1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 sn Hosanna is an Aramaic expression that literally means, “help, I pray,” or “save, I pray.” By Jesus’ time it had become a strictly liturgical formula of praise, however, and was used as an exclamation of praise to God. 16 17 18 19 20 sn The merchants (those who were selling) would have been located in the Court of the Gentiles. 21 sn Matthew (here, 21:12-27), Mark (11:15-19) and Luke (19:45-46) record this incident of the temple cleansing at the end of Jesus’ ministry. John (2:13-16) records a cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. See the note on the word temple courts in John 2:14 for a discussion of the relationship of these accounts to one another. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 sn The fig tree is a variation on the picture of a vine as representing the nation; see Isa 5:1-7. 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 sn The question is whether John’s ministry was of divine or human origin. 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 sn These slaves represent the prophets God sent to the nation, who were mistreated and rejected. 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 sn The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The use of Ps 118:22-23 and the “stone imagery” as a reference to Christ and his suffering and exaltation is common in the NT (see also Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:6-8; cf. also Eph 2:20). The irony in the use of Ps 118:22-23 here is that in the OT, Israel was the one rejected (or perhaps her king) by the Gentiles, but in the NT it is Jesus who is rejected by Israel. 64 65 66 tn Grk “on whomever it falls, it will crush him.” sn This proverb basically means that the stone crushes, without regard to whether it falls on someone or someone falls on it. On the stone as a messianic image, see Isa 28:16 and Dan 2:44-45. 67 68 69