The Final Temple
In the second chapter of John, the disciples discover that Jesus is the True and Final Temple of God. The era of God “dwelling” in portable tents and stone buildings in Jerusalem or anywhere else, for that matter, came to an end with the arrival of the Messiah. God does not dwell in structures “made-by-hand,” nor can His presence be contained within physical or geographic boundaries.
After the Passover celebration, Jesus “went
up to Jerusalem” to visit the Temple, where he observed financial
transactions taking place in the “Court of the Gentiles.” This produced
the incident when the Messiah of Israel “cleansed the Temple” and overthrew the
tables of the moneychangers:
- (John 2:13-16) – “And near was the Passover of the Jews. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple them that were selling oxen and sheep and doves, also the moneychangers sitting. And making a scourge out of rushes, he drove out all of them, both the sheep and the oxen. And the moneychangers’ small coins poured he forth, and the tables he overturned. And to them who were selling the doves, he said, Take these things hence! Be not making the house of my Father a house of merchandise.”
FOCUS OF ISRAEL’S FAITH
The Temple was the center of the Jewish
faith, especially its prescribed sacrifices, annual feast days, and other rituals.
The hostile reaction by certain “Jews” to the actions of Jesus illustrates the
words from the prologue of the Gospel of John – “He came to
his own and those who were his own did not receive him” - (John 1:11).
From the start, the Nazarene was opposed by
the leaders of the Temple. In this incident, they sent representatives to ask him
for a sign that would demonstrate his authority to act as he did.
Jesus was in the “Temple,”
which translates the Greek noun hieron and refers to the
entire temple complex (Strong’s - #G2411). However, in verse 19, the
term naos is found on the lips of Jesus (Strong’s - #G3485),
not hieron (“Destroy this sanctuary and
in three days I will raise it”).
The latter term refers to the sanctuary proper
within the larger Temple complex, including the “Holy of Holies,” the
inner sanctum where the presence of Yahweh dwelt.
- (John 2:17-22) – “His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thy house is consuming me. The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him, What sign do you point out to us in that these things you are doing? Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it. The Jews, therefore, said, In forty and six years was this sanctuary built, and you in three days will raise it! But he was speaking concerning the sanctuary of his body. When, therefore, he had been raised from among the dead, his disciples remembered that this he had been saying, and they believed in the Scripture and in the word which Jesus had spoken.”
POINTING TO HIS RESURRECTION
After his resurrection, the disciples
remembered the passage cited from the Psalms by Jesus. In the Hebrew Bible, it
has a past tense verb, “The zeal of your house consumed me." But
in John, the Greek verb tense is future, “The zeal of your
house WILL CONSUME me” - (Psalm 69:9: “Because zeal for thy house hath eaten me up”).
The Greek verb rendered “consume”
or katesthiō is a compound of the verb “eat” (esthiō)
and the preposition kata for “down” (Strong’s - #G2719).
The compound form intensifies the sense of esthiō so it
denotes “to eat up, consume entirely.” Thus, his zeal demonstrated
in the “cleansing” of the court contributed to his arrest, trial, and execution
- (Matthew 26:60-61, 27:40, Mark 14:58, 15:29).
Jesus responded to his critics. If they
destroyed “this sanctuary,” he would raise it “after three days.” His
opponents took his words literally, and so misunderstood his meaning. John adds
a comment so his readers will not make the same mistake - “But he was
speaking of the SANCTUARY [naos] of his body.”
Thus, Jesus declared himself to be the True Sanctuary, the Naos of God. His opponents would destroy “this sanctuary” when they put him to death. After his resurrection, the disciples remembered this saying and “believed in the Scripture.”
Thus, the gospel of John presents
Jesus as the True and Greater Temple. Unlike the manmade stone structure in
Jerusalem, this one would never be destroyed. He has become the permanent
dwelling place of the glory of Yahweh.
In him, Jesus of Nazareth, the presence of God no longer
is restricted to any structure “made-by-hand” in Jerusalem or any
other holy site. The Divine glory is seen forevermore in the face of Jesus Christ
for all men to behold - (2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6).
