During Jesus' first Passover the Jews asked for a sign, and He responded, "`Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews therefore said, `It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the temple of His body." (John 2:19-21) These passages are the only scriptural clue to independently establishing the year of Jesus' first Passover.
What did Jesus mean by "temple," how did the Jews interpret His meaning, and what did the Jews mean by "temple?" Understanding each perspective will help to decide the probable starting point of the forty-six years. Then, there is the problem of interpreting the claim of uninspired bystanders that it took forty-six years to build the Temple. Their words are truly reported, but are they speaking truly?
Jesus referred to His own body as naos, a temple or shrine. He was standing in the Court of the Gentiles, near the front of the main Temple. The Jews thought He was referring to that structure, not His body. They thought Jesus was saying that if that Temple were destroyed, He would build it again in three days. They responded to Jesus with His same word, naos, which they claimed had taken forty-six years to build. They confronted Jesus with the impossibility of rebuilding in three days what had taken forty-six years to build. The Jews knew when the Temple had been begun, and they took spiritual and psychological refuge in that knowledge.
Jesus had just driven from the Temple the merchants of sheep and oxen and the moneychangers. He then confronted those selling the doves, and He was then asked by the "Jews" to show a sign. This was probably asked by a Temple scribe and echoed by the crowd that must have gathered. The claim of forty-six years to rebuild the Temple also must have been validated by the crowd. They contrasted the building process of three days against forty-six years and are not likely to have minimized their argument by exaggerating. Under these circumstances the forty-six years should represent a reliable number of years "to build this temple."
