What Does John 2:19 Mean in the King James?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek command translated “Destroy” is the same word Jesus later uses to say “Loose him”, one verb holds demolition and unbinding together.
THE MEANING
The temple is Jesus’ body, as the next verse makes clear. He speaks of its bodily destruction and its raising in the same sentence: “I will raise it up.” The verse meets you with a body that is vulnerable to violence, yet whose final outcome belongs to the one who raises it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that violence has the final claim over Jesus’ body.
THE ROOT
λύσατε
lysate
GROWS FROM
λύω
lyō
To loosen, untie, or release; also to dissolve, break up, or destroy.
English gives you the hard force of “destroy,” while λύω (lyō) also carries the sense of loosening or unbinding. John uses the exact same form, λύσατε (lysate), when Jesus says “Loose him” in John 11:44, letting destruction and release sound through one verb without softening the violence of this verse.
ALSO GROWS
lyō: Loosen, untie, release.
λύω
John uses this same verb in John 11:44 as λύσατε (lysate, “Loose him”), when Jesus commands Lazarus’s bindings to be undone.
apolyō: Release, dismiss, send away.
ἀπολύω
This compound carries the same loosening root into the act of releasing someone, keeping that sense audible beside “Destroy” here.
THE PATTERN
A body given over to death remains within God’s power to raise.
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.THE THREAD
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.“Loose him” translates the same Greek command, λύσατε (lysate), rendered “Destroy” in John 2:19. The shared word links the tearing down of the temple with the unbinding of a man emerging from the tomb.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
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