holy dwelling-place of God who “was in Christ.” Compare 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17. Christ’s death was therefore the pulling down of the temple, and His resurrection its rebuilding. The imper- ative in destroy is of the nature of a challenge. Compare jill ye up, Matt. xxiii. 32.
20. Forty and six years was this temple in building (reccapdkovta Kal && érecw @xodoundIn 6 vads ovdTos). Lit., In forty and six years was this temple built. It was spoken of as completed, although not finished until thirty-six years later.
Thou. The position of the Greek pronoun makes it em- phatic.
21. He (éxetvos). See on i. 18. Emphatic, and marking the contrast between the deeper meaning of Jesus and the literal- ism of the Jews and of His disciples (see next verse). For other illustrations of John’s pointing out the meaning of words of Jesus which were not at first understood, see vii. 393 xii. 33; xxi. 19.
22. Was risen (7yép9n). Rev., more correctly, was racsed. The same verb as in vv. 19, 20.
Had said (édeyev). Rev., more correctly, He spake. The best
texts omit wnto them.
Believed the Scripture (érictevcav tH ypadp). Notice that érlarevoav, believed, is used here with the simple dative, and not with the preposition eds, into (see on i. 12). The meaning is, therefore, they believed that the Scripture was true. On ypady, a passage or section of Scripture, see on Mark xii. 10.
In John, as elsewhere, the word almost always refers to a particular passage cited in the context. The only two excep- tions are xvii. 12; xx. 9. For the Old Testament, as a whole, John always uses the plural ai ypagai. The passage referred to here is probably Ps. xvi.10. Compare Acts ii. 27, 315; xiii. 35.
The word. The saying just uttered concerning the destruc- tion of the temple.