Exclusion of the Blind and Lame from the Temple and the Indignation of the Religious Leaders in Matt 21:12-15.

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate why the religious leaders were indignant when Jesus healed the blind and lame in the temple during the cleansing of the temple. A combination of methods is used (backgrounds, exegesis, and inter-textual) to arrive at the conclusion that Matthew perceives the healing of blind and lame in the temple as fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies about the return of the glory of God and what it implies in the worship.