John 2:19

2:12-22 The first public work in which we find Christ engaged, was driving from the temple the traders whom the covetous priests and rulers encouraged to make a market-place of its courts. Those now make God's house a house of merchandise, whose minds are filled with cares about worldly business when attending religious exercises, or who perform Divine offices for love of gain. Christ, having thus cleansed the temple, gave a sign to those who demanded it, to prove his authority for so doing. He foretells his death by the Jews' malice, Destroy ye this temple; I will permit you to destroy it. He foretells his resurrection by his own power; In three days I will raise it up. Christ took again his own life. Men mistake by understanding that according to the letter, which the Scripture speaks by way of figure. When Jesus was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered he has said this. It helps much in understanding the Divine word, to observe the fulfilling of the Scriptures.

Our Saviour refuseth to give them any sign, but that of his resurrection the third day from the dead. This was the sign to which he afterwards refers the Pharisees, Matthew 12:39 Luke 11:29 . Our Saviour’s words must not be understood as commanding or licensing them to destroy him, but as foretelling what they would do. It is in Scripture very ordinary to use the imperative mood for the future tense of the indicative; see Genesis 42:18 Deu 32:50 Isaiah 8:9,10 54:1 John 13:27 . Destroy, is as much as, I know you will destroy, or, If you do destroy this temple, I will build it up in three days. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is ordinarily in Scripture attributed to the Father; but here Christ saith he would do it; and the Spirit, by whom he is said to have been quickened, equally proceedeth both from the Father and the Son. Nor is this the only text where it is attributed to Christ; see John 20:17,18 . It was the work of the Trinity, out of itself, and so the work of all the three Persons. These words were three years after this made a great charge against Christ, Matthew 26:61 ; but they reported them thus, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. He said only, this temple, meaning his body.

19 . Destroy this temple ] It is S. Matthew ( Matthew 26:61 ) and S. Mark ( Mark 14:58 , see notes) who tell us that this saying was twisted into a charge against Christ, but they do not record the saying. S. John, who does record the saying, does not mention the charge. Such coincidence can scarcely be designed, and is therefore evidence of the truth of both statements. See on John 18:11 . The word used in these three verses for ‘temple’ means the central sacred building ( naos ), whereas that used in John 2:14 means the whole sacred enclosure ( hieron ). The latter is never used figuratively. raise it up ] In the charge His accusers turn this into build , a word not appropriate to raising a dead body. There is no contradiction between Christ’s declaration and the ordinary N.T. theology, that the Son was raised by the Father. The expression is figurative throughout; and ‘I and My Father are one.’ Comp. John 10:18 . This throwing out seeds of thought for the future, which could not bear fruit at the time, is one of the characteristics of Christ’s teaching.

John 2:19 . Λύσατε , destroy ) On account of this very deed, namely, the cleansing of the temple, they afterwards destroyed the temple of His body. Matthew 21:23 [see above], Matthew 21:46 , “They sought to lay hands on Him;” Matthew 27:40 , [They that passed by reviled, saying] “Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save Thyself;” Matthew 26:61 , [False witnesses said, in His trial before Caiaphas] “This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.” Destroy, i.e. if you destroy : or rather, you will destroy . A similar use of the Imperative [occurs] Sir 30:9 ; Sir 33:26 , Soothe your little son , etc. [= you will soothe],— τὸν ναόν , the temple ) The body of Jesus, about to be raised again, is the temple and dwelling-place of the Godhead. Therefore Jesus is the Lord of the temple at Jerusalem, which was the type of the body of Jesus.— τοῦτον , this ) There is no doubt but that Jesus supplied that which the Evangelist adds, John 2:21 , by the employment of a nod or gesture, unobserved by the Jews.—[47] ἐγερῶ , I will raise it up ) A suitable word, [both] concerning the edifice of stone, and concerning the temple of His body. It recurs at verse 22. This is a grand declaration of His, I can do what I please with the temple of My body: ch. John 10:17-18 , “No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.

