Chapter 4 

From the Gospel of John 

The Temple of Jesus' Body (John 2:18 22) 

     The Jews then said to him, `What sign have you to show us for doing 

this?' 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 spoke of the temple of 

his body.  (John 2:18 21). 

    Jesus calls His own body a Temple. The Temple of Jerusalem was a 

prophetic symbol of Jesus, the Messiah. The Jews failed to understand this 

symbolism and so they thought He was talking about the temple buildings. 

They tell Jesus it took 46 years to build the temple buildings. (This refers to 

the rebuilding of the Second Temple of Jerusalem; the First Temple of 

Jerusalem was built by Solomon.) 

    All of Holy Infallible Scripture is Jesus speaking to us. And so the 

statement by the Jews that it took 46 years to build the Temple is also 

intended by God to refer to Jesus' body. It took 46 years to build the Temple 

which is Jesus' body, beginning with the Immaculate Conception of the 

Virgin Mary. This passage of John's Gospel reveals to us that the 

Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was the beginning of the 

building of Jesus' body. Holy Scripture also herein reveals that the Virgin 

Mary was conceived at the time of the rebuilding of the Temple (about 46 

years earlier). 

    Consider the number of years. Jesus was about 30 years old at the 

beginning of His ministry (Luke 3:23). Mary was just over 15 years old 

when Jesus was born. Add 30 years to 15 years, then add the months that 

Mary was in her mother's womb, and the result is about 46 years.

4

 (See my 

book Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary for more information.) 

    The conception of the Virgin Mary must have been Immaculate, 

preserved free from all sin and all tendency to sin, because God tells us in 

the Holy Scriptures that this was the beginning of the building of the Temple 

of Jesus' body. The beginning of the building of Jesus' body could not have 

been with sin. Jesus is the reason for Mary's Immaculate Conception. Thus, 

this passage from God's Holy Infallible Scripture reveals to us the 

Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.