ign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these
things?" Curtly, and with scant respect for this demand, so common to
wicked and adulterous men,[354] Jesus replied: "Destroy this temple and
in three days I will raise it up."[355]

Blinded by their own craft, unwilling to acknowledge the Lord's
authority, yet fearful of the possibility that they were opposing one
who had the right to act, the perturbed officials found in the words of
Jesus reference to the imposing temple of masonry within whose walls
they stood. They took courage; this strange Galilean, who openly flouted
their authority, spoke irreverently of their temple, the visible
expression of the profession they so proudly flaunted in words--that
they were children of the covenant, worshipers of the true and living
God, and hence superior to all heathen and pagan peoples. With seeming
indignation they rejoined: "Forty and six years was this temple in
building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?"[356] Though
frustrated in their desire to arouse popular indignation against Jesus
at this time, the Jews refused to forget or forgive His words. When
afterward He stood an undefended prisoner, undergoing an illegal
pretense of trial before a sin-impeached court, the blackest perjury
uttered against Him was that of the false witnesses who testified: "We
heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and
within three days I will build another made without hands."[357] And
while He hung in mortal suffering, the scoffers who passed by the cross
wagged their heads and taunted the dying Christ with "Ah, thou that
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself, and
come down from the cross."[358] Yet His words to the Jews who had
demanded the credentials of a sign had no reference to the colossal
Temple of Herod, but to the sanctuary of His own body, in which, more
literally than in the man-built Holy of Holies, dwelt the ever living
Spirit of the Eternal God. "The Father is in me" was His doctrine.[359]

"He spake of the temple of His body," the real tabernacle of the Most
High.[360] This reference to the destruction of the temple of His body,
and the renewal thereof after three days, is His first recorded
prediction relating to His appointed death and resurrection. Even the
disciples did not comprehend the profound meaning of His words until
after His resurrection from the dead; then they remembered and
understood. The prie