and adulterous generation' - evil in their thoughts and ways and adulterous to the God of
Israel - He had then, as afterwards,46 only one 'sign' to give: 'Destroy this Temple, and in
three days I will raise it up.' Thus He met their challenge for a sign by the challenge of a
sign: Crucify Him, and He would rise again; let them suppress the Christ, He would
triumph.47 A sign this which they understood not, but misunderstood, and by making it
the ground of their false charge in His final trial, themselves unwittingly fulfilled.
45. St. Matt. xiii. 11 -15; St. Mark iv. 11, 12.
46. St. Matt. xii. 38-40.
47. I cannot see in the words of Jesus any direct reference to the abrogation of the
material Temple and its services, and the substitution of the Church for it. Of course, such
was the case, and implied in His Crucifixion and Resurrection, though not alluded to
here.
And yet to all time this is the sign, and the only sign, which the Christ has given, which
He still gives to every 'evil and adulterous generation,' to all sin- lovers and God-
forsakers. They will destroy, so far as their power reaches, the Christ, crucify Him, give
His words the lie, suppress, sweep away Christianity - and they shall not succeed: He
shall triumph. As on that first Easter-day, so now and ever in history, He raises up the
Temple, which they break down. This is the 'sign,' the evidence, the only 'sign,' which the
Christ gives to His enemies; a sign which, as an historical fact, has been patent to all men,
and seen by them; which might have been evidence, but being of the nature of miracle,
not explicable by natural agencies, they have misunderstood, viewing 'the Temple' me rely
as a building, of which they fully know the architecture, manner, and time of
construction, 48 but of whose spiritual character and upbuilding they have no knowledge
nor thought. And thus, as to that generation, so to all which have followed, this is still the
'sign,' if they understand it - the only sign, the Great Miracle, which, as they only
calculate from the visible and to them ascertained, these 'despiser behold, and wonder,
and perish,' for He worketh 'a work in their days, a work which they shall in no wise
believe.'49
48. From the expression (St. John ii. 20) 'Forty and six years was this Temple in
building,' it has been inferred by most writers that this Passover was of the year 791
a.u.c., or 28 a.d., and not, as we have argued, of the year 780 a.u.c., or 27 a.d. But their
calculation rests on an oversight. Admittedly the rebuilding of the Temple began in the
autumn of the eighteenth year of Herod's reign (Jos. Ant. xv. 11. 1 -6). As Herod's reign
dates from 717 a.u.c., the Temple -building must have commenced in the autumn of the
year 734 -35. But it has already been explained that, in Jewish reckoning, the beginning of
a new year was reckoned as a year. Thus if, according to universal opinion (comp.
Wieseler, Chronolog. Synopse, pp. 165, 166), the Temple -building began in Kislev 734,
forty-nine years after it would bring us to the autumn 779, and the Passover of 780, or 27
a.d., would be regarded and spoken of as 'forty and six years.' If a Jew had calculated the
time at the Passover 781, he would not have said 'forty-six' but 'forty-seven years' 'was
this Temple in building.' The mistake of writers lies in forgetting that a fresh year had
begun after the autumn - or at any rate at the Passover. It may here be added, that the
Temple was not finally completed till 63 a.d.
49. Acts xiii. 41.