in Galilee.

115. It is a mistake to think of the cleansing of the temple as a distinct
Messianic manifesto. The market in the temple was a licensed affront to
spiritual religion. It found its excuse for being in the requirement that
worshippers offer to the priests for sacrifice animals levitically clean
and acceptable, and that gifts for the temple treasury be made in no coin
other than the sacred "shekel of the sanctuary." The chief priests
appreciated the convenience which worshippers coming from a distance would
find if they could obtain all the means of worship within the temple
enclosure itself. The hierarchy or its representatives seem also to have
appreciated the opportunity to charge good prices for the accommodation so
afforded. The result was the intrusion of the spirit of the market-place,
with all its disputes and haggling, into the place set apart for worship.
In fact, the only part of the temple open to Gentiles who might wish to
worship Israel's God was filled with distraction, unseemly strife, and
extortion (compare Mark xi. 17). Such despite done the sanctity of God's
house must have outraged the pious sense of many a devout Israelite. There
is no doubt of what an Isaiah or a Micah would have said and done in such
a situation. This is exactly what Jesus did. His act was the assumption of
a full prophetic authority. In itself considered it was nothing more. In
his expulsion of the traders he had the conscience of the people for his
al