John and the Temple

Abstract

There is a scholarly consensus that the temple in Jerusalem with its cultus and other religious and social functions was the central Jewish institution of the time in Palestine as well as abroad, before its destruction. The notion 'Second Temple period' is indicative for the general judgement of its importance, and it is 'almost impossible to make too much of the Temple in first-century Jewish Palestine'. The temple of Jerusalem was evidently destroyed by the time of the final version of the Gospel, a fact that disturbs the analysis of John as 'sectarian' in relation to the temple. While the temple and temple related features are central in John, the destruction of the temple is also evidently alluded to in Jn 4:21, but also in 11:48. Variants of the temple replacement theory in different degrees are quite common among Johannine scholars.Keywords: Gospel; Johannine scholars; John; temple of Jerusalem