Jesus forbids the carrying of vessels in the Temple (Notes)

Saint Mark - Chapter 11

Jesus forbids the carrying of vessels in the Temple. J-J Tissot

[15] Et veniunt in Jerosolymam. Et cum introisset in templum, coepit ejicere vendentes et ementes in templo : et mensas numulariorum, et cathedras vendentium columbas evertit :
And they came to Jerusalem. And when he was entered into the temple, he began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the chairs of them that sold doves.

[16] et non sinebat ut quisquam transferret vas per templum :
And he suffered not that any man should carry a vessel through the temple;

And He suffered not that any man should carry a vessel through the temple. Vessel, utensil, instrument, or furniture, for profane uses, such as basket, pot, ewer, or burden. Through the temple, i.e., through the outermost court of the temple, which was the court of the Gentiles, where the Gentiles might tarry and pray. For to those who wished to pass from the sheep-market, called Bethesda, or by corruption Bethsaida, to the upper city, or Solomon’s palace, the nearest way was through this porch or court of Solomon’s. For otherwise they would have to traverse the whole exterior boundary of this court. It was not surprising, therefore, that servants and children, who were carrying any burden, should take the nearer way through this court. But Christ forbade their doing so, both by His word and the gestures which He made with His hand, and compelled them to go back. What, then, would He have done with respect to the Holy Place itself? What with respect to our churches? (See Vilalpandus, tom. 2, in Ezek. l. 3, c. 9.)

Excerpt from The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ by J-J Tissot (1897)

Jesus, having undertaken to restore order in the House of His father, did not content himself with the first sweeping reform just described.  Yet another abuse had crept in: namely, the crossing of the Temple with various vessels in which to fetch water more conveniently than by going around.  To understand more clearly how this custom came to be introduced, what has already been said about the system of the water supply of Jerusalem must be borne in mind.  We know, indeed we just repeated, that all those portions of the Temple open to the sky would paved with polished stones and, in some parts, with many coloured marbles intended to receive a rainwater and take it to the cisterns or reservoirs.  These reservoirs were numerous and were much frequented by the women of the town, who flocked to them to draw water for their domestic needs.  Besides rainwater these reservoirs received the water from the sealed a fountain on the further side of Bethlehem and Etam, beyond the Wady Urtas.  The water from Solomon's Pools was also diverted to them by means of the aqueducts already referred to.  The reservoirs thus fed were celebrated and their water was much sought after on account of its freshness and purity; the people, however, preferred to draw it from the cisterns adjoining the Temple to going to fetch it from outside the town at Amygdalum or in the reservoirs of the valley of Gihon.  This was the cause of the perpetual going and coming which had destroyed the retirement of the Temple.  It was not, however, the only one, for all those who wished to go to any place beyond the temple preferred taking a short cut through it to going round the whole of the vast enceinte, which would have involved a very wide detour.

At the present day, it is still forbidden to cross the Haram, as the site of the Temple is now called, but the Pasha of Jerusalem has made an exception in favour of the sisters of Saint Vincent De Paul, for he is full of admiration for the charitable zeal which leads them to go from hospital to hospital throughout the town, ministering without distinction to all sufferers whether Christian or Mahommedan.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam