Origen, COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, Part II, Complete

Translated by Allan Menzies.

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Page 118

22. The Temple of Solomon Did Not Take Forty-Six Years to Build. With Regard to that of Ezra We Cannot Tell How Long It Took. Significance of the Number Forty-Six.

The Jews therefore said, "Forty and six years was this temple in building, [5106] and wilt thou raise it up in three days?" How the Jews said that the temple had been forty-six years building, we cannot tell, if we adhere to the history. For it is written in the third Book of Kings, [5107] that they prepared the stones and the wood three years, and in the fourth year, in the second month, [5108] when Solomon was king over Israel, the king commanded, and they brought great precious stones for the foundation of the house, and unhewn stones. And the sons of Solomon and the sons of Hiram hewed the stones and laid them in the fourth year, and they founded the house of the Lord in the month Nisan and the second month: in the tenth year in the month Baal, which was the eighth month, the house was finished according to the whole count and the whole plan of it. Thus comparing the time of its completion with the period of building, the building of it occupies less than eleven years. How, then, do the Jews come to say that the temple was forty-six years in building? One might, indeed, do violence to the words and make out the period of forty-six years at all costs, by counting from the time when David, after planning about the building of the temple, said to Nathan the prophet, [5109] "Behold I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God dwelleth in the midst of the tent," for though it is true that he was prevented, as being a man of blood, [5110] from carrying out the building, he seems to have busied himself in collecting materials for it.

[5106] John ii. 20.

[5107] 1 Kings v. 18.

[5108] 1 Kings vi. 1.

[5109] 2 Sam. vii. 2.

[5110] 1 Chron. xxii. 8; xxvii. 3.

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