Over the past few decades scholars have become loathe to label Jesus’s actions in the Temple (Mark 11:14-17; also in the other three Gospels) with the traditional phrase “The Cleansing of the Temple.”  One reason is the hateful afterlife of this phrasing, because it makes it sound as if Judaism at its very heart was foul, dirty, unclean, and vile, and Jesus is the one who purified it.  In other words, this phrase can be/has been taken to mean that God hates Jews and their religion and sent Jesus in order to show the true path of holiness.

The social and political implications of that view are stunning. They

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