{3} But the {a} court which is without the temple {b} leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the {4} Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot {5} forty and two months.

(3) As if he should say, it is not your place to judge those who are outside, 1Co 5:12 who are innumerable: look to those of the household only, or to the house of the living God.

(a) He speaks of the outer court, which was called the peoples court, because all men might come into that.

(b) That is counted to be cast out, which in measuring is refused as profane.

(4) To profane persons, wicked and unbelievers, adversaries to the Church.

(5) Or a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, as is said in Re 11:3: that is, a thousand two hundred and sixty years, a day for a year, as often in Ezekiel and Daniel, which I noted before see Geneva Re 2:10. The beginning of these thousand two hundred and sixty years, we account from the passion of Christ, by which (the partition wall being broken down) we were made from two into one Eph 2:14. I say, one flock under one shepherd in Joh 10:16 and the end of these years precisely falls into the reign of pope Boniface the eighth, who a little before the end of 1294, entered Rome in the feast of Saint Lucie (as Bergomensis says) having put in prison his predecessor Coelestinus, whom by fraud, under colour of Oracle, he deceived: for which cause it was well said of him, Intravit ut vulpes, regnavit ut leo, mortuus est ut canis. That is, He entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. For if from 1294, you subtract the number of years Christ lived on the earth, you will find there remains just one thousand two hundred and sixty years, which are mentioned in this place and many others.

People's New Testament

11:2 And the court which is without the temple. This was the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, the type of the world. This measurement does not relate to the world so much as to the Church.

It is given unto the Gentiles. Not only it, but

the holy city. By the Holy City Jerusalem is meant when the term is named literally, but Jerusalem is used often by both Paul and John as a symbol of the Church. See Ga 4:26 Heb 12:22 Isa 2:2 52:01:00 Re 21:2.

Shall they tread under foot. Hence, the prediction is to be fulfilled by a prostration or desecration of the Church by worldly influences.

Forty and two months. This period is given several times in prophecy in varied forms. These will all be considered at once below. Here it will suffice to say that this is a period of 1260 days, and a day being a symbol of a year, the period meant is 1260 years.

Wesley's Notes

11:2 But the court which is without the temple - The old temple had a court in the open air, for the heathens who worshipped the God of Israel. Cast out - Of thy account. And measure it not - As not being holy In so high a degree. And they shall tread - Inhabit. The holy city - Jerusalem, Matt 4:5. So they began to do, before St. John wrote. And it has been trodden almost ever since by the Romans, Persians, Saracens, and Turks. But that severe kind of treading which is here peculiarly spoken of, will not be till under the trumpet of the seventh angel, and toward the end of the troublous times. This will continue but forty - two common months, or twelve hundred and sixty common days; being but a small part of the non - chronos.

King James Translators' Notes

leave out: Gr. cast out

Scofield Reference Notes

Margin tread

See "Times of the Gentiles." See Scofield Note: "Lk 21:24".

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. But-Greek, "And."

the court . without-all outside the Holy Place (Re 11:1).

leave out-of thy measurement, literally, "cast out"; reckon as unhallowed.

it-emphatic. It is not to be measured; whereas the Holy Place is.

given-by God's appointment.

unto the Gentiles-In the wider sense, there are meant here "the times of the Gentiles," wherein Jerusalem is "trodden down of the Gentiles," as the parallel, Lu 21:24, proves; for the same word is used here [Greek, "patein"], "tread under foot." Compare also Ps 79:1; Isa 63:18.

forty . two months-(Re 13:5). The same period as Daniel's "time, times, and half" (Re 12:14); and Re 11:3, and Re 12:6, the woman a fugitive in the wilderness "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." In the wider sense, we may either adopt the year-day theory of 1260 years (on which, and the papal rule of 1260 years, see on [2702]Da 7:25; [2703]Da 8:14; [2704]Da 12:11), or rather, regard the 2300 days (Da 8:14), 1335 days (Da 12:11, 12). 1290 days, and 1260 days, as symbolical of the long period of the Gentile times, whether dating from the subversion of the Jewish theocracy at the Babylonian captivity (the kingdom having been never since restored to Israel), or from the last destruction of Jerusalem under Titus, and extending to the restoration of the theocracy at the coming of Him "whose right it is"; the different epochs marked by the 2300, 1335, 1290, and 1260 days, will not be fully cleared up till the grand consummation; but, meanwhile, our duty and privilege urge us to investigate them. Some one of the epochs assigned by many may be right but as yet it is uncertain. The times of the Gentile monarchies during Israel's seven times punishment, will probably, in the narrower sense (Re 11:2), be succeeded by the much more restricted times of the personal Antichrist's tyranny in the Holy Land. The long years of papal misrule may be followed by the short time of the man of sin who shall concentrate in himself all the apostasy, persecution, and evil of the various forerunning Antichrists, Antiochus, Mohammed, Popery, just before Christ's advent. His time shall be THE RECAPITULATION and open consummation of the "mystery of iniquity" so long leavening the world. Witnessing churches may be followed by witnessing individuals, the former occupying the longer, the latter, the shorter period. The three and a half (1260 days being three and a half years of three hundred sixty days each, during which the two witnesses prophesy in sackcloth) is the sacred number seven halved, implying the Antichristian world-power's time is broken at best; it answers to the three and a half years' period in which Christ witnessed for the truth, and the Jews, His own people, disowned Him, and the God-opposed world power crucified Him (compare Note, see on [2705]Da 9:27). The three and a half, in a word, marks the time in which the earthly rules over the heavenly kingdom. It was the duration of Antiochus' treading down of the temple and persecution of faithful Israelites. The resurrection of the witnesses after three and a half days, answers to Christ's resurrection after three days. The world power's times never reach the sacred fulness of seven times three hundred sixty, that is, 2520, though they approach to it in 2300 (Da 8:14). The forty-two months answer to Israel's forty-two sojournings (Nu 33:1-50) in the wilderness, as contrasted with the sabbatic rest in Canaan: reminding the Church that here, in the world wilderness, she cannot look for her sabbatic rest. Also, three and a half years was the period of the heaven being shut up, and of consequent famine, in Elias' time. Thus, three and a half represented to the Church the idea of toil, pilgrimage, and persecution.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:1,2 This prophetical passage about measuring the temple seems to refer to Ezekiel's vision. The design of this measuring seems to be the preservation of the church in times of public danger; or for its trial, or for its reformation. The worshippers must be measured; whether they make God's glory their end, and his word their rule, in all their acts of worship. Those in the outer court, worship in a false manner, or with dissembling hearts, and will be found among his enemies. God will have a temple and an altar in the world, till the end of time. He looks strictly to his temple. The holy city, the visible church, is trodden under foot; is filled with idolaters, infidels, and hypocrites. But the desolations of the church are limited, and she shall be delivered out of all her troubles.