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Jesus Prepares the Temple

Using Chiasms to Understand the Rooms in John 14:2

Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, stated “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17). Three chapters later, he again reiterated this same fact: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Cor 6:19). Paul knew that within each Christian believer, there the Holy Spirit lives as in a temple.

Referring to separation from unbelievers in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote “What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor 6:15-16). Paul's hope was that the Christian believers would remove and not be contaminated with the filth of the world. The Holy Spirit had taken up residence within that living body, and therefore that body is now a temple.

When did our Christian bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit? This question is not asking "When were we saved?" as important as that is, but rather is asking “Where in the Bible did the Holy Spirit move from a building in Jerusalem to within individual people?” Yes, John 2:19 identifies Jesus as stating “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” But this does not pinpoint where the Holy Spirit will go.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the verses in John 14:2,3 to show that Jesus prepared a place where the Holy Spirit would dwell within every believing individual. We will look at three Greek words to give a fresh understanding of these popularly quoted verses. And then we will look at the chiasm (ky′-as-um) that covers John 14:2,3 to see that this is the proper interpretation of these verses. At the end of this article, we will look at this dwelling place of the Holy Spirit that is reflected in John 14:7 “But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”

The verses we are looking at are:

In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:2,3).

Benny Aker, in a commentary on the Book of John which is based on the writings of Donald Stamp, added clarification of the words oikia, monia and topos which helps unlock the meaning of these verses ¹:

Oikia was identified by Aker as “Father's house (oikia) [which] seems to reflect the heavenly dwelling place of God.” Think about this for a moment: where is the Father's house today? Contrary to what some may think, it is not the buildings that people call churches – the Scriptures simply don't support that thinking. Instead, the Father's house is the true church, which is every born-again believer in Jesus Christ.

Monia: Aker states that “ 'Rooms' translates the word monia ... it means literally 'living room' or 'dwelling place'.” In some Christian circles, after a person receives their salvation, a Christian worker asks the question “Based on your new salvation in Christ, where is He now?” They want to know if Christ is dwelling in their hearts.

Jesus spoke the words of John 14:2,3 as part of a longer discourse that took place in the evening before He was betrayed. Jesus said “I go” in v14:2,3 to speak about His imminent departure and return. He was about to undergo His suffering, death and resurrection. It was His death and resurrection that allowed Christ to dwell in our hearts.

Topos: Aker identified that “topos 'place' ... refers to the idea of 'temple'.” Sinners who come to repentance are “born from above [and] make up the new temple, God's dwelling place.” In this way, the new believers have become the “temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19).

Based on these Greek words, oikia (Father's heavenly dwelling place), monia (a dwelling place) and topos (temple), let us look at the chiasm that is associated with John 14:2,3. This chiasm confirms that Aker has properly interpreted these Greek words. Again, click here if you would like to know more about the chiastic approach.

On the A - A′ level, we see today's true church with it's many dwelling places in born again believers. Christ in us, us in Christ. It is so simple – not a future event but something that began 2,000 years ago.

The B - B′ level gives the presentation of the temple that Christ was about to prepare. Both verse 2b and 3a say precisely the same thing – repetition is why this is a chiasm and why the seemingly separate thoughts can be linked together.

The synthetic complement is a feature of many of the chiasms in the Book of John but is not as frequent in other Books of the Bible. The synthetic complement concludes the chiasm by confirming its meaning and enhancing the understanding. Here we see in John 14:3c that when that time comes for each new believer, we will be in Christ and Christ will be dwelling in us. That is why it is a temple.

Therefore, in John 14:2,3, Jesus is describing the process of preparing our bodies to be the temple where the Holy Spirit will reside. Father God has many heavenly dwelling places, and our bodies have become a temple where the Holy Spirit can dwell.

¹ Benny C. Aker, "John," in Life in the Spirit: New Testament Commentary, eds. French L. Arrington and Roger Stronstad, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999), 83-84.

Contributed by Thomas B. Clarke, author of Joshua's Spiritual Warfare: Understanding the Chiasms of Joshua, Copyright © 2008, Bible Discernments. This book invites the reader to understand the Lord's messages that are found in sixty-seven chiasms in the Book of Joshua, and then apply them to spiritual warfare.