Albert Barnes Commentary John 2:20

"The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?" — John 2:20 (ASV)

Then said the Jews... The Jews, either from the ambiguity of his language or, more probably, from a design to cavil, understood him as speaking of the temple at Jerusalem. What he said here is all the evidence that they could present at his trial (Matthew 26:61; Mark 14:58), and they reproached him with it when he was on the cross (Matthew 27:40).

The Jews frequently perverted our Savior's meaning. The language which he used was often that of parables or metaphor; and as they sought to misunderstand him and pervert his language, so he often left them to their own delusions, as he himself says, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand (Matthew 13:13).

This was a case which they might, if they had been inclined, have easily understood. They were in the temple; the conversation was about the temple. And though he probably pointed to his body, or designated it in some plain way, yet they chose to understand him as referring to the temple itself. As it appeared so improbable that he could raise up that in three days, they sought to pervert his words and pour ridicule on his claims.

Forty and six years... The temple in which they then were was that which was commonly called the second temple, built after the return of the Jews from Babylon (see Barnes' commentary on Matthew 21:12).

This temple Herod the Great commenced repairing, or began to rebuild, in the eighteenth year of his reign—that is, sixteen years before the birth of Christ (Josephus, Antiquities, b. xv. 1). The main body of the temple he completed in nine years and a half (Josephus, Antiquities, xv. 5, 6), yet the temple, with its outbuildings, was not entirely complete in the time of our Savior.

Herod continued to ornament it and to perfect it even until the time of Agrippa (Josephus, Antiquities, b. xx. ch. viii. § 11). As Herod began to rebuild the temple sixteen years before the birth of Jesus, and as what is here mentioned happened in the thirtieth year of the age of Jesus, the time which had been occupied in it was forty-six years.

This circumstance is one of the many in the New Testament which shows the accuracy of the evangelists and which proves that they were well acquainted with what they recorded. It demonstrates that their narration is true. Impostors do not trouble themselves to be very accurate about names and dates, and there is nothing in which they are more liable to make mistakes.

Wilt thou... This is an expression of contempt. Herod, with all his wealth and power, had been engaged in this work for almost half a century. Can you, an obscure and unknown Galilean, accomplish it in three days? The thing, in their judgment, was ridiculous and showed, as they supposed, that he had no authority to do what he had done in the temple.