X-Dreamers
Bible chapter guide
Mark 11
Jesus enters Jerusalem on a colt to shouts of 'Hosanna!', looks around the temple and returns to Bethany. Next day he curses a fig tree and drives the traders from the temple, saying it should be a house of prayer for all nations; the leaders question his authority.
Summary written for the Labs; read the chapter itself for the full text.
What happens in this chapter
Near Bethphage and Bethany Jesus sends two disciples for a colt that no one has ridden, and he rides it down to the city while people spread cloaks and branches and shout Hosanna. Mark alone says that he then only looked round the temple and, as it was late, went back to Bethany with the Twelve. Next morning he finds a fig tree with leaves but no fruit, 'for the time of figs was not yet', and curses it; in the temple he drives out the traders, overturns the tables and will not let anyone carry goods through the courts. On the third morning the disciples see the tree withered from the roots, and in the temple the chief priests, scribes and elders demand to know by what authority he acts; he answers with a question about John's baptism.
What the lab shows, and where to look
Mark gives the Holy Week lab its calendar: the entry on Sunday, the cleansing on Monday, the questions on Tuesday. On Sunday, 'The entry into Jerusalem' follows a road from the ridge of the Mount of Olives down to the Kidron; the Gospels name Bethphage and Bethany but not the exact path, so the route is marked as plausible. On Monday, 'Cleansing the Temple' sets the overturned tables in the outer court by the Royal Stoa. Open the Royal Stoa in Jerusalem through the Ages for Josephus's 162 columns, then its Holy Week era for the whole city at Passover, where gold markers lead back to each stop. The Mark 11:15 page follows that verse across the labs.
- The entry into Jerusalem · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- Cleansing the Temple · Holy Week in Jerusalem
- The Royal Stoa · Jerusalem Through the Ages
- Holy Week · Jerusalem Through the Ages
- Mark 11:15
Questions people ask
Why did Jesus curse a fig tree when it was not the season for figs?
Mark says plainly that it was not the season (11:13), which has puzzled readers since. He tells the story in two halves around the cleansing, so that a tree in full leaf with no fruit stands beside a temple busy with trade but not, in Jesus' words, a house of prayer. Most readers take it as an acted parable about the temple, in the line of the prophets' signs, not as anger at a tree.
Where in the temple did the money changers sit?
The Gospels say only that they were in the temple, and the outer court, the Court of the Gentiles, was the one part open to everyone. The Royal Stoa, the great hall along its south side, is the likeliest place for the tables and the dove sellers. The changers turned pilgrims' coins into the Tyrian silver accepted for the temple tax. Mark alone keeps the words 'of all nations' from Isaiah 56:7, spoken in the one court where the nations could stand.
Did Jesus cleanse the temple twice?
Mark, Matthew and Luke tell a cleansing in Jesus' last week; John tells one near the start of his ministry (John 2:13–17). Many readers think Jesus did it twice, early and at the end; others think John placed the one event early for his own reasons. The Gospels do not say which, and both readings have long been held.
See it in the Labs
- Follow Holy Week in 3D Jerusalem, day by day
- See the places of Jesus on the map
- See Jerusalem in 3D, from David to Jesus' day
- Holy Week in JerusalemCleansing the Temple · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- The Temple MountThe Temple MountOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe entry into Jerusalem · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- verse/mark-11-15Mark 11:15Open
- Holy Week in JerusalemHoly Week in JerusalemOpen
- Holy Week in JerusalemThe entry into Jerusalem: Weeping over the city · Holy Week in JerusalemOpen
- Jerusalem Through the AgesHoly Week · Jerusalem Through the AgesOpen
- The Temple MountThe Royal Stoa · The Temple MountOpen
- The Temple MountThe Temple Mount: view from The Royal StoaOpen
Also in this chapter
How sure can we be?
- Textually stated
Jesus rode a colt, and the people spread their cloaks and cut branches on the road ahead of him.
All four Gospels tell the entry.
- Textually stated
Only John names palm branches. Matthew and Mark speak of branches cut from the trees or the fields, and Luke mentions only cloaks.
The name Palm Sunday comes from John 12:13; the scene mixes palm fronds with other branches.
- Textually stated
Jesus drove out the sellers and buyers, overturned the money changers' tables and the dove sellers' seats, and stopped people carrying goods through.
- Textually stated
Mark alone keeps the words "of all nations" from Isaiah 56:7. The outer court was the one part of the temple Gentiles could enter.
Josephus and two surviving Greek inscriptions warn foreigners not to pass the barrier into the inner courts.
- Strongly supported
Bethany is the village of al-Eizariya, about fifteen stadia (under 3 km) east of Jerusalem on the far slope of the Mount of Olives, out of sight of the city. Its Arabic name keeps the name of Lazarus. In the scene it stands nearer the city than it was, at the edge of the model.
John gives the distance; Eusebius and the pilgrim Egeria in the 4th century knew the village and the tomb of Lazarus there.
- Strongly supported
Josephus gives 162 columns in four rows (Antiquities 15.411–416). The Gospels place the money-changers in the Temple's outer court.