This doesn't prove what you're using it to prove though.
1. Jesus didn't kill anyone. It's a long leap from driving people out of a temple, to killing someone and sealing their eternal fate, potentially consigning them to hell. Same can be said for property destruction (even omitting the fact that this is a special case of property within Jesus' own house, as it were).
2. All indications point to the fact that the whip was for the animals, not the people.
3. Even if we allow that Jesus whipped the people in the temple, he whipped people who weren't attacking him. Then later he died when people did attack him. This isn't a case of self-defense.
4. Jesus' stated purpose in this situation wasn't to physically protect anyone or to right a worldly injustice, it was to protect against a harmful spiritual idea, the commercialization of worship.
5. This was taking place in the community of God. The rules are different when you're dealing with God's people; more is permitted because souls are not at stake. Scripture states that God disciplines his children, not those who aren't his children.
So, next time you're in church among believers and there are moneychangers there, feel free to drive them and their animals out with a whip. But it strains credulity to jump from this to murder.
This kind of debatable, no? He didn't directly kill any humans (that we have records of... but will someone please think of the pigs?). But anyone that creates a popular cult or religion and has some level of intelligence must be aware of the likelihood of deaths further down the line. Whether that's a faithful being fed to the lions or bishops executing each other over niche theological disputes.
> Scripture states that God disciplines his children, not those who aren't his children
OT scripture states the first part. But then God also commanded the genocide of the Canaanites, Sodom & Gomorrah etc... . So it's not at all clear that the second bit follows.
1. Jesus didn't kill anyone. It's a long leap from driving people out of a temple, to killing someone and sealing their eternal fate, potentially consigning them to hell. Same can be said for property destruction (even omitting the fact that this is a special case of property within Jesus' own house, as it were).
2. All indications point to the fact that the whip was for the animals, not the people.
3. Even if we allow that Jesus whipped the people in the temple, he whipped people who weren't attacking him. Then later he died when people did attack him. This isn't a case of self-defense.
4. Jesus' stated purpose in this situation wasn't to physically protect anyone or to right a worldly injustice, it was to protect against a harmful spiritual idea, the commercialization of worship.
5. This was taking place in the community of God. The rules are different when you're dealing with God's people; more is permitted because souls are not at stake. Scripture states that God disciplines his children, not those who aren't his children.
So, next time you're in church among believers and there are moneychangers there, feel free to drive them and their animals out with a whip. But it strains credulity to jump from this to murder.