The Temple and Building of God
An In-Depth Study of the Church as God’s Dwelling in the Epistles

Executive Summary

Introduction: The Dwelling Place of God

God’s Dwelling: The Spirit Indwells the Community

Founded on Christ: The Cornerstone and the Foundation

Living Stones: Being Built Together

A Holy Temple: The Call to Holiness

Edification: Building One Another Up

What This Picture Adds to the Body of Christ

Summary: How the Temple Shapes the Way a Believer Lives

A Note on Sources

Bibliography

Executive Summary

When the apostles want to say that God Himself now lives among His people, they do not reach first for the picture of a body. They reach for a building. The church, Paul writes, is “the temple of God,” “a holy temple in the Lord,” “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit,” and Peter adds that believers are “living stones” being built into “a spiritual house.” The picture is rooted in the whole story of Israel: the tabernacle that Moses built so that God might dwell among His people, the temple of Solomon filled with the glory of the LORD, the temple that Ezekiel saw abandoned by that glory and then restored, and the promise that a stone laid in Zion would be a sure foundation. This study follows that picture from its Old Testament roots through five uses, and it adds attention to the key Hebrew and Greek words, the plural “you” in Paul’s temple texts, and the way Jesus Himself spoke of His body as the temple.

The study reaches seven conclusions.

1. The temple is where God dwells, and in the New Testament that place is a people. The tabernacle and the temple were the appointed places of God’s presence (Exodus 25:8; 1 Kings 8:10-13). The apostles teach that the Spirit now indwells the assembled church (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:22).
2. Paul’s temple texts are first corporate. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 and Ephesians 2:21-22 the “you” is plural, and the temple is singular. The individual sense in 1 Corinthians 6:19 is real but secondary, and the two should be held together rather than traded for each other.
3. Jesus is the true temple and the foundation stone. He spoke of “the temple of His body” (John 2:21), and He is the chief cornerstone laid in Zion (Isaiah 28:16; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6).
4. The stones are living and are being built together. Peter’s phrase “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5) and Paul’s “built together” (Ephesians 2:22) rule out the solitary Christian.
5. Presence demands holiness. Where the holy God dwells, the dwelling must be set apart. Paul’s warning that God will destroy the one who destroys His temple (1 Corinthians 3:17) is a corporate warning about the shared life of a congregation.
6. The building is still rising. The Greek word οἰκοδομή names both a building and the act of building up. Edification is therefore the test of what believers say and do together (1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 4:29).
7. “Sanctuary” belongs to the people before it belongs to the room. The New Testament never calls a meeting place the temple of God. A church building is a useful and honorable tool, but the dwelling place of God is the gathered people.

The study moves through five sections: God’s Dwelling, Founded on Christ, Living Stones, A Holy Temple, and Edification. Each gives the significance of the use, the key passages in the New King James Version, exegetical observations, implications for a local church, and a set of ten questions. A section on what this picture adds to the body image, a practical summary, and a three-tier bibliography follow. Lexical claims are tied to named lexicons, and those that could not be consulted are marked for confirmation before teaching. It is Study 7 of the ten-study series on the church in the Epistles.

Introduction: The Dwelling Place of God

The household is where the family lives; the temple is where God lives. The study of the household and family of God asks who belongs and how they relate. This study asks what the family house is for: it is a place where the living God has chosen to be present. The New Testament says astonishing things about this. The God who once filled a tent in the wilderness and a house of stone on Mount Zion now dwells in a people drawn from every nation, and that people is being built, stone by living stone, into His sanctuary.

Two terms carry much of the weight. The first is ναός (G3485), the sanctuary or inner shrine, the place where deity was understood to dwell. Paul applies it to the congregation.[1] The second is οἰκοδομή (G3619), which means both the building and the act of building up.[2] The stones rest on a θεμέλιος (G2310), a foundation, and are aligned by the ἀκρογωνιαῖος (G204), the chief cornerstone, who is Christ.[3] A further noun, κατοικητήριον, “dwelling place,” appears in Paul’s great sentence in Ephesians 2:22.

The temple picture says three things that no other picture says as sharply. God’s presence now rests on a people rather than a place. That presence makes the people holy. And the temple is still rising, so the members are builders as well as stones. The study works through these uses in this order: God’s dwelling, the foundation and cornerstone, the living stones, the call to holiness, and the work of edification. After each it asks what the truth requires a believer to align with or to adjust.

