John 2:20-22

John 2:20 provides an important chronological marker in the life of Jesus. It enables us to date His visit to the temple here as happening in A.D. 30. [Note: See Hoehner, pp. 38-43.] Work on Herod’s Temple had been proceeding for 46 years. It was not completed until A.D. 63.

Jesus’ critics assumed that He was speaking of Herod’s temple, but John interpreted His true meaning for his readers. Even Jesus’ disciples did not understand what He meant until after His resurrection. The Scripture they then believed was Old Testament prophecy concerning Messiah’s resurrection (e.g., Psalms 16:10; Psalms 69:9).

Jesus’ body was a temple in a unique sense. It was the body in which the Word had become flesh (John 1:14). The Father indwelt it, as did the Son (John 14:10-11) and the Spirit (John 1:32-33). It therefore uniquely manifested the Father. It was also the site where God manifested Himself on earth as He had done previously, though to a lesser extent, in the tabernacle and temple. Moreover it was the center of true worship following the Incarnation (cf. John 4:20-24). In it the ultimate sacrifice would take place. [Note: Carson, p. 182.]

Jesus spoke of the temple as a type (i.e., a divinely intended illustration) of Himself. Later Christ’s body became a figure for the church (cf. Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 1:18), but that use probably began after the founding of the church at Pentecost. It seems clear that Jesus was referring to his physical body here rather than to the church. Yet there may be an intentional allusion to the ultimate abolition of the Jewish temple and temple sacrifices. [Note: Morris, p. 178.] Such double entendres are common in this Gospel.

"The misunderstandings seem to function to highlight the two levels of understanding that take place in the Gospel. On the one hand is the spiritual or heavenly level that Jesus came bringing, to teach the true way to eternal life. On the other hand is the temporal or earthly level that most people operate at, including most of Christ’s professed disciples, which leads to darkness and loss of eternal life. John wants to show that one must cross over from the earthly to the heavenly, from darkness into light, from death into life. By his careful construction of the narratives, John leads his readers to see and understand what the original participants could or did not, and thus to believe the claims of Jesus and avoid the ignorance displayed by the original characters in the drama." [Note: Edwin E. Reynolds, "The Role of Misunderstanding in the Fourth Gospel," Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 9:1-2 (1998):158-59.]