John 2:21 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

But, alas, our Saviour spoke not of their material temple, but of the temple of his body; which yet was proper speaking: for if the apostle calleth our bodies the temple of God, as he doth, 1 Corinthians 3:16, 1 Corinthians 6:19 2 Corinthians 6:16; it much more may be said so of the body of Christ: for as God dwelt in the temple, and there revealed his will, and would be there worshipped; how properly must the notion of the temple agree to Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, Colossians 2:9, who revealeth his Father's nature and will to men, Matthew 11:27, and in whom all must worship him? So as the temple at Jerusalem was every way a most illustrious type of Christ, and Christ might well, speaking concerning his body, say, Destroy this temple; and thus Christ (would these blind Jews have seen it) drew off the Jews from glorying in their temple, Jeremiah 7:4; and from the temple, which was but a type, (as the tabernacle was before, Acts 7:44 Hebrews 9:23,24), to himself, prefigured by those houses, Hebrews 9:11. Nor doth he think fit at this time to speak more plainly; for as he knew that the perverse Jews, in seeing would not see, nor bear any such doctrine; so he also knew, that his better disciples were as yet weak in faith; and none putteth new wine into old bottles.