John 2:19

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, DESTROY THIS TEMPLE - not now the mere temple-court [ hieron (G2411)], but the temple proper [ naos (G3485)], AND IN THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT UP. See the notes at Mark 14:58-41....

19._Destroy this temple. _This is an allegorical mode of expression; and Christ intentionally spoke with that degree of obscurity, because he reckoned them unworthy of a direct reply; as he elsewhere declares that _he speaks to them in parables_, because they are unable to comprehend the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom, (Matthew 13:13.) But first he refuses to them the sign which they demanded, either because it would have been of no advantage, or because he knew that it was not the proper time. Some compliances he occasionally made even with their unreasonable requests, and there must have been a strong reason why he now refused. Yet that they may not seize on this as a pretense for excusing themselves, he declares that his power will be approved and confirmed by a _sign _of no ordinary value; for no greater approbation of the divine power in Christ could be desired than

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 help...

Verse John 2:19. _DESTROY THIS TEMPLE_] τον ναον τουτον, _This very_ _temple_; perhaps pointing to his body at the same time....

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

EXPOSITION VERSES 2:1-3:4 _The testimony of signs to the glory of the Word made flesh._ JOHN 2:1 (1) _The first sign, the beginning of signs, Mastery over the old creation. Sign of love and power. _The description of the preceding narrative, given in John 2:11, is the true key to it. It is impressive on several accounts. Christ had not yet given any "sign" of the invisible and eternal glory which the evangelist in his prologue had claimed for him. He had not in his own person "manifested" the unique majesty of his will, nor revealed the direction in which the power he wielded would most freely move. John, by this statement, (1) puts down a positive disclaimer of the whole cycle of portents which, whe

JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM,.... In a dark and enigmaticai way, though very properly and pertinently; since it was with respect to the temple, and his power over it, and right to purge it, that a sign was required of him: DESTROY THIS TEMPLE; pointing, as it were, with his finger to his body; for of that he spake, as appears from John 2:21, the dissolution of which, by death he means, the separation of his soul from his body, though not of either from his divine person: and it is to be understood, not as a command, or a grant, or as an exhortation, and advice to them, to kill his body; but rather as a prophecy of what they would do; or as putting the case, that should they, as he knew they would, destroy his body, then says he, as a sign of having a power to do what I have done, IN THREE DAYS I WILL RAISE IT AGAIN; by which he would appear to be the Son

CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 2:1-22 _ 1. The Marriage in Cana. (John 2:1 .)_ 2. The Temple Cleansed. (John 2:12 .) The second chapter gives the record of the first miracle reported in this Gospel. He manifested His omniscience in the previous chapter and here, in turning water into wine, He reveals Himself as the omnipotent Creator. What harmony there is between the opening of the first two Chapter s of the Gospel of John. The first chapter speaks of Him as the Creator of all things and in the second chapter He manifests the power of the Creator. He needed no wine, no grapes, no mellowing process, to furnish the best wine. He but commanded and it was so. This is omnipotence. In John 2:17 of the previous chapter there is a

THE CLEANSING OF THE TEMPLE. The Passover of the Jews as an author writing for Christians naturally describes it without special significance or bias, was near. Jesus, following the custom of the religious party in His nation, goes up with His disciples (John 2:17; John 2:22) to keep the feast (_cf._ Exodus 23:15). He finds the Temple desecrated by an illicit traffic in animals for the sacrifices, and sacred shekels of the heavy Phœ nician standard (pp. 116f.), in which alone the Temple tax could be paid. The expulsion is described with a fullness and correctness of detail (notice especially the _driving out_ of the cattle and (?) their attendants, the _overturning_ of the moneychangers-' tables, and the _telling_ the

DESTROY THIS TEMPLE, AND IN THREE DAYS. WILL RAISE IT UP. To the demand for. sign, made more than once during his ministry, this was his constant answer. Unbelief would do its work in destroying the temple of his body, and its argument would be overthrown by his resurrection from the dead. The temple itself was only. type of the spiritual body of Christ. His body contained within itself the spiritual temple that would be developed. It was appropriate to point to it as the temple, though the Jews did not comprehend his words....