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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Another Evangelist writes, that as He cast them out, He said, Make not my Father's house "a den of thieves," but this one, "(Make not My Father's house) an house of merchandise." They do not in this contradict each other, but show that he did this a second time, and that both these expressions were not used on the same occasion, but that He acted thus once at the beginning of His ministry, and again when He had come to the very time of His Passion. …
Cyril of Alexandria
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep, See again the whole scheme of the Dispensation to usward drawn out by two things. For with the Cananites, I mean those of Galilee, Christ both feasts and tarries, and them that bade Him, and hereby honoured Him, He made partakers of His Table; He both aids them by miracles and fills up that which was lacking to their joy (and what good thing does He not freely give?): teaching as in a type that He will both receive the inhabitants of Galilee, that is the Gentiles, called as it …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Therefore here He said with restraint: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade." For the miracles were only just beginning, and He did not yet have that boldness which the miracles would give. But there, that is in Matthew, He says: "Do not make it a den of robbers." He openly called them robbers, as people profiting by unjust means. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
However, to seek the mystery of the deed in the figure, who are they that sell oxen? Who are they that sell sheep and doves? They are they who seek their own in the Church, not the things which are Christ's. They account all a matter of sale, while they will not be redeemed: they have no wish to be bought, and yet they wish to sell. Yes; good indeed is it for them that they may be redeemed by the blood of Christ, that they may come to the peace of Christ. …
Thomas Aquinas
Then when he says, To those selling doves he said, he records the treatment which the Lord applied by word. Here it should be noted that those who engage in simony should, of course, first be expelled from the Church. But because as long as they are alive, they can change themselves by free will and by the help of God return to the state of grace, they should not be given up as hopeless. …
Bonaventure
And to those who were selling doves, he said: Take these things away from here, and do not make the house of my Father a house of trade. Concerning this house it is said in the Psalm: "Holiness befits your house, O Lord," not trade. Augustine: "If he forbids such things in the place of prayer, how much more drinking bouts and drunkenness and other similar things?" Therefore he commands in his Rule that "in the oratory nothing should be done except that for which it was established." It is asked: why did He correct those who were …
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