The Only True God
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“settle down, abide, dwell” (BDB Hebrew-English Lexicon), the verbal root of Shekinah; its Greek equivalent menō appears 40 times in John’s Gospel, cp. Mat: 3 times; Mk:2; Lk:7). The amazing message of the NT, expressed succinctly in John 1.14, is that Yahweh came to dwell among us in Christ. The body of Christ was Yahweh’s Temple.
Jesus, God’s Temple: John 2.19 John 2.19, ‘Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20
The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this
temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
22
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.’
This public statement to the Jews is of great importance both in what is said (namely, that his body is God’s temple, v.21, cp. 1Cor.6.19) and in its consequence (it was brought against him at his trial and condemnation before the Sanhedrin, Mat.26.61; Mark 14.58). The temple in Jerusalem was known to the Jews as the temple of Yahweh. Therefore, to claim that he is God’s temple is to claim that Yahweh indwells him. This is consistent with his teaching in John, where it is the Father who is at work in him in all that he does and says. In saying that he is Yahweh’s temple, he is not claiming that he himself is Yahweh (or the Jews would have stoned him for blasphemy long before he got to the Sanhedrin) but that Yahweh indwells him as, for example, in John 14.10, “the Father who dwells in me”. There is, however, a major problem in John 2.19. Jesus is quoted as saying “I will raise it (Greek: active) up”. This is in contradiction both to the immediate context and to the whole teaching of the NT. Even in the immediate context, only three verses further on, it is stated that “he was raised (Greek: passive) from the dead” (Jo.2.22) i.e. God raised him. The latter corresponds to the message of the NT Please do not copy without permission, this book can be read at http://www.TheOnlyTrueGod.org