Verse 17
The Isaiah prophecy was a prediction yet unfulfilled as well as a statement of God’s perennial intent for the temple. In Jesus’ mouth it was also a prophecy of conditions in the messianic kingdom (cf. Zechariah 14:21).
Mark added "for all the nations," which Matthew omitted from Isaiah 56:7. The phrase has special significance for Gentile readers. God permitted Gentiles to come and worship Him in the temple court of the Gentiles indicating His desire to bring them into relationship with Himself.
The Jewish leaders, however, had made this practically impossible by converting the only place Gentiles could pray in the temple complex into a market where fraud abounded. They had expelled the Gentile worshippers to make room for Jewish robbers.
Jesus was claiming that the temple belonged to Him rather than to the Jewish leaders by cleaning it up. The quotation He cited from Isaiah presented the temple as God’s house. Thus Jesus was claiming to be God.
"The third stage in the progressive disclosure of Jesus’ identity [to the reader] focuses on the secret that he is the Son of God." [Note: Kingsbury, p. 46. Cf. 8:27-30; 10:46-11:11 and 12:35-37.]
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