^11:12Now¹⁸ the next day, as they went out from Bethany, he was hungry. ^11:13After noticing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit¹⁹ on it. When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ^11:14He said to it,²⁰ “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.²¹

Cleansing the Temple

^11:15Then²² they came to Jerusalem.²³ Jesus²⁴ entered the temple area²⁵ and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple courts.²⁶ He turned over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, ^11:16and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise²⁷ through the temple courts.²⁸^11:17Then he began to teach²⁹ them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?³⁰ But you have turned it into a den³¹ of robbers!”³²^11:18The chief priests and the experts in the law³³ heard it and they considered how they could assassinate³⁴ him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed by his teaching. ^11:19When evening came, Jesus and his disciples³⁵ went out of the city.

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Footnotes

18 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
19 Grk “anything.”
20 Grk “And answering, he said to it.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokritheis) is redundant and has not been translated.
21 Mark 11:12 –14. The incident of the cursing of the fig tree occurs before he enters the temple for a third time (11:27ff) and is questioned at length by the religious leaders (11:27–12:40). It appears that Mark records the incident as a portent of what is going to happen to the leadership in Jerusalem who were supposed to have borne spiritual fruit but have been found by Messiah at his coming to be barren. The fact that the nation as a whole is indicted is made explicit in chapter 13:1–37 where Jesus speaks of Jerusalem’s destruction and his second coming.
22 Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.
23 For location see ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; .
24 Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
25 Grk “the temple.” The merchants (those who were selling) would have been located in the Court of the Gentiles.
26 Grk “the temple.” Matthew (21:12–27), Mark (here, 11:15–19), and Luke (19:45–46) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John (2:13–16) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another.
27 Or “things.” The Greek word σκεῦος (skeuos) can refer to merchandise, property, goods, a vessel, or even generally “things” (but in the sense of some implement or tool). The idea here is almost certainly restricted to merchandise, rather than the more general “things,” although some suggest from the parallel with Berakhot 9.5 that Jesus was not even allowing sandals, staffs, or coin-purses to be carried through the court. The difficulty with this interpretation, however, is that it is fundamentally an appeal to Jewish oral tradition (something Jesus rarely sided with) as well as being indiscriminate toward all the worshipers.
28 Grk “the temple.”
29 The imperfect ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken) is here taken ingressively.
30 A quotation from Isa 56:7.
31 Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).
32 A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.
33 Or “The chief priests and the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in .
34 Grk “how they could destroy him.”
35 Grk “they”; the referents (Jesus and his disciples) have been specified in the translation for clarity. Without such clarification there is room for considerable confusion here, since there are two prior sets of plural referents in the context, “the chief priests and experts in the law” and “the whole crowd” (both in v. 18).