the apostles began to preach, they continnally referred the Jewa to Christ's resurrection as the proof of His Messiahship. And why did they do so? One main reason was, because their Mas- ter had told the Jew?, the first time He appeared in the temple, that the great sign they must look to was His own rising again from the dead.
20. — {Then said... .Jews, forty and six years, Sc] This expression has given rise to some diflference of opinion. The temple to which the Jews refer, cannot of course be the temple built by Solomon. That temple was completely destroyed by Nebuchad- nezzar.— Nor yet does it seem likely to have been the temple built by Zerubbabel and his companions, after the return from Babylon. There is no sufficiently clear proof that this temple was forty and six years building. — By far the most probable view is, that the temple spoken of is the one repaired, or rather re-built by Herod, and that the forty-six years here mentioned mean the time during which these repairs were going on, and that the entire completion of them had not been effected up to our Lord's time. These repairs, according to Josephus, had been going on exactly forty-six years when our Lord visited the tem- ple. They were so extensive and costly, that eighteen thousand workmen were employed about them, and they amounted to a re-building. Moreover, the minds of the Jews would probably be full of them at this particular time, because they were of re- cent date, if not going on at that very time. The Greek words might fairly be rendered, " Forty and six ^ ears has this temple been building." — They denote a time, as Whitby remarks, not perfectly past.
If any one desires to see an instance of the extravagant lengths into which a good man may be led, in following the allegorical system of interpreting Scripture, he will do well to read Augus- tine's allegorical explanation of the forty and six years. It is far too absurd to be worth inserting here.
[ Wilt thou rear it up in three days f] This question implies three things, — a sneer, astonishment, and incredulity. There is probably an emphasis meant to be laid on the word " thou." Such an one as thou 1 Wilt thou do it ?
That this saying of our Lord, nevertheless, was not thrown away and forgotten, but stuck in the minds of the Jews, though they did not understand it, is strikingly proved by two facts. — One is, that the false witnesses brought it forward, though in a garbled form, when our Lord was arraigned before the high priests. — The? other is, that the Jews taunted Him with it when He hung on the cross. (Matt. xxvi. 61 ; xxvii. 40.)
1\, — [But he spaJce....temple....hody.] This verse is an instance of St. John's habit of making explanatory comments in his Qos-