Jesus answered, &c. Appositely does He prove His authority over the Temple by His power of rebuilding the Temple.
This Temple, viz, His body, which Christ pointed out by moving His hand to His breast. Observe: the Body of Christ is called a temple because in It dwelt the fulness of the Deity, not merely by grace as it dwells in us, but corporeally and personally (Col. ii9). So S. Cyril. As though He said, "You, 0 ye incredulous Jews, ask of Me a sign, or a miracle; lo, I give you one, even My resurrection from the dead. This thing is now indeed dark unto you, because ye are unbelieving. But after a little while ye will understand it, or at least ye might easily understand, when ye shall see that I am risen on the third day. For then ye shall understand who I Amos , and how great I was, that I was in truth the Lord of My own Body, that of My own will I gave Myself to die, and rose to life again. Thus, in consequence, ye may understand that much more am I the Lord of this Temple, which ...
Has once learned, never departs from Him at all, and that those are the Church who remain in the house of God; but that, on the other hand, they are not the plantation planted by God the Father, whom we see not to be established with the stability of wheat, but blown about like chaff by the breath of the enemy scattering them, of whom John also in his epistle says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us.".
The Apostle John execrates and severely assails these, when he says, "They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us.".
And "After three days another shall be raised up without hands.".
Of this same thing in the Epistle of John: "They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would doubtless have remained with us."
To them who of good purpose ask for good things, God very readily granteth them: but to them who come to Him, tempting Him, not only does He deny their ambition in respect of what they ask, but also charges them with wickedness. Thus the Pharisees demanding a sign in other parts of the Gospels the Saviour convicted saying, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What therefore He said to those, this to these too with slight change: for these (as did those) ask, tempting Him. Nor to those who were in such a state of mind would even this sign have been given, but that it was altogether needful for the salvation of us all.
But we must know that they made this the excuse of their accusation against Him, saying falsely before Pontius Pilate, what they ...
As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however "it is said, "of the temple of His body."
Many such sayings He utters which were not intelligible to His immediate hearers, but which were to be so to those that should come after. And wherefore does He this? In order that when the accomplishment of His prediction should have come to pass, He might be seen to have foreknown from the beginning what was to follow; which indeed was the case with this prophecy. For, says the Evangelist,
And demanded that He should be crucified, though they laid nothing else to His charge except that He said that He was the Son of God, the King of the Jews; also His own saying,
John, ) "but they were not of us. If they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.".
This destiny of the body the Lord also described, when, clothed as He was in its very substance, He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.".
And accordingly, "Know ye not your bodies (to be) members of Christ? "because Christ, too, is God's temple. "Overturn this temple, and I will in three days' space resuscitate it."
