The Bible appears to record the cleansing of the temple at three separate parts of Christ’s earthly ministry: at the beginning (John 2:11-16); the day of His triumphal entry (Luke 19:36-45); and the day after His triumphal entry (Mathew 21:1-13; Mark 11:1-17). Which is it?
Response
Christ cleansed the temple twice: once toward the beginning of His ministry, and once toward the end (the day after His triumphal entry).
Luke never says that Jesus cleansed the temple the day of His triumphal entry. Luke 19:45 simply says, “And he went into the temple…”. It never says how much time elapsed between verses 44 and 45. Furthermore, verse 47 says that Jesus “taught daily in the temple,” obviously not speaking of just the day of the triumphal entry, and so these verses are not all speaking of just one day. Thus, there is no contradiction.
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