Church Fathers Commentary John 2:18-22

"The Jews therefore answered and said unto him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews therefore said, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he spake this; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." — John 2:18-22 (ASV)

Theophylact of Ohrid: When the Jews saw Jesus acting in this way with power, and heard Him say, Make not My Father’s house a house of merchandise, they asked Him for a sign, saying, What sign do You show us, since You do these things?

St. John Chrysostom: But were signs necessary for Him to put a stop to evil practices? Was not having such zeal for the house of God the greatest sign of His virtue? They did not, however, remember the prophecy but asked for a sign, at once irritated at the loss of their shameful profits and wishing to prevent Him from going further.

They thought this dilemma would force Him either to work miracles or to abandon His present course. But He refused to give them a sign, as He did on a similar occasion when He answered, An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. The answer is more direct there than here. However, He who even anticipated people's wishes and gave signs when He was not asked would not have rejected a positive request here if He had not seen a crafty design in it. As it was, Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The Venerable Bede: Since they sought a sign from our Lord for His authority to eject the usual merchants from the temple, He replied that the temple signified the temple of His Body, in which there was no spot of sin. It was as if He said, "Just as I purify your inanimate temple from your commerce and wickedness by My power, so also the temple of My Body—of which that temple is a figure—I will raise again on the third day after it is destroyed by your hands."

Theophylact of Ohrid: However, He does not provoke them to commit murder by saying, Destroy; He only shows that their intentions were not hidden from Him. Let the Arians observe how our Lord, as the destroyer of death, says, I will raise it up—that is to say, by My own power.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Father also raised Him up, to whom He says in the psalm, Raise me up, and I shall reward them. But what did the Father do without the Word? Just as the Father raised Him up, so did the Son also, just as He said later, I and My Father are one.

St. John Chrysostom: But why does He give them the sign of His resurrection? Because this was the greatest proof that He was not a mere man, for it showed that He could triumph over death and in a moment overthrow its long-standing tyranny.

Origen of Alexandria: Both the Body of Jesus and the temple seem to me to be a type of the Church, which is built up with living stones into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood. According to St. Paul, You are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And though the structure of stones may seem to be broken up, and all the bones of Christ scattered by adversities and tribulations, yet the temple will be restored, raised up again in three days, and established in the new heaven and the new earth.

For just as that physical body of Christ was crucified and buried, and afterward rose again, so the whole body of Christ’s saints was crucified with Christ (each one glorying in that cross, by which he himself was also crucified to the world). After being buried with Christ, this body has also risen with Him, walking in newness of life. Yet we have not yet risen in the power of the blessed resurrection, which is still going on and is yet to be completed. This is why it is not said, "On the third day I will build it up," but in three days. For the construction is in process throughout the whole of the three days.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Jews, supposing that He spoke of the physical temple, scoffed: Then said the Jews, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days?”

Alcuin of York: Note that they are not alluding here to the first temple under Solomon, which was finished in seven years, but to the one rebuilt under Zerubbabel. This one took forty-six years to build because of the opposition raised by enemies of the work.

Origen of Alexandria: Alternatively, some might reckon that the number forty, in reference to the four corners of the temple, alludes to the four elements of the world, and the number six alludes to the creation of man on the sixth day.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Alternatively, it may be that this number corresponds to the perfection of the Lord’s Body. For six times forty-six are two hundred and seventy-six days, which make up nine months and six days, the time our Lord’s Body was forming in the womb, as we know from authoritative traditions handed down from our ancestors and preserved by the Church. According to general belief, He was conceived on the eighth of the Kalends of April (the same date on which He suffered) and born on the eighth of the Kalends of January. The intervening time contains two hundred and seventy-six days, which is forty-six multiplied by six.

The process of human conception is said to be as follows: The first six days produce a substance like milk, which in the next nine days is converted into blood. In twelve more days it is consolidated, and in another eighteen days it is formed into a complete set of limbs. The growth and enlargement of these limbs fills the rest of the time until birth. For six, nine, twelve, and eighteen, added together, make forty-five. With the addition of one (which represents the sum, as all these numbers are collected into one), the total is forty-six. This number, multiplied by six (which stands at the head of this calculation), makes two hundred and seventy-six—that is, nine months and six days.

Therefore, it is not meaningless information that the temple was forty-six years in building. The temple prefigured His Body, and for as many years as the temple was being built, the Lord’s Body was that many days in forming.

Alternatively, if you take the four Greek words for the cardinal directions—anatole (east), dysis (west), arktos (north), and mesembria (south)—their first letters spell ADAM. Our Lord says that He will gather His saints from the four winds when He comes to judgment. Now, according to Greek gematria, the letters of the word ADAM add up to the number of years the temple was in building. For in ADAM, we have alpha (1), delta (4), alpha (1), and mu (40), which together make forty-six.

The temple, then, signifies the body derived from Adam. Our Lord did not take this body in its sinful state but renewed it, raising it again on the third day after the Jews had destroyed it. The Jews, however, being carnal, understood in a carnal way; He spoke spiritually. The Evangelist tells us which temple He meant: But He spoke of the temple of His Body.

Theophylact of Ohrid: From this, Apollinarius draws a heretical inference, attempting to show that Christ’s flesh was inanimate because the temple was inanimate. By this logic, you could prove the flesh of Christ to be wood and stone, because the temple is composed of these materials. Now, if you refuse to allow the statements, Now is My soul troubled, and, I have power to lay it [my life] down, to refer to the rational soul, how will you then interpret, Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend My spirit? You cannot understand this to be about an irrational soul. Or again, how do you interpret the passage, You shall not leave My soul in hell?

Origen of Alexandria: Our Lord’s Body is called the temple because, just as the temple contained the glory of God dwelling within it, so the Body of Christ—which represents the Church—contains the Only-Begotten, who is the image and glory of God.

St. John Chrysostom: In the meantime, there were two things far beyond the disciples' comprehension. One was the resurrection of our Lord’s Body. The other, and the greater mystery, was that it was God who dwelt in that Body, as our Lord declared by saying, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And so it follows, When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.

Alcuin of York: For before the resurrection, they did not understand the Scriptures, because they had not yet received the Holy Spirit, who was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. But on the day of the resurrection, our Lord appeared and opened the meaning of the Scriptures to His disciples, so that they might understand what was said of Him in the Law and the Prophets. And then they believed the prediction of the Prophets that Christ would rise on the third day, and also the word that Jesus had spoken to them: Destroy this temple...

Origen of Alexandria: But (in the mystical interpretation), we will attain to the full measure of faith at the great resurrection of the whole body of Jesus—that is, His Church. This is because the faith that comes from sight is very different from the faith that now sees as through a glass, darkly.