3/15/09 Gospel

RCL reading for Sunday, March 15, 2009:
Excerpt from The New Revised Standard Version
via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)

John 2:13-22

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables.
15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’
17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’
18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’
19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’
20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’
21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
22 After 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.

QUESTIONS
Does this story of Jesus seem uncharacteristic? Why or why not?
The whip, as well as the sheep and cattle, are not mentioned in the other gospel accounts. Why do you think that is?
In verse 17, where did that quote come from?