I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again;” and so also I can do what I please with this temple made of stone and wood. He puts off those demanding the sign: comp. ch. John 8:28 , “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself:” nor, however, even in the time then being did He perform no signs; John 2:23 , “Many believed on His name, when they saw the miracles which He did .” [47] ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις , in three days ) From this very time, in which it first came into the Jews’ mind to destroy the temple of Christ’s body ( Mark 14:58 , We heard Him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands), down to His resurrection, by which He Himself raised the temple, is accounted, even in that sense, a three days’ period, if you take one day, and that the Passover day, in this figurative language, as one year: to wit, by including in the numeration the years of the prophecy and of its completion (which years are Dion. 28 and 30).— Harm. , p. 162. John 2:19

(19) Here, as in Matthew 12:38 , a sign is given referring to His resurrection. The sign is in its nature an enigma, meaningless to him who does not seek to understand it, but full of meaning for him who earnestly examines into the thing signified, and in such a form as impresses itself on the memory and educates the moral powers. We have had an example of this enigmatic teaching in John 1:15 ; John 1:27 ; John 1:30 . We shall meet with others. (Comp. John 4, 6; John 16:25 .) The enigma turns in the present case upon the double sense of the word “temple.” It meant the sacred shrine of the Deity, the Holy and Most Holy place, as distinct from the wider Temple area. But the true shrine of the Deity was the body of the Incarnate Word. The Temple of wood and stone was but the representative of the Divine Presence. That Presence was then actually in their midst. They had no reverence for the one; for, like its outer courts, it had become a house of merchandise, and was fast becoming a den of thieves. This very demand for an outward sign, while all around them feel a spiritual power, shows they have as little reverence for the other. They will destroy the real shrine; the shrine of wood and stone even will not be left to represent a Presence no longer among them. He will raise up the temple of His body the third day, and in that resurrection will be the foundation stone of the spiritual temple for the world.

The use of the word “temple” by the Jews in this double sense is attested by their interpretation of the Old Testament. We have an example of the use of “tabernacle” in a parallel sense in John 1:14 (comp. 2Peter 1:13-14 ), and the full idea of a spiritual worship and presence in John 4:21-24 . The sign may have been suggested by the double thought then present—the Jews destroying the sanctity of the material Temple, the disciples seeing in Him one consumed by zeal for it. (Comp. 1Corinthians 3:16-17 .)

Destroy this temple - The evangelist informs us John 2:21 that by "temple," here, he meant his body. It is not improbable that he pointed with his finger to his body as he spoke. The word "destroy," used here in the "imperative," has rather the force of the "future." Its meaning may thus be expressed: "You are now profaners of the temple of God. You have defiled the sanctuary; you have made it a place of traffic. You have also despised my authority, and been unmoved by the miracles which I have already performed. But your wickedness will not end here. You will oppose me more and more; you will reject and despise me, until in your wickedness you will take my life and 'destroy' my body." Here was therefore a distinct prediction both of his death and the cause of it. The word "temple," or "dwelling," was not unfrequently used by the Jews to denote the "body" as being the residence of the spirit, 2 Corinthians 5:1 . Christians are not unfrequently called the temple of God, as being those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells on earth, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ; 1 Corinthians 6:19 ; 2 Corinthians 6:16 . Our Saviour called his body a temple in accordance with the common use of language, and more particularly because "in him the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily," Colossians 2:9 . The temple at Jerusalem was the appropriate dwelling-place of God. His visible presence was there especially manifested, 2 Chronicles 36:15 ; Psalm 76:2 .

As the Lord Jesus was divine - as the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him so his body might be called a "temple." In three days I will raise it up - The Jews had asked a "miracle" of him in proof of his authority that is, a proof that he was the Messiah. He tells them that a full and decided proof of that would be his "resurrection from the dead." Though they would not be satisfied by any other miracle, yet by this they ought to be convinced that he came from heaven, and was the long-expected Messiah. To the same evidence that he was the Christ he refers them on other occasions. See Matthew 12:38-39. Thus early did he foretell his death and resurrection, for at the beginning of his work he had a clear foresight of all that was to take place. This knowledge shows clearly that he came from heaven, and it evinces, also, the extent of his love that he was "willing" to come to save us, knowing clearly what it would cost him. Had he come "without" such an expectation of suffering, his love might have been far less; but when he fully knew all that was before him, when he saw that it would involve him in contempt and death, it shows compassion "worthy of a God" that he was willing to endure the load of all our sorrows, and die to save us from death everlasting. When Jesus says, "'I' will raise it up," it is proof, also, of divine power. A mere "man" could not say this.