When Passage: John 2:13-25 Where

Descr. e.g. Jesus drives out the Money-changers

Who ` Image and/or map Why

Literal
How Summary Special words

(Story)
Connected passages Figures of speech
John 2: 13-25

Allegorical Catechism
There is an Allegorical sense of the Church being defiled by Simoniacs, represented by those selling buying and
selling Doves

ORIGEN. (tom. x. in Joan. c. 16) By

the temple we may understand too the
soul wherein the Word of God dwelleth;
in which, before the teaching of Christ,
earthly and bestial affections had prevailed.
The ox being the tiller of the soil, is the
symbol of earthly affections: the sheep,
being the most irrational of all animals,
of dull ones; the dove is the type of light
and volatile thoughts; and money, of earthly
good things; which money Christ cast out
by the Word of His doctrine, that His Father’s house might be no longer a market

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. x. c. 7) By the oxen may be understood the Apostles and Prophets, who have dispensed to
us the holy Scriptures. Those who by these very Scriptures deceive the people, from whom they seek honour,
sell the oxen; and they sell the sheep too, i. e. the people themselves; and to whom do they sell them, but to the
devil? For that which is cut off from the one Church, (1 Pet. 5:8) who taketh away, except the roaring lion, who
goeth about every where, and seeketh whom he may devour?
Moral This Gospel’s moral lesson instructs against the using of religious office for personal gain, as well as corrupt
business practices.
It also makes clear that the Temple (Church) is a place reserved for prayer and not for commerce.
Simony (the buying and selling of Holy Offices) is also implicitly condemned in this passage according to the
Holy Fathers.

BEDE. Our Lord on coming to Jerusalem, immediately entered the temple to pray; giving us an example that,
wheresoever we go, our first visit should be to the house of God to pray.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. x. c. 9) He then is eaten up with zeal for God’s house, who desires to correct all that he sees
wrong there; and, if he cannot correct, endures and mourns. In thine house thou busiest thyself to prevent
matters going wrong; in the house of God, where salvation is offered, oughtest thou to be indifferent? Hast thou
a friend? admonish him gently; a wife? coerce her severely; a maid-servant? even compel her with stripes. Do
what thou art able, according to thy station.

ALCUIN. To take the passage mystically, God enters His Church spiritually every day, and marks each one’s
behaviour there. Let us be careful then, when we are in God’s Church, that we indulge not in stories, or jokes, or
hatreds, or lusts, lest on a sudden He come and scourge us, and drive us out of His Church.

Heaven

Accommodated AUGUSTINE. (b. lxxxiii. Quæst. 2. 5. f.) The process of human conception is said to be this. The first six days
produce a substance like milk, which in the following nine is converted into blood; in twelve more
is consolidated, in eighteen more is formed into a perfect set of limbs, the growth and enlargement of which fills
up the rest of the time till the birth. For six, and nine, and twelve, and eighteen, added together are forty-five,
and with the addition of one (which1 stands for the summing up, all these numbers being collected into one)
forty-six. This multiplied by the number six, which stands at the head of this calculation2, makes two hundred
and seventy-six, i. e. nine months and six days. It is no unmeaning information then that the temple was forty
and six years building; for the temple prefigured His Body, and as many years as the temple was in building, so
many days was the Lord’s Body in forming.
Fathers/Church Commentaries ALCUIN. Or Capernaum, we may interpret “a most beautiful village,” and so it signifies the world, to which
the Word of the Father came down.

BEDE. But He continued there only a few days, because he lived with men in this world only a short time.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. x. c. 4) Such sacrifices were prescribed to the people, in condescension to their carnal
minds; to prevent them from turning aside to idols. They sacrificed sheep, and oxen, and doves.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. x. c. 5) He who was to be scourged by them, was first of all the scourger; And when He had
made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xxiii. 2) But why did Christ use such violence? He was about to heal on the Sabbath
day, and to do many things which appeared to them transgressions of the Law. That He might not appear
therefore to be acting contrary to God, He did this at His own peril; and thus gave them to understand, that He
who exposed Himself to such peril to defend the decency of the house, did not despise the Lord of that house.
For the same reason, to shew His agreement with God, He said not, the Holy house, but, My Father’s house. It
follows, And His disciples remembered what was written; The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

Bibliography Catena Aurea, St Thomas Aquinas. https://www.ecatholic2000.com/catena/

Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide, https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/clc/john-2.html

Literal: Text, obscure words and idioms, who, when, where, why, narrative
Illustration, other art
Internal: Parallel, references,
External: Moral, doctrinal, accommodated
Catechetical
Commentaries
Church declarations
Lettera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia. (The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; the Moral
how to act; Anagogy our destiny.)

Littera gesta docet; quid credas, allegoria;

Moralis quid agas; quo tendas, anagogia.

Jerusalem, e.g., according to its literal sense, is the Holy City; taken allegorically, it denotes the Church Militant; understood tropologically, it
stands for the just soul; finally, in its anagogical sense, it stands for the Church Triumphant.
Agreeing with the warning of the Fathers, Pope Leo XIII, in his Encyclical "Providentissimus Deus", insisted on the difficulty of rightly
interpreting the Bible. "It must be observed", he wrote,
that in addition to the usual reasons which make ancient writings more or less difficult to understand, there are some which are peculiar
to the Bible. For the language of the Bible is employed to express, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, many things which are
beyond the power and scope of the reason of man — that is to say, Divine mysteries and all that is related to them. There is sometimes
in such passages a fullness and a hidden depth of meaning which the letter hardly expresses and which the laws of grammatical
interpretation hardly warrant. Moreover, the literal sense itself frequently admits other senses, adapted to illustrate dogma or to confirm
morality. Wherefore, it must be recognized that the Sacred Writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter
into their interior without a guide; God so disposing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with
greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all,
that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scripture to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His word,
they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher.

Division of the typical sense

The division of the typical sense is based on the character of the type and the antitype. The antitype is either a truth to be believed, or a boon to be
hoped for, or again a virtue to be practised. This gives us a triple sense — the allegorical, the anagogical, and the tropological, or moral. The
objects of faith in the Old Testament centred mainly around the future Messias and his Church. The allegorical sense may, therefore, be said to
refer to the future or to be prophetic. The allegory here is not to be sought in the literary expression, but in the persons or things expressed. This
division of the typical sense was expressed by the Scholastics in two lines:
Littera gesta docet; quid credas, allegoria;
Moralis quid agas; quo tendas, anagogia.

Jerusalem, e.g., according to its literal sense, is the Holy City; taken allegorically, it denotes the Church Militant; understood tropologically, it
stands for the just soul; finally, in its anagogical sense, it stands for the Church Triumphant. If the division of the typical sense be based on the type
rather than the antitype, we may distinguish personal, real, and legal types. They are personal if a person is chosen by the Holy Ghost as the sign of
the truth to be conveyed. Adam, Noah, Melchisedech, Moses, Josue, David, Solomon, and Jonas are types of Jesus Christ; Agar with Ismael, and
Sara with Isaac are respectively the types of the Old and the New Testament. The real types are certain historical events or objects mentioned in
the Old Testament, such as the paschal lamb, the manna, the water flowing from the rock, the brazen serpent, Sion, and Jerusalem. Legal types are
chosen from among the institutions of the Mosaic liturgy, e.g., the tabernacle, the sacred implements, the sacraments and sacrifices of the Old Law,
its priests and Levites.