A contradiction in the cleansing(s) of the Temple?

Some have been confused by John placing the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Christ’s ministry, and Matthew, and the other Gospels, place it at the end of his ministry.

John 2:13-16 ” . . . Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.”

Matthew 21:12,13 ” . . . My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

But the obvious question here is why there should be only one? There had already been one cleansing of the Temple by Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:8-9) where Jesus’ predecessor had thrown the furniture of Tobiah out of the Temple) so there was already precedent part from the symbolic significance of the act. If anything the question should be, could not Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple be annual – as one would expect from the Law. And thus there would be three cleansings of the Temple during Jesus’ ministry.

The case for at least two cleansings of the Temple:

1. It is true that John places the cleansing at the beginning of Christ’s ministry and the other Gospels place it just prior to the crucifixion. The reason for this is that there were two, and not just one, cleansing of the temple. 
2. A comparison of the contexts of these two passages indicates the contrast in events preceding and following the temple cleansings. In John’s Gospel the cleansing occurs at the beginning of Christ’s miracles at Cana of Galilee. (John 2:11). Jesus journeyed from Capernaum to Jerusalem in this Gospel. The cleansing is then followed by the Jews’ request for a sign. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus comes to Jerusalem from Judea beyond Jordan (Matthew 19:1), and enters Jerusalem on an ass to the cries of “Hosanna” from the populace. (Matthew 21:9). The cleansing of the temple is then followed by the cursing of the fig tree. (Matthew 21:18, 19). It follows, therefore, that two different cleansings occurred. 
3. It is appropriate that the cleansing of the temple at the end of Christ’s ministry should prohibit the carrying of vessels in the temple: “And {he} would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple.” (Mark 11:16). The outer court of the temple was called “The Court of the Gentiles.” It was a large open area, the only area of the temple to which the Gentiles had access. But this area had become a shortcut route for persons traveling to and from the north end of the city. The prohibition of Jesus was in effect a symbolic declaration that the outer court was also holy, and that the Gentile as well as the Jew was now acceptable before God. There was to be “neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free” – all the baptized were to be “one in Christ Jesus”. (Gal. 3:28).