Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

People's New Testament

2:19-22 Destroy this temple. His own body. The sign that he would give the Jewish nation was his Resurrection. The Jews did not understand him, nor his own disciples, until after he rose from the dead (Mt 26:60,61 Mr 14:58).

Wesley's Notes

2:19 This temple - Doubtless pointing, while he spoke, to his body, the temple and habitation of the Godhead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. Destroy this temple, &c.-(See on [1772]Mr 14:58, 59).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:12-22 The first public work in which we find Christ engaged, was driving from the temple the traders whom the covetous priests and rulers encouraged to make a market-place of its courts. Those now make God's house a house of merchandise, whose minds are filled with cares about worldly business when attending religious exercises, or who perform Divine offices for love of gain. Christ, having thus cleansed the temple, gave a sign to those who demanded it, to prove his authority for so doing. He foretells his death by the Jews' malice, Destroy ye this temple; I will permit you to destroy it. He foretells his resurrection by his own power; In three days I will raise it up. Christ took again his own life. Men mistake by understanding that according to the letter, which the Scripture speaks by way of figure. When Jesus was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered he has said this. It helps much in understanding the Divine word, to observe the fulfilling of the Scriptures.