Mark 11 Bible study: A house of prayer

"When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethsphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples" (11:1). He tells them what they will find: "you will find a young donkey tied, on which no one has sat. Untie him and bring him" (11:2). And he tells them what to say if anyone asks why: "The Lord needs him" (11:3). It happens as he said. They "found a young donkey tied at the door outside in the open street" (11:4), some who stood there asked, "What are you doing, untying the young donkey?" (11:5), and "They said to them just as Jesus had said, and they let them go" (11:6). Then "Jesus sat on it" (11:7), and "Many spread their garments on the way, and others were cutting down branches from the trees and spreading them on the road" (11:8). "Those who went in front and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" (11:9), and "Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (11:10). Those words stand near Psalm 118:26, "Blessed is he who comes in the LORD’s name!" (Psalm 118:26), and the WEB words the two differently. In Mark they are the words of those who went in front and those who followed, and Mark doesn't say they were written or fulfilled.

Isaiah 56:7→leads toMark 11:17

The LORD says, "for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (Isaiah 56:7). In Mark, "They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves" (Mark 11:15). "He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple" (Mark 11:16). "He taught, saying to them" (Mark 11:17), "Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?" (Mark 11:17). Jesus doesn't name Isaiah; the words he says are written are the words of Isaiah 56:7, where the WEB has for all peoples and Mark for all the nations. He went on, "But you have made it a den of robbers!" (Mark 11:17), words Jeremiah 7:11 also has. Mark tells what Jesus said and did that day in the temple (Mark 11:15-17), and these notes apply it to no one today.

ἱερόνhieronsay hee-er-ON

Strong's: "a sacred place, i.e. the entire precincts (whereas G3485 denotes the central sanctuary itself) of the Temple". "Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem" (11:11). Mark has the word 9 times (counted in RP2018, the Byzantine text the WEB translates), and five of them are in this chapter: 11:11, twice in 11:15, 11:16 and 11:27. Jesus is in it again in 12:35, he goes out of it in 13:1, and at his arrest he says, "I was daily with you in the temple teaching" (14:49). The temple in the words the false witnesses say they heard, "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands" (14:57-58), is the other word, naos (G3485).