Paul’s Road to the Temple

There is a simple way to learn what a person truly believes. We listen to what he says, but we also watch where he goes.

Paul said that God “does not dwell in temples made with hands,” and he said that your body is a temple. Many people take those two sentences to mean that the temple in Jerusalem had lost its place. So we will follow where Paul went.

Three Stops Along the Way

The first stop is Athens, where we have already been. On the Areopagus, Paul said that the God who made the world “does not dwell in temples made with hands.”

The second stop follows immediately:

Acts 18:1 After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth.

Paul spent a long time in Corinth, and later, from Ephesus, he wrote the letter we call 1 Corinthians. In it he told them that their body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and near its close he mentioned his plans:

1 Corinthians 16:8 But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost;

Even in passing, Paul measures his calendar by the feast of Pentecost.

The third stop is Jerusalem. Years later Paul arrives in the city. The elders there ask him to show everyone that the rumors about him are false, that he does not teach people to abandon Moses. Paul agrees:

Acts 21:26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

He takes part in a rite of purification that lasts several days, and he waits there until the offering is made for each of the men with him.

Set side by side, the three stops look like this:

How the Three Fit Together

If Acts 17:24 and 1 Corinthians 6:19 meant that the temple was finished, then the man who spoke those words could not have done what he did in Jerusalem. Think of a man who publicly announces that a building has been condemned, and then walks inside, unpacks his bags, and stays for a week of ceremonies. Either he did not mean what we think he meant, or he was a hypocrite.

Paul was not a hypocrite. For him, the two statements and the act in Jerusalem belonged together. God is not held by buildings. Therefore the place God chose is to be treated as holy, and therefore your own body is to be kept holy as well. There was no contradiction in Paul’s mind.

Luke Did Not Read Stephen That Way Either

Paul was not alone in this. Luke, who wrote Acts, did not record Stephen’s words as meaning that the temple was over. On the day Stephen was killed, persecution broke out, but look at who stayed:

Acts 8:1 Now Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death; and on that day a great persecution began against the ekklesia ἐκκλησία ek-klay-see'-ah(called-out community) in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

The apostles stayed in Jerusalem. And Paul himself, once he had come to faith, went back to Jerusalem and did this:

Acts 22:17 It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance,

He prayed in the temple. The same Paul who had stood by while Stephen was stoned now prayed in the house that Stephen had supposedly rejected. Whatever Stephen had said, Paul did not take it as a rejection of the temple.

The Next Question

One fair question remains. If the temple was not canceled, and the apostles kept going there, what happened in AD 70, when the Romans burned it to the ground? And why did God allow it?