Matthew 27:40

40 And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.

Matthew 27:40 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 27:40

And saying, thou that destroyest the temple
The Vulgate Latin, and Munster's Hebrew Gospel, read, "the temple of God"; and add "ah!" here, as in ( Mark 15:29 ) , and so Beza says it is read in a certain copy. They refer to the charge of the false witnesses against him, who misrepresenting his words in ( John 2:19 ) , declared that he gave out that he was able to destroy the temple of Jerusalem, and rebuild it in three days time; wherefore it is added,

and buildest it in three days, save thyself.
They reproach him with it, and suggest, that these were vain and empty boasts of his; for if he was able to do any thing of that kind, he need not hang upon the tree, but could easily save himself:

if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
The Jews themselves say F1 that the following words were said to Jesus on the cross,

``if thou be the Son of God, why dost thou not deliver thyself out of our hands?''

As Satan before them, they put an "if" upon the sonship of Christ: and seeing his followers believed in him as the Son of God, and he had owned himself to be so before the sanhedrim, they require a sign of it by his power, and to do that which they believed no mere man in his situation could do; which shows, that they had no other notion of the Son of God, but that he was a divine person: but his sonship was not to be declared by his coming down from the cross, which he could have easily effected, but by a much greater instance of power, even by his resurrection from the dead; and no other but that sign was to be given to that wicked and perverse generation.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 Toldos Jesu, p. 17.

Matthew 27:40 In-Context

38 Then were crucified with him two thieves: one on the right hand and one on the left.
39 And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
40 And saying: Vah, thou that destroyest the temple of God and in three days dost rebuild it: save thy own self. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
41 In like manner also the chief priests, with the scribes and ancients, mocking said:
42 He saved others: himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross: and we will believe him.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.