The world behind the page
The Second Temple
When Jesus speaks of destroying the temple and raising it in three days, his hearers scoff: "Forty and six years was this temple in building." To grasp that scene we must see the vast, holy, contested house it was.
“Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?”John 2:20
The reality
The reality. The Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus' day is called the Second Temple, the successor to Solomon's Temple, which the Babylonians had destroyed. Rebuilt after the exile, it was later expanded on a massive scale by Herod the Great into one of the great buildings of the ancient world, a project of decades; John 2:20 has the Jews say it had been "forty and six years" in building, reflecting how long the work had gone on. The complex was arranged in a series of courts of increasing holiness, from an outer court of the Gentiles, where non-Jews could come, inward through courts restricted to Jewish women and then Jewish men, to the area of the priests and the sanctuary itself. Within the innermost house hung the veil separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, which only the high priest entered, and only on the Day of Atonement. The Temple was the center of Israel's worship: the place of sacrifice, staffed by priests and Levites, funded by offerings and the temple tax, and thronged with pilgrims, especially at the great feasts. It was also bound up with money, since sacrifices were bought and coins exchanged there. In AD 70, during the revolt against Rome, the Temple was destroyed, and it has never been rebuilt.
Why it matters for reading the Bible
Why it matters for reading the Bible. In John 2:19 to 21 Jesus says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," and the crowd, thinking of the stone building that had taken forty-six years, cannot imagine it, "but he spake of the temple of his body." The whole exchange turns on the Temple's grandeur and long construction. The courts explain the geography of many Gospel scenes, including where the money changers sat, in the outer court of the Gentiles. The veil explains the earth-shaking moment at the crucifixion when "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" (Matthew 27:51), a sign that the barrier before God's presence was torn open. And Jesus' prophecy that not one stone would be left upon another (Mark 13:2) points to the destruction that came in AD 70, after which sacrifice ceased and Judaism was reshaped around the synagogue and the study of Torah.
How it helps you see Christ
How it helps you see Christ. The Temple was the place where heaven and earth met, where sacrifice was made and sins were covered, guarded by a veil that kept the people out of the holiest place. Christ takes all of it into himself. He calls his own body the true temple, torn down and raised in three days (John 2:21). At his death the veil is ripped open from top to bottom, from God's side, opening the way into the Most Holy Place for all who come through him (Hebrews 10:19 to 20). He is at once the temple, the priest, and the sacrifice. When the great stone house fell in AD 70, the worship it housed had already been fulfilled and gathered up in him, so that now, as he told the woman at the well, worship is offered in spirit and in truth wherever his people are.
Questions people ask
Why is it called the Second Temple?
It succeeded Solomon's Temple, which the Babylonians destroyed. Rebuilt after the exile and later greatly expanded by Herod the Great, it stood until Rome destroyed it in AD 70.
What does "forty and six years" mean in John 2:20?
It reflects how long Herod's vast expansion of the Temple had been underway. The crowd took Jesus' words about raising the temple literally, not realizing "he spake of the temple of his body" (John 2:21).
What was the veil?
A curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place, which only the high priest entered, and only on the Day of Atonement. At Jesus' death it was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).