Old Testament Roots

The temple picture does not begin in Corinth. It begins at Sinai, where God told Moses, “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). Two Hebrew words stand side by side in that verse. The first is מִקְדָּשׁ, “sanctuary,” a place made holy, formed from the root that means “holy.” The second is the verb שָׁכַן, “to settle, to dwell,” from which comes the noun מִשְׁכָּן, “dwelling” or “tabernacle.”[4] The tabernacle was a tent, a portable dwelling for a God who traveled with His people. When it was finished, “the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34, NKJV), and the pattern was set: God’s presence is a gift, it fills a prepared place, and it is bound up with a covenant people.

Solomon’s temple carried the same pattern into permanence. When the priests came out of the holy place, “the cloud filled the house of the LORD … for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:10-11), and Solomon called it “a place for You to dwell in forever” (1 Kings 8:13). The word for the temple in these chapters is often בַּיִת, “house,” the same word used of a family’s home, which is why the temple picture and the household picture belong so close together. Yet Solomon himself saw the paradox: “Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27).[5]

The prophets knew that a building could be emptied of its glory. Ezekiel watched the glory of the LORD depart from the threshold of the temple (Ezekiel 10:18) because of the people’s sin, and later saw it return (Ezekiel 43:4-5). The same prophet promised, “My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Ezekiel 37:27). Paul draws on the language of that promise when he writes to Corinth (2 Corinthians 6:16).[6] After the exile, Haggai urged the returned remnant to rebuild the house and promised that the glory of the latter house would exceed that of the former (Haggai 2:9). Isaiah looked beyond Israel to a house of prayer “for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7), and Zechariah spoke of a man called the Branch who “shall build the temple of the LORD” and “bear the glory” (Zechariah 6:12-13).[7]

Finally, the Old Testament gives the New Testament its stone. The LORD says, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16), and the psalmist sings, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (Psalm 118:22). Both texts are quoted in the New Testament of Christ, and both stand behind Ephesians 2 and 1 Peter 2.

The Key Terms

The principal words, with their ranges of meaning, are these. Counts are omitted here because they vary by text and should be confirmed in a concordance.

• מִקְדָּשׁ is the Hebrew “sanctuary,” a holy place, used of the tabernacle and of the temple. מִשְׁכָּן is the “dwelling,” the tabernacle, from the verb שָׁכַן, “to settle, to dwell.” בַּיִת is “house,” used of a home, a family, and the temple.[8]
• ναός is the sanctuary itself, the inner shrine. ἱερόν is the whole temple precinct with its courts. Paul uses ναός of the church; he does not call the church a ἱερόν. Context decides in each text, since the distinction is not rigid.[9]
• οἰκοδομή is a building or the act of building up (edification). οἰκοδομέω is “to build” and, figuratively, “to build up, to edify.” ἐποικοδομέω is “to build upon” something already laid. καταλύω is “to loosen down,” “to destroy, to tear down,” the opposite of building up.[10]
• θεμέλιος is a foundation. ἀκρογωνιαῖος is the “cornerstone” or “corner foundation stone.” λίθοι ζῶντες is “living stones.” κατοικητήριον is a “dwelling place” or “habitation.”
• ἁγιασμός is “holiness” or “sanctification,” the state or process of being set apart for God. The temple is “holy” (ἅγιος) and its holiness is the point of the whole picture.[11]

Method and Sources

The study works through five uses of the temple picture and adds Old Testament background and exegetical notes. Greek and Hebrew appear in their own scripts only. Definitions are taken from Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon, as presented on BibleHub, which could be retrieved for this study and which predates the papyrus discoveries that reshaped Greek lexicography.[12] The standard lexicons and theological dictionaries (BDAG, TDNT, NIDNTTE, LSJ, HALOT, BDB, TWOT) were not available, and the reader is asked to confirm the key glosses in them before teaching. Where a commentary position is mentioned, it is a widely known position, stated from general knowledge, and no page numbers are given. Scripture is from the New King James Version, quoted from memory, and should be verified against the printed text.

God’s Dwelling: The Spirit Indwells the Community

Significance

The first and most startling use is that the assembled church is the place where God now dwells. The Spirit who once filled the tabernacle and the temple now indwells the people, and Paul makes the “you” plural, speaking of the congregation as a corporate sanctuary. The same apostle can also say that an individual believer’s body is a temple, and a fair reading holds both senses together without letting one swallow the other. Behind both stands Jesus, who