Letter 166: On the text: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" [John 2:19].

To Peter. On the words, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" [John 2:19]. Since you supposed that some contradiction had been written in the Gospel, you reported the question: for what reason did it [Scripture] call it false testimony to have said the words about the destroying and the raising up of the temple? For it has been said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "I will raise it up," I say [the speaker explains], because those men [the false witnesses] were speaking about the sanctuary, but he himself was speaking about his body. And if you should say that this is implausible -- for they themselves never knew this, nor did his disciples, until he rose from the dead -- I would reply: that even if they had known it, not even so did they testify the truth. For he promised that he would do the one thing, not both. For the destroying belonged to those men, but the raising up to himself. "You destroy it," he says, "and I will raise it up." For the destroying was even within the power of any chance person, but the raising up was God's.

Εἰς τό, «Λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον· καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν.» Ἐπειδὴ ἐνόμισας (81) ἐναντιολογίαν τινὰ γεγράφθαι ἐν τῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ, ἐμήνυσας, δι᾽ ἣν αἰτίαν ψευδομαρτυρίαν ἐκάλεσε (82) τὸ εἰρηκέναι (83) περὶ τῆς λύσεως καὶ ἀναστάσεως τοῦ ναοῦ· εἴρηται γάρ· «Λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν.» ἐγείρω αὐτόν· φημί· ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι μὲν περὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἔλεγον· αὐτὸς δὲ περὶ τοῦ σώματος. Εἰ δὲ φαίης ἀπίθανον τοῦτο· οὐ γὰρ ᾔδεσαν τοῦτο αὐτοί ποτε, οὐδὲ οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ, εἰ μὴ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνέστη· φήσαιμι· ὅτι εἰ καὶ ᾔδεσαν, οὐδὲ οὕτω τἀληθῆ ἐμαρτύρησαν. Θάτερον γὰρ ἐπηγγέλλετο ποιήσειν, οὐχ ἑκάτερον. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ λῦσαι ἐκείνοις ἔπρεπε· τὸ δὲ ἀναστῆσαι ἑαυτῷ. Λύσατε γὰρ ὑμεῖς, κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ λῦσαι, καὶ τοῦ τυχόντος ἦν· τὸ δὲ ἀναστῆσαι, Θεοῦ (84).