I do not think that Jesus used the whip on people. He did not beat them. He used the whip to drive out the animals.
It is unlikely jesus made a cracker's whip. (A whip that makes a pop) too much time and material needed for that. how ever a hand full of leather straps about 3 ft long tied together would only take minutes to make and would move people and animals alike out of the court yard.
Not to mention if you had a booth at a flea market and some crazy guy is kicking over tables with your lively hood on them (meaning if he kicked over your table you would loose hundreds if not thousands of dollars) would you just stand there and let him do it?
That whip not only acted like a deterrent it help 'readjust' anyone's priorities looking to stop Jesus. It was a insurance that Jesus could stop anyone trying to stop Him, without calling on the Holy Spirit or angels to 'smite' anyone.
No, it does not put too much value on objects. It put value on reverence.
So again, while on temple grounds, these merchants where in the court of the gentiles. Meaning there was not the same level of expectation of law following as their where in the more holy places of the temple. The fact that the gentiles where allowed in that part of the temple grounds demonstrates this. As far as reverence Jesus explicitly said: 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,, but you have made it into a den of thieves.
The subject/focus here is "My house." (object) was turned into a den of thieves.
Again, technically they are not in the prayer/ceremonial portion of the temple. This portion of the temple was set aside for gentiles/merchants. Because this portion of the temple was set aside for commerce and not prayer, to say the whole temple is a holy place, when the temple is subdivided, places value on the 'house' as a whole. Meaning anything in the temple foot print is 'holy ground.' which places the importance on the object/where one prays, not the act of praying.
Which is ok if that is what is expected. It's just kinda counter intuitive to some of the other things He said about prayer. Eg; go into your closet, do not pray like the hypocrites do standing in public, etc..
The merchants and priests overcharged poor worshippers for required animal sacrifices and used unfair currency exchange rates inside the holy site.
Again not in dispute. What is in dispute is how Jesus handled the situation. Most would agree this was not how the church would typically describe Jesus, or how He would normally deal with a situation.
Jesus did not accuse them as sellers, but as robbers.
The robbing took place when people went to exchange their regional money for "Temple tokens." (Tyrian 1/2 sheckle.) The sellers I'm sure also over charged for their animals as they had to meet very stringent set of rules to qualify for a sacrifice. Jesus made no distinction between the two. They both got the 'beans'
Turn the other cheek means do not get angry if someone slaps you to insult you.
Not just slapping. to turn the other cheek means if someone wrongs you, you are to forgive them, because our forgiveness is tied to our ability to forgive those who wrong us. If we can not forgive those who wrong us, we ourselves will not be forgiven.
The point I am making here is I do not care if jesus kicked and beat these people bloody that day. I am just pointing out that this incident seems to be counter to every other time he was wronged or blasphemed against. Jesus never acted this way.
In that society, a backhand slap was not a blow meant to physically injure or fight; it was a degrading insult used by a superior (like a master or a Roman soldier) to punish or demean an inferior (like a servant or a peasant).
And.. Jesus took a back handed slap Spiritually speaking with the money changers and He did not turn the other cheek. unless kicking over people stuff and popping them with a whip is turning the other cheek. if it is I think I could get behind that.
If you turn the other cheek, the aggressor cannot give another backhanded slap (the hand won't fit). They are forced to either treat you as an equal by giving a forward fist-punch, or acknowledge that you are a human being standing tall before them.
or.. they could simply back hand you with the other hand...
It refuses retaliation while maintaining personal agency. It shifts the power dynamic from a helpless victim to a courageous person who refuses to play by the oppressor's humiliating rules.
which again Jesus did not do in this situation.
I personally think because of the timing of passover Jesus not only made a statment here He also used this incident to force/provoke the temple leadership to have Him executed.
