The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple building, and thou wilt raise it up in three days?
The scene is Jerusalem at Passover, just after Jesus has driven the traders out of the temple courts. The leaders demand proof of His authority. He answers with a word about destroying and raising a temple. They reply with arithmetic: a building site of forty-six years against a promise of three days.
The number came from a building project everyone in the city had watched. Herod began it, and workmen kept adding to it long after it opened.
At first the Jews were unsure of his intentions, for it seemed sacrilegious that an Idumean, a heathen king, should rebuild the sacred temple. But Herod soon showed he was in earnest. He gathered ten thousand wagons to carry the stones needed for such an undertaking, and called up ten thousand skilled workmen for the job. The efforts were so huge that in a year and six months the temple opened, to great rejoicing among the Jews. The building kept receiving additions from time to time. That explains their remark about the forty-six years. But He was speaking about the temple of His body.
Two questions matter more than the years: who built this house, and who ran it?
Herod was not God's man to build Him a house, nor were the leaders of the Jews fit men to carry on His worship. To the disciples the Lord declared that not one stone would be left on another.
Their boast counted the years of labour. It could not count whether God was there.
His own body was the true temple of God. God's glory had left the temple in the days of the prophet Ezekiel. But in Christ that glory dwelt in fullness.
The verse opens with "the Jews." In this Gospel that name marks a settled opposition, and here they think they have closed the matter.
A challenge comes from the Jews. In this Gospel they are the persistent opponents of the Lord Jesus, and here we meet them in opposition for the first time. To His questioners His reply seemed absurd. "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" They gave this answer, we can well imagine, with feelings of triumph. They thought themselves wise and prudent. Which of them could accept such an answer as proof? Would anyone take up the hard work of forty-six years again and finish it in three days? Let the ignorant crowd believe that. How could the educated men of Jerusalem accept it?
Both the Jews and His own disciples missed His meaning at the time.
He answers them with a challenge: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." He was speaking of His death and resurrection. It was a parable they could not interpret. They applied it falsely to Herod's building, which was still unfinished. Even the disciples understood it only when it came true. The eyes of those held by outward things were not on Him. For the time being, outward things held the eyes of true disciples too.
They compared building times. He was drawing a line between what human hands can do and what they cannot.
The temple at Jerusalem could be corrupted. No corruption was possible with the temple of the Lord's body, though men could try to destroy His body by violence. Again and again they sought to stone the Lord. At last, when the hour had come, they were permitted to "destroy" the temple of His body. Man's wickedness becomes one more occasion to show His glory as the Son, and His place above all others. Man may destroy, but he cannot raise the dead. Christ says, in effect, "When you have done your worst, when you have destroyed the temple of My body, I will raise it up."
The sign meant nothing to them that day. To the disciples it meant everything later.
The sign He would give was His own resurrection power. He would raise not just others but His own body, the true temple in which alone God was. What they boasted of had only a name without God. Resurrection marks Him out as Son of God in power. When He rose, the disciples remembered His saying. They found the strongest confirmation of their faith in both Scripture and His word. His resurrection is the basic truth of the gospel, and of our distinctive place as Christians.
- Building — Herod's temple took forty-six years and was still unfinished. The Jews were quoting a real building record, not a figure of speech.
- Builder — Herod was not God's man for the work, and the men running its worship were no fitter. God's glory had left that house long before, in Ezekiel's day.
- Blindness — their eyes were on outward things. They applied His words to Herod's stonework and missed the Person in front of them.
- Body — they could corrupt one temple, but no corruption could touch the temple of His body. Man may destroy; man cannot raise the dead.
- Belief — the sign lay on the far side of the resurrection. When He rose, the disciples remembered this saying, and it confirmed both Scripture and His word.
But *he* spoke of the temple of his body.
Jesus had just cleared the temple courts, and the leaders demanded a sign. He answered with words about a temple torn down and raised in three days — and here John tells us which temple He meant.
His hearers thought only of the stone building in front of them. One writer shows how often this happened, and how much John's note clears up.
Many times, especially in John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus said things that those who heard Him did not understand. Here in John 2 is a case in point... They did not grasp what the Lord's answer meant: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They thought only of Herod's temple.
Some dismiss John's explanation. One commentator answers them with a scholar's reply.
About such reckless treatment of this Gospel, the late Dr. Friedrich Blass remarked that we moderns should ask whether anyone today can know better than someone who lived at the time.
One writer sets the stone building beside the temple Jesus named.
In His reply the Lord shows that, now He had become man, His body was the true Temple or dwelling place of God. The Temple at Jerusalem was empty... The temple at Jerusalem could be defiled. The Temple of the Lord's body could never be defiled, though men could use violence to try to destroy it... Christ says, in effect, "When you have done your worst, when you have destroyed the temple of My body, I will raise it up." His resurrection will be the declaration in power that He is the Son of God.
Calling the temple "empty" is not about the building itself. One writer points to the time when God's glory left it.
Indeed His own body was the true temple of God, for God's glory had left the temple in the days of Ezekiel; but in Christ that glory dwelt in fullness. What a sign is the death and resurrection of Christ!
They had asked for a sign. This one was beyond any man's power to give.
He must die, then, and rise again, before the sign could come to pass. But who has power of resurrection except God? Man may, if God permits it, kill the body. There his power stops. To raise the dead belongs to God, not to man. Yet He who was a man would use that power, and use it on Himself.
He had cleansed the house as the One who owned it. The temple He now names is one He would put up Himself.
But again, He purifies the temple, His Father's house. But He does this as the God of the temple: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This was building houses as God alone can build them... To build by creation, or by resurrection as here, is divine architecture, and Jesus is a divine builder.
God's dwelling place did not stop with the body of Jesus.
The temple in Jerusalem was the only temple God ever commanded anyone to build on earth. Israel had defiled it so badly that when the Lord Jesus came He set it aside, and spoke instead of "the temple of His body"... While God could no longer dwell in Israel's temple, He could dwell with perfect satisfaction in the body of the Lord Jesus. But since Christ has returned to glory, God is building a temple now — the Church.
- Empty house. God's glory had left the temple in Jerusalem long before. The building they defended stood empty.
- Filled body. In Christ that glory dwelt in fullness. His body was the true temple, and it could not be defiled.
- Destroyed temple. Men did their worst to it. Killing the body was as far as their power went.
- Raised temple. Man may kill a body. Raising the dead belongs to God alone, and His resurrection declares in power that He is the Son of God.
- New house. God now builds a temple of people — the Church. The dwelling moved from stone, to Christ, to His people.