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This is the fourth part in an ongoing series exploring the significance of temple in the Bible and in our own modern culture. Thus far, we’ve covered the significance of temples, the form and function of ancient Near Eastern temples, the distinctive aspects of the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, and the historical development of the theme of temple throughout the Old Testament. At the end of the last post, we noted the gradual narrowing of the scope of God’s sanctuary—from the whole world to Canaan, from Canaan to the tabernacle, from the tabernacle to the temple, and from Solomon’s temple to Ezra’s much shabbier successor.
Is the vision of temple dwindling? Or is it perhaps focusing? This post will show the latter. All the hope and expectation funnels to and climaxes with a singular Person, Jesus Christ.
Anticipating the True Temple
Ezra and the Jews who had returned to Judah from exile completed the reconstruction of the temple some time around 515BC. However, it was a far cry from fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel. Some scholars note that while Ezekiel 11:23 depicts God’s glory departing from the temple to dwell with the exiles in Babylon, there is no parallel description of his glory returning to fill the second temple like with Solomon’s temple in 2 Chronicles 7.1 Nehemiah closes the Old Testament with a record of sins and abuses still being carried out in the second temple. The last book of the Old Testament in modern English translations and the last of the Old Testament prophets Malachi condemns the offering of flawed sacrifices, the withholding of tithes, and the corrupt teaching of priests. Faithful Jews would have recognized the temple’s shortcomings and anticipated a greater restoration.
Two intertestamental endeavors are worth noting as attempts to restore the temple. The first is the Maccabean Revolt, in which Jews overthrew the tyrannical Antiochus Epiphanes and earned political freedom from the Seleucid Empire. Antiochus had desecrated the temple by erecting an image of Zeus and sacrificing pigs on its altar. The Maccabees’ victory and rededication of the temple represented a triumph of Jewish faith over Hellenistic influence and a restoration of Jewish religious practices. However, Jewish zeal mushroomed into a deep suspicion of Gentiles and a strict adherence to traditions above and beyond the law of Moses.
The second is the Herodian renovation of the temple. Herod the Great, a Roman client king of Judea, embarked on a massive expansion of the temple complex from roughly 20-4 BC. The new temple building itself covered nearly 36 acres with brilliant white stones, ornate decorations, and an unimaginable amount of gold plating. At best, this new complex served as a shining reflection of God’s glory. In reality, this temple was more a symbol of Herod’s power than God’s. Construction was funded by excruciating taxes, which were marketed as necessary for faith and national pride. The temple itself became an institution riddled with abuse of power, xenophobia, and greed.
This was not at all the vision of the new temple given by Ezekiel and other prophets. Its outward might and beauty was only a facade. Little did those in Jerusalem know the true temple was coming soon.
Jesus as Temple
At last, one comes who claims to be the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy. He is not merely a new Solomon or Ezra, come to embark on a new building project. He himself is the prophesied temple. John 2 makes this clear as day.
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22)
To draw out the notion of Jesus as a person fulfilling the role of the temple, consider Lane’s four axioms of sacred place with respect to Jesus. First, “not chosen, but chooses.” Jesus was not the top choice for savior by any human metric (Isa 53:2). He was an untrained, homeless rabbi who ministered for only three years before facing execution by Roman authorities and his own religious elite. In several places in the Gospels, Jesus is the one who seeks out his followers. He is the one who chooses his twelve disciples. And according to his parables, he is the one who seeks and saves the lost. He is not chosen by humanity. He is chosen by God to call his people to himself.
Second, “Ordinary, ritually made extraordinary.” While not as easy to correlate to the person and work of Jesus, two clear examples come to mind: the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Scripture teaches that in baptism believers are symbolically united to Christ in his death and resurrection. The ordinary act of submersion and surfacing (even if just through sprinkling) ritually points to the extraordinary reality of regeneration. Similarly, Christ tells his church that in partaking of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, they in fact eat and drink of his flesh and blood. Ordinary elements of food and drink become extraordinary elements which bear the spiritual presence of Jesus. In the Lord’s Supper the Lord truly meets us at his table.
Third, “Tread upon without entering.” All throughout Jesus’ earthly ministry, the crowds were divided between those who understood and those who could not understand. Jesus explicitly states this is the nature of his ministry. He teaches with parables so that those to whom it has not been given will not see or hear despite their functioning eyes and ears. When debating the pharisees, Jesus tells them they cannot possibly understand who he is because they are not his sheep. This is the pattern of Christianity to this day. Many may enter into the walls of a church or even consider themselves a member of the body of Christ, but not all who profess faith have it. Unless the Spirit of God enables one to see and hear and believe, they will remain blind and deaf and denying.
Fourth, “Centripetal and centrifugal, local and universal.” In one sense, never had God been so locally present in the world than when Jesus walked the earth. God took on flesh as a real, living man. Jesus came to dwell literally. He walked with humanity. He worked and slept alongside us. He shared a table with men and women, eating and drinking alongside them. The temple had now focused into a single individual. In another sense, though, it was through Jesus that the temple expanded to encompass all creation. In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, he states that God is Spirit and must be worshipped in spirit and truth. Neither the mountain which the Samaritans climbed to worship nor the temple upon Zion could withhold the presence of God. In Christ, Ezekiel’s prophesy had come true. The Spirit of God had gone mobile. And at pentacost, it then went global. Jesus declares as much when he sends his apostles to the ends of the earth. As the new temple, Jesus was the source of living water which flowed to every corner of the world, bringing life through the gospel.
The Church as Temple
Thus, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the symbolism and function of the temple. John 1 states that in Christ, God’s presence is now with humanity in a perfect, full way. Though Jesus’ glory is veiled, his presence is true. Upon Jesus’ death, Matthew records that the curtain in the temple tore in two, breaking the division between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the structure. The symbolism is clear: God’s presence is now with man, not exclusive to the temple but now free as the wind. Pentecost shows just that. The Spirit descends on the apostles; God is now dwelling in each of his followers and they are sent out into the world both as temples and priests.
The epistles unpack exactly what temple now means for the people of God. First Corinthians 3:16-17 asserts that the church itself is God’s temple where the Holy Spirit dwells. Just as the garden was guarded by cherubim and Solomon’s temple was guarded by Levites, God himself guards the temple of his people’s hearts. Paul goes on to base Christian purity on this. As temples, we must be holy and sanctified. Sinning is defiling God’s temple. Peter’s first epistle draws from the same idea. Christians are both living stones of the temple, selected by God and built up as one body, and the royal priesthood which offers spiritual sacrifices. Christ is the cornerstone of this temple and, according to Hebrews, is the great high priest who offers ceaseless and perfect worship before the face of God.
Scripture ends with John’s revelation of the eschatological fulfillment of temple and sanctuary: the new cosmos, with heaven and earth perfectly united, and New Jerusalem at its center as the fulfillment of the garden of Eden. There is no temple in the city because God’s presence fills the world. Unlike the empty mercy seat in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple, Jesus Christ sits upon the throne as God’s perfect image. There is no need for a representation of God’s presence because God will be perfectly, fully present forevermore. The recreation of the world is complete, with Christ as the New Adam, the new image of God. Finally, the church joins him and will be like him in glory (1 John 3:2).
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This concludes the survey of the theme of temple in the Bible. The next post will bring all this home to our own context. In what ways are we still constructing temples in twenty-first century America? How does Christianity address those temples? And how is Jesus still the true and better temple to our modern constructions? We will address these together.
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1 That is not to say God’s presence does not return to the temple. See Joseph Greene, “Did God Dwell In The Second Temple? Clarifying The Relationship Between Theophany And Temple Dwelling” JETS 61.4 (2018): 767–84. By the time the second temple was constructed, eschatological expectation for a universal temple had taken deep root in the hearts of faithful Jews. “God’s heavenly tabernacling presence would be an eternal intense theophanic glory that would provide access to God for the entire earth (Isa 40:1–11; 52:10; 60–62; 66; Daniel 7; Joel 2:28–3:21; Zech 14:7– 11). Even if the glory cloud had returned to the second temple, this greater eschatological expectation would have remained.”
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Works Referenced
Lane, Belden C. Landscapes of the Sacred. Expanded Edition. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
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