“He is not going to the palace, but to the Temple?” many asked in surprise.  “To the Temple?”

“To the Rabbis and Pharisees?  Then we’ll see what we shall see.”

CHAPTER XXVII

Jesus, with serious determination, quickly ascended the steps of the Temple, without even glancing at the shouting people.  A part of the crowd pressed after Him, the rest gradually dispersed.  But the shout:  “Praised be He who has come to-day!” never ceased the whole day.

When he entered the forecourt of the Temple and looked in.  He stood still in dismay.  It was full of life and movement.  Hundreds of people of all kinds were tumbling over each other’s heels, in gay-coloured coats, in hairy gowns, with tall caps and flat turbans.  They were all offering goods for sale with cries and shrieks; there were spread out carpets, candlesticks, hanging lamps, pictures of the Temple and of the ark of the covenant, fruit, pottery, phylacteries, incense, silken garments, and jewels.  Money-changers vaunted their high rate of exchange, the advantage of Roman money, broke open their rolls of gold and let the pieces fall slowly into the scales in order to delight the eyes of the pilgrims.  Buyers made their way through, looked scornfully at the goods, haggled, laughed, and bought.  Rabbis glided round in long caftans and soft shoes so that they were not heard.  They wore velvet caps on their heads below which hung their curly black or grey hair.  They carried large parchment scrolls under their arms—­for the Sabbath was about to begin—­slipped around with a dignified yet cunning manner, bargained here and there with shopkeepers or their wives, vanished behind the curtains and then reappeared.

When Jesus had for some time observed all this confusion from the threshold, anger overcame Him.  Pushing the traders aside with His arms, He cut Himself a way through.  At the nearest booth He snatched up a bundle of phylacteries, swung them over the heads of the crowd, and exclaimed so loudly that His voice was heard above everything:  “Ye learned teachers and ye Temple guards, see how admirably you understand the letter of the Word!  It is written in the Scriptures:  My house is for prayer!  And you have turned Solomon’s Temple into a bazaar!” Hardly had He so spoken when He overturned a table with His hand, and upset several benches with His foot so that the goods fell in confusion to the ground under the feet of the crowd which began to give way.  They stared at one another speechless, and He continued to thunder forth:  “My house shall be a holy refuge for the downcast and the suffering, said the Lord.  And you make it a den of assassins, and, with your passion for lucre, leave no place for men’s souls.  Out with you, ye cheats and thieves, whether you higgle over your goods or with the Scriptures!” He swung the phylacteries high over the Rabbis and teachers so that they bent their