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Jesus as Whippersnapper: John 2:15 and Prophetic Violence

Reference
Avalos, Hector. Jesus as Whippersnapper: John 2:15 and Prophetic Violence. The Bible and Interpretation (https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu). May 2017
Publication File
Publication

This essay challenges a pacifistic interpretation of John 2:15. In particular, it addresses the linguistic, historical and literary arguments of N. Clayton Croy, who argued that Jesus should not be portrayed as committing any act of violence in John 2:15. More recently, Andy Alexis-Baker concludes that Jesus did not even strike any animals with a whip, which was made of materials too soft to injure anyone or any animal. A violent portrait of Jesus is consistent with the Deuteronomistic view of divine anger and prophetic zeal that may have influenced the portrait the Johannine Jesus. Otherwise, the temple episode in John exemplifies another case where some streams of Christian scholarship seem reluctant to characterize Jesus’ behavior as unjustifiably violent.

See Also: Jesus Was Not Against Imperialism: New Testament Ethics as an Imperialist Project

By Hector Avalos
Religious Studies
Iowa State University
May 2017

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