Abstract
John's use of Ps 69:9 in his account of Jesus' action in the temple is regularly understood as a scriptural depiction of Jesus' intense emotional state, which provoked his assault on the temple traders. However, both John's use of Ps 69 elsewhere in the Gospel and his narration of the plot against Jesus suggest that he intends his readers to conclude that the zeal that consumes Jesus is that of his enemies. In John's Gospel, the Jews are portrayed as the zealous protectors of the temple, while Jesus is consistently portrayed as the new temple—the locus of the eschatological presence of God. Jesus' action in the temple symbolically enacts the failure of Herod's temple to function as the new temple. The citation of Ps 69:9 anticipates the role of Jewish zeal for Herod's temple in bringing the full reality of the new temple into existence: in their zealous protection of Herod's temple, they destroy the temple of Jesus body, which through death and resurrection becomes the eschatological dwelling place of God.
