Albert Barnes Commentary John 2:19

"Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." — John 2:19 (ASV)

Destroy this temple. The evangelist informs us (John 2:21) that by temple, here, he meant his body. It is probable that he pointed with his finger to his body as he spoke. The word destroy, used here in the imperative, has more the force of the future. Its meaning may be expressed as follows:

"You are now profaners of the temple of God. You have defiled the sanctuary; you have made it a place of commerce. 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."

This was therefore a distinct prediction of both his death and its cause. The word temple, or dwelling, was often used by the Jews to denote the body as being the residence of the spirit (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Christians are also often called the temple of God, as those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells on earth (1 Corinthians 3:16–17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16).

Our Savior called his body a temple consistent with common 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 especially manifested there (2 Chronicles 36:15; Psalms 76:2). Since the Lord Jesus was divine—as the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him—his body could rightly be called a temple.

In three days I will raise it up. The Jews had asked a miracle from him as proof of his authority—that is, a proof that he was the Messiah. He told them that a full and decided proof of that would be his resurrection from the dead. Although 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.

He refers them to the same evidence that he was the Christ on other occasions. See Matthew 12:38-39. So early, he foretold 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 clearly shows that he came from heaven, and it also shows 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 everlasting death.

When Jesus says, I will raise it up, it is also proof of divine power. A mere man could not say this. No deceased man can have such power over his body; and therefore, there must have been in the person of Jesus a nature superior to human to which the term "I" could be applied, and which had power to raise the dead—that is, which was divine.