In Mark 11:17 we see Jesus citing two Old testament passages.
17 Then he began to teach them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have turned it into a den of robbers!” (NET bible)
καὶ ἐδίδασκεν καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· οὐ γέγραπται ὅτι
ὁ οἶκός μου οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται
πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν;
ὑμεῖς δὲ πεποιήκατε αὐτὸν σπήλαιον λῃστῶν.
He quotes from Is 56:7 and Jer 7:11 Here are the passages from the LXX
Is 56:7
ὁ γὰρ οἶκός μου οἶκος προσευχῆς κληθήσεται πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν
For my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
We notice here that statement from the LXX is turned by Jesus into a question ‘Is it not written?…but’
Jer. 7:11
μὴ σπήλαιον λῃστῶν ὁ οἶκός μου, οὗ ἐπικέκληται τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐπ̓ αὐτῷ ἐκεῖ, ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν;
Has my house, which is called by by name, bceome a den of robbers in your eyes?
Here we note that Jesus turns a LXX question into a statement.
Why has the Markan Jesus done this? Timothy Gray offers the following reason,
‘This rhetorical reversal highlights how the temple establishment has likewise reversed the order of things that God, according to Isaiah 56, has set down… This rhetorical reversal, from assertion to question and vice versa, is unique to Mark and is intended to intensify the tone of judgment against the temple.’
Gray, T. C. “Jesus and the temple: The narrative role of the temple in the Gospel of Mark.” 46
I found that quite interesting…..
