Violence, Nonviolence and the Temple Incident in John 2:13-15
Andy Alexis-Baker
Abstract The temple incident has been a popular episode in Jesus' ministry from which Christians since Augustine have drawn to justify Christian violence ranging punishing schismatics and heretics justifying war the death penalty. However, another tradition of reading this passage nonviolently began well before Augustine. Whether contextualizing narrative so that it would spiritual meaning or seeing Greek grammar as disallowing Jesus hit people with whip, these nonviolent strategies effectively undercut any notion action could provide model for violence. A close text, I believe, supports simply denies based on used his whip person.
Biblical Interpretation