Contradiction claim
When did Jesus drive the traders from the temple?
John places the temple cleansing early in the narrative, at a Passover near the beginning of Jesus’ public activity. The Synoptic Gospels place it in the final week, after the entry into Jerusalem.
2 source records · no review date recorded
How to read this record
Passages side by side
TextThe primary text, as seeded. Nothing here is summarised or paraphrased.
And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;
Why they appear to conflict
AnalysisEach side states a proposition attributable to its passages. A claim is not assumed to have exactly two sides.
John
The cleansing occurred at a Passover early in the narrative, before most of the ministry John records.
John 2:13 · John 2:15
Synoptics
The cleansing occurred in the final week, after the entry into Jerusalem.
Mark 11:15
Formal analysis
AnalysisA contradiction requires a proposition and its incompatible counterpart under materially equivalent conditions. Every dimension below must hold for the formal test to succeed.
Proposition A
occurs(temple_cleansing, early_passover)Proposition B
occurs(temple_cleansing, final_week)| Dimension | Question | Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Same subject | Do both propositions predicate of the same subject? | Yes |
| Same referent | Do the referring expressions pick out the same individual? | Yes |
| Same event | Do both describe the same event token, not merely the same event type? | Uncertain |
| Same time | Do both describe the same time or time-window? | No |
| Same sense | Are the key terms used in the same sense? | Yes |
| Same scope | Are quantifiers, counting criteria and boundaries the same? | Uncertain |
| Same textual tradition | Are both readings secure in the same textual tradition? | Yes |
The whole question is same_event. If the accounts describe one episode, the placements conflict; if two, they do not. The descriptive details differ enough that CodexTrace does not resolve it either way on curated evidence.
Analytical questions
AnalysisWhat a researcher must answer to classify this record. Open questions are recorded, not resolved by preference.
- Are there two cleansings, or one placed differently?
- Do the descriptions differ in detail in ways that suggest distinct events — for instance the scourge of cords and the sheep and oxen in John?
- Does John arrange material thematically rather than chronologically at this point?
- Does either narrative require the position it gives the episode?
Hebrew / Greek relevance
LanguageNo original-language dependency has been recorded for this claim.
Textual variants
ManuscriptA variant is a transmission phenomenon, never in itself a logical contradiction.
No textual variant record is linked to this claim.
Manuscript evidence
ManuscriptManuscript evidence has not yet been curated for this record.
Narrator and speaker analysis
AnalysisWhat the narration establishes, distinguished from what would additionally establish that the reported event occurred.
No narrator or speaker analysis has been recorded for these passages yet.
Proposed harmonisations
InterpretationEach proposal records the premises it must supply that the text does not state. Premises are never injected silently.
Two separate cleansings
Jesus acted twice, once early and once in the final week.
Premises this proposal must supply
- historicalTwo similar episodes occurred.
- contextualEach account records only one of them without noting the other.
Editorial Harmonisation Cost Heuristic
3 / 5 — One substantial unstated premise
John’s account has details the Synoptics lack, which gives the proposal a foothold, but no text mentions a second episode. One substantial unstated premise.
Reviewed by CodexTrace Editorial Board on 2026-09-07. This is an editorial heuristic, not an objective measurement.
John places the episode thematically
John positions the cleansing early to frame the whole Gospel around the temple and Jesus’ body.
Premises this proposal must supply
- contextualJohn is not asserting chronological placement here.
Critical responses
InterpretationArguments that the proposed reconciliations do not succeed, treated structurally the same way as the harmonisations.
No critical response has been recorded for this claim yet.
Analytical classification
Analysis- Classification
- Chronological discrepancy
- What it means
- Accounts place the same event at different times or in different sequences.
- Requires formal analysis
- Yes
- Review status
- reviewed
- Source collections
- codextrace_research
Sources
SourceEvery externally-sourced claim on this page resolves to one of these records.
- [1]
CodexTrace. "CodexTrace editorial research". licence: CC-BY-4.0
Critical / scholarlyotherCC-BY-4.0 - [2]
King James Version (Authorised Version)
"King James Version (Authorised Version)". licence: public-domain-us
Primarytranslationpublic-domain-usLink unverified
Related records
TextCommunity
CommunityCommunity discussion requires a configured Supabase project on this deployment. Research pages are unaffected.