Presuming they had access to the Scriptures, the Bible of the earliest Christians was the Old Testament. We have the Old Testament today, of course, but we look at it much differently than early Christians did. One reason is that we live at a time far removed from the days of Jesus, whom the early church expected would soon return. Another is that we live on the other side of the catastrophic events of AD 70, the year the Romans destroyed the Jewish temple.
One of the ways this time differential plays out is the way Christians look at Ezekiel 40–48, the fantastic prophecy of a future temple. Since the prophecy appears in the book of Ezekiel, it was written at the time (or shortly thereafter) Israel’s first temple, the temple of Solomon, was destroyed in 586 BC. When the Jews returned from exile, they rebuilt the temple. That second temple (with some updating by Herod) was the temple known to Jesus and the apostles. This second temple was the one destroyed in AD 70.
Many Christians today look at Ezekiel 40–48 and believe it prophesies another literal temple that will be rebuilt just before Jesus returns. No New Testament author, however, saw the prophecy that way. There are no direct quotations of Ezekiel’s prophecy in the New Testament. That isn’t surprising since the temple was still standing in the days of the New Testament writers, at least up until AD 70. But even after that date there are no direct quotations. In Revelation, a book that most would date well into the 90s, there are allusions to an idealized temple (Rev. 21), but nothing directly deriving from Ezekiel 40–48.
There’s a reason for this seemingly odd omission. In New Testament theology, believers are the temple of God. They have replaced the temple. Believers indwelt by the Spirit are now the place sanctified by the sacrificial blood of Jesus where God’s presence dwells. This temple was made at the resurrection and not by human hands (Mark 14:58).
Paul is explicit in this regard. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 he writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” Here Paul speaks to the Corinthians collectively. But in 1 Corinthians 6:19 he applies this same thinking to individual believers: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you? . . . You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Paul repeatedly emphasized that believers are the place where the presence of God dwells (cf. Rom. 8:9–11; Eph. 2:22; 2 Tim. 1:4).
For early believers, there was no need to worship at the temple—they were the temple. This was significant for a people of God that consisted of both Jews and gentiles. Had a temple been essential, gentiles would have been prohibited from worshipping God by the Jews who didn’t follow Jesus. The indwelling of the Spirit removed that obstacle.