Flipping Tables and Building Temples: An Intertextual Reading of Psalm 68:10 LXX in John 2:17

Abstract

John 2:17 quotes Ps 68:10: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Interpreters disagree about whether consume portrays Jesus’s zeal overwhelming him during the temple incident or leading to his death. They also disagree about whether John alludes metaleptically to the whole psalm, especially the rebuilding of Jerusalem in Ps 68:36–37. This article argues that consume portrays Jesus’s death. It substantiates that John alludes to the whole psalm, not only the rebuilding of Jerusalem in 68:36–37, but also the table becoming a trap and the pouring out of wrath in 68:23, 25. These echoes suggest that Jesus embodies the judgment of God in the temple incident, the suffering of the psalmist in his death, and the restoration of Jerusalem in his resurrection. The story from the Psalter is thus reconfigured in the temple incident: God rebuilds the forsaken city by identifying with Israel’s exile in the crucified body of Jesus.