John 2:17

“His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.””
John 2:17 · direct translation from the Greek

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With the Greek beneath

His disciplesοἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦrememberedἐμνήσθησανthatὅτιit isἐστίνwritten,γεγραμμένον“ZealὉ ζῆλοςfor your houseτοῦ οἴκου σουwill consumeκαταφάγεταίme.”με

Quotation · Psalms 69:9

Go to Psalms 69:9

Where the Hebrew says “has consumed me,” John says “will consume me,” in the future.

Formula: ἐμνήσθησαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι γεγραμμένον ἐστίν “his disciples remembered that it is written” (John 2:17)

See the original texts

Greek of the New Testament: ἐμνήσθησαν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι γεγραμμένον ἐστίν Ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου καταφάγεταί με

Hebrew (Masoretic text): כִּי קִנְאַת בֵּיתְךָ אֲכָלָתְנִי וְחֶרְפּוֹת חוֹרְפֶיךָ נָפְלוּ עָלָי

Septuagint (Psalms 68:10 in the Septuagint numbering): ὅτι ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου καταφάγεταί με, καὶ οἱ ὀνειδισμοὶ τῶν ὀνειδιζόντων σε ἐπέπεσαν ἐπʼ ἐμέ.

The Greek of the NT matches the Septuagint word for word in 7 consecutive words: “Ὁ ζῆλος τοῦ οἴκου σου καταφάγεταί με.”

Septuagint, Swete’s text, First1KGreek transcription (with reading errors), CC BY-SA 4.0

John 2:17, word by word

His disciplesμαθηταὶmathētai

disciple

A follower of Jesus.

Where else “mathētai” appears

rememberedἐμνήσθησανemnēsthēsan

remember

To call something or someone to mind.

Where else “emnēsthēsan” appears

it isἐστίνestin

To be: says who or what something is.

Where else “estin” appears

writtenγεγραμμένονgegrammenon

it is written

So the Bible says; a passage is quoted.

Where else “gegrammenon” appears

“Zealζῆλοςzēlos

zeal

A burning desire for something or someone.

Where else “zēlos” appears

for your houseοἴκουoikou

house

The place where one lives; also the temple, God's dwelling.

Where else “oikou” appears

will consumeκαταφάγεταίkataphagetai

consume, devour

Eat up, devour, consume.

Where else “kataphagetai” appears

Translation note

A quotation of Psalm 69:9.

Parallel passages

Other books that tell the same thing or quote these words.

The cleansing of the temple

Matthew 21:12-17 Mark 11:15-19 Luke 19:45-48

John 2 places the cleansing at the start; it is discussed whether it is the same event as in the other three.

See them side by side

John 2:13-22

¹³And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴And in the temple he found those who were selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there. ¹⁵And making a whip out of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle; and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶And to those who were selling the doves he said, “Take these things out of here! Do not make the house of my Father a house of trade!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸So the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign do you show us, since you do these things?” ¹⁹Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰So the Jews said, “This sanctuary was built in forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking about the sanctuary of his body. ²²So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Matthew 21:12-17

¹²And Jesus entered into the temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³And he says to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a den of robbers.” ¹⁴And the blind and lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵But when the high priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children who were crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant ¹⁶and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus says to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” ¹⁷And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Mark 11:15-19

¹⁵And they come to Jerusalem. And entering into the temple, he began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹⁶And he would not allow anyone to carry a vessel through the temple. ¹⁷And he was teaching and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” ¹⁸And the high priests and the scribes heard it, and they were seeking how they might destroy him; for they feared him, for all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. ¹⁹And when evening came, they went out of the city.

Luke 19:45-48

⁴⁵And entering into the temple, he began to drive out those who were selling, ⁴⁶saying to them, “It is written, ‘And my house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.” ⁴⁷And he was teaching daily in the temple; but the high priests and the scribes were seeking to destroy him, and so were the leading men of the people; ⁴⁸and they were not finding what they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.

Quotation · Psalms 69:9

Where the Hebrew says “has consumed me,” John says “will consume me,” in the future.

See them side by side

John 2:17

¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Psalms 69:9

⁹For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

The context

16And to those who were selling the doves he said, “Take these things out of here! Do not make the house of my Father a house of trade!”

17 · This verse (above)

18So the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign do you show us, since you do these things?”

Read all of John 2

To study John 2 in a group

1. What it says
At the wedding in Cana, what runs out, what does Mary tell the servants, and what does Jesus do? (vv. 1-11)
2. What it means
Jesus clears the temple and says, “Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.” What does the narrator explain he meant? (vv. 13-22)
3. How I live it
The servants obeyed even though they did not understand what was happening (vv. 5-9). Where could you do what Jesus says today without understanding it all?

How to use it