João 2
Cosmas Indicopleustes
João 2:15-16
What is alleged is false, for it was not at all to the human being he applied the scourge, but he adopted an admirable and becoming and appropriate course, for he scourged the brute beasts only, as it is written: And having made a scourge of small cords he drove all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen, as much as to say: He scourged animals, but only the irrational, driving also out of the temple even those that were brought for sacrifice according to the law, showing by this means that the Judaic dispensation was coming to an end. Things, again, that had neither life nor sensation he pushed away and overthrew, as it is written: And he poured out the money-changers' money and overthrew their tables. The rational beings, however, he neither scourged nor drove away, but he chastised the irrational, as it is written: And to those that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not my Father's house a house of merchandise—showing by all these words and acts that the things offered for sacrifice in the first tabernacle according to the law were to cease, and that another dispensation would be introduced in its place, harmonising with the inner tabernacle, which was a type of the things in heaven—that is, of the future dispensation. — The Christian Topography, Book 3
João 2:18-19
But the Jews having perceived how he was shadowing forth to them the cessation of the Jewish dispensation, questioned him, saying: What sign showest thou that thou dost these things? But taking appropriate advantage of the question, he promised them that he would do something darkly to foreshadow the answer. I refer to the destruction of the temple and to its renovation, because the destruction of the temple—that is, of his body—is the destruction of this world, while the renovation and change made upon the temple—that is, upon his body—is a manifestation of the future state. — The Christian Topography, Book 3