Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple

Rembrandt · 1635
National Gallery of Art, Washington

An early etching, signed and dated 1635. The striding figure of Christ with the whip follows a small woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, but the crowd around him is Rembrandt’s own.

Jesus swings a whip of cords over his head and the hall erupts: a table and a barrel crash down, men clutch their money, an ox breaks loose. At the back a priest sits apart on a high seat under a canopy.

From the text

“He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts” (John 2:15)

Cattle driven out and the coins of the money changers poured out (John 2:14–15)

The artist’s own

A barrel and a heavy table tumbling in the foreground

A priest enthroned under a canopy, a hanging lamp in a vaulted hall

Details

The whip

Jesus raises the knotted whip high over his head.

Overturned

A table and a barrel crash to the floor.

The ox

An ox breaks loose and charges through the crowd.

At the back

A priest sits high on a canopied seat, apart from the turmoil.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669. National Gallery of Art, Washington (Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1982.46.1) · Etching · NGA Open Access: "Images of these works are available free of charge for any use, commercial or non-commercial, under Creative Commons Zero (CC0)." (NGA open data: published_images.csv openaccess = 1)

The verses

John 2:14–16In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables. So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”