Mark 11:17 - Exposition

My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations ( πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ). St. Mark, writing for Gentiles, assures them that the God of the Jews is the God of all the nations; and that the court of the Gentiles, which was then so profaned, was a constituent part of his house of prayer. St. Jerome notes Christ's action in driving out the profaners of the temple as a great proof of his Divine power, that he alone should have been able to cast out so great a multitude. He says, "A fiery splendor flashed from his eyes, and the majesty of Deity shone in his countenance." The words, "My house shall be called the house of prayer," are a quotation from Isaiah 56:7 ; and it is a remarkable coincidence that in Isaiah 56:11 of that chapter the rulers of the people are described as looking "every one for his gain from his quarter." A den of thieves ( σπήλαιον ληστῶν ); this should be rendered, a den of robbers. The Greek word for "thief" is κλέπτης , not ληστής . The two terms are carefully distinguished in St. John ( John 10:1 ), "the same is a thief ( κλέπτης ) and a robber ( λῃστής )." These priests, wholly intent upon gain, by various fraudulent acts plundered strangers and the poor, who came purchase offerings for the worship of God. Observe that the temple is called the house of God, not because he dwells in it in any corporeal sense, for "he dwelleth not in temples made with hands," but because the temple is the place set apart for the worship of God, in which he specially gives ear to the prayers of his people, and in which he specially promises his spiritual presence. Hence we learn what reverence is due to the houses of God; so that, as the master of a house resents any insult offered to his house as an insult to himself, so Christ reckons any wilful dishonor done to his house as a wrong and insult to him.