Charles Ellicott 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)

They profess to seek a sign for evidence; they use it for cavil.

Forty and six years was this temple in building.—It is implied that it was not then finished. The date of the completion is given by Josephus (Antiquities 20.9.7) as A.D. 64. The same author gives the eighteenth year of the reign of Herod the Great (Nisan, A.U.C. 734–A.U.C. 735) as the commencement of the renewal of the Temple of Zerubbabel (Antiquities 15.11.1).

This would give A.U.C. 781–782, i.e., A.D. 28–29, as the date of the cleansing. In another passage Josephus gives the month Kislev A.U.C. 734, as the date of the festival connected with the building of the Temple (Antiquities 14.16.4). This would fix our present date as the Passover of A.U.C. 781, i.e., A.D. 28.

Saint Luke furnishes us with an independent date for the commencement of the ministry of John the Baptist. If we count the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius (compare Note on Luke 3:1) from the commencement of his first reign with Augustus (A.U.C. 765, i.e., A.D. 12), this date will be A.U.C. 780, i.e., A.D. 27.

The present Passover was in the following year, i.e., as before, A.D. 28. The sole reign of Tiberius commenced two years later (A.D. 14), so that while we have certainly no discrepancy between these independent dates, we have probably a very striking coincidence. Its bearing upon the authenticity of the present Gospel is evident.

Rear it up represents the same Greek word as raise up, in the previous verse; but the word fits the double meaning. It is the regular term for raising from the dead; but it is also used of rearing up a building, as, e.g., in 1 Esdras 5:44; Sirach 49:11.