object in. Avhich God's glory is concerned. Mose?, Phineas, and Paul at Athens, are examples of such zeal. (Exodus xxxii. 19 ; Numbers xxv. 11 ; Acts xvii. 16.)
Augustine remarks on this text, " Let the zeal of the house of God ever eat thee. — For example : Seest thou a brother running to the theatre ? stop him, warn him, be grieved for him, if the zeal of Grod's house hath now eaten thee. — Seest thou others running and wanting to drink themselves drunk ? Stop whom thou canst, hold whom thou canst, frighten whom thou canst; whom thou canst, win in gentleness; do not in any wise sit still and do nothing."
18. — [Then answered the Jews and said.'] Doddridge remarks here that these Jews were probably the rulers, because the G-reat Assembly, or Sanhedrim, sat in the temple, and our Lord's actions would undoubtedly come to their knowledge without delay. This makes the question and answer which follow the more important,
[ What sign showest thou....doest these things.} This question of the Jews shows us that they admitted the lawfulness of a man doing such things as our Lord had done, if he could prove that he had a divine commission. He had suddenly taken upon Himself a great and independent authority. Though neither a priest nor a Levite, He had virtually interfered with the man- agement of the temple courts. Let Him now show that He was a prophet, like Elijah or Amos, and they would concede He had a warrant for His conduct.
19 — [Jesus answered.. ..destroy this temple.] The meaning of this remarkable expression is either hypothetical or prophetical. It must either be rendered, " Supposing you destroy this temple," or "Ye will destroy this temple," — "If ye kill my body," or '* When ye shall kill my body." — It is of course absurd to sup- pose that our Lord literally commanded the Jews to destroy Him. The use of the imperative instead of the future, must surely be familiar to every Bible reader. See especially the 109th Psalm. In the present case it is truly astonishing that any one can see difficulty in our Lord's expression. He only used a mode of speaking which is in common use among our- selves. If a lawyer said to his cUent in a consultation, " Take such a step, and you will be ruined," we all know that he would not be commanding his client to take the step. He would only mean, "If you do take such a step." — A similar form of lan- guage may be seen in our Lord's words, " Fill ye up the mea- sure of your fathers," addressed to the Pharisees. (Matt, xxiii. 32.) No one would sny that our Lord commanded the Phari- sees tc do this. It is a prophecy. — So also, " Make the tree good," (Matt. xii. 33,) is not so much a command as an hypo- thesis. See also Isai. viii. 9, 10.