the expulsion out of the temple

The Expulsion from the Temple, dated 1647 and now at the Bijbels Museum in Amsterdam, depicts Jesus's dramatic clearing of merchants and money-changers from the Jerusalem Temple — an act of righteous anger recorded in all four Gospels that was read in the seventeenth century as an image of spiritual authority confronting commercial corruption. For Catholic Antwerp, the subject carried both devotional and social resonance, as the Church's battles with mercantile culture were ongoing. Jordaens gives the scene his characteristic physical energy: tables overturned, coins scattering, animals fleeing, figures recoiling. The Bijbels Museum, dedicated to the history and culture of the Bible, holds the canvas as part of a collection focused on biblical narrative in European art. By 1647, Jordaens's compositions had grown more assured and his figure groups more confidently orchestrated, making this Expulsion one of the most dynamically convincing treatments of a subject that invited easy theatricality.

The composition manages the challenge of depicting chaotic action without losing legibility, organising the disorder around the central figure of Christ advancing from left to right. Overturned tables, scattered coins, and retreating figures provide the visual evidence of the confrontation's violence while Christ's directed forward movement maintains compositional order. Strong diagonal thrust activates the picture plane.