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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
Wherefore then did He not resolve the difficulty and say, "I speak not of that Temple, but of My flesh"? Why does the Evangelist, writing the Gospel at a later period, interpret the saying, and Jesus keep silence at the time? Why did He so keep silence? Because they would not have received His word; for if not even the disciples were able to understand the saying, much less were the multitudes. …
Cyril of Alexandria
Acceptable to the wise man is the word of wisdom, and the knowledge of discipline abideth more easily with men of understanding, and as in wax not too hard, the impression of seals is well made, so in the more tender hearts of men the Divine Word is readily infixed: wherefore the hard of heart is also called wicked. The disciples then, being of a good disposition, become wise, and ruminate the words of divine Scripture, nourishing themselves to more accurate knowledge, and thence coming firmly to belief. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Apollinaris attempts to find here a defense for his heresy. Wishing to confirm that the Lord's flesh was without a soul, he says: "The flesh is called a temple, and a temple is soulless; therefore, it too is soulless." Thunder-struck and dizzy fool! You would perhaps make the Lord's flesh into wood and stones as well, since the temple is made of them?! When you hear the Lord's words: "My soul is now troubled" (John 12:27) and "I have power to lay down My soul" (John 10:18), how do you understand them? …
Western Saints
Bede
With perfect justice he banished the wicked from the temple, since the temple represented the temple of his body, in which there was no stain of any kind of sin.
Thomas Aquinas
Then, the true interpretation of this sign as understood by the apostles is given. First, the way they understood it is given. Secondly, the time when they understood it (v 22). He says therefore: The Jews said this out of ignorance. But Christ did not understand it in their way; in fact, he meant the temple of his body, and this is what he says: He was speaking, however, of the temple of his body. We have already explained why the body of Christ could be called a temple. …
Bonaventure
But he was speaking of the temple of his body. For if our bodies "are the temple of the Holy Spirit," 1 Corinthians 6: how much more the body of Christ, "in whom the Divinity dwells bodily," as is said in Colossians 2. And this spiritual understanding neither the Jews nor the carnal disciples possessed, but only after the resurrection. It is asked: why does the Lord call Himself a temple and compare Himself to a temple? …
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