Forty and six years — Just so many years before the time of this conversation, Herod the Great had begun his most magnificent reparation of the temple, (one part after another,) which he continued all his life, and which was now going on, and was continued thirty — six years longer, till within six or seven years of the destruction of the state, city, and temple by the Romans.
Related Commentaries of John 2:20
John 2:20
20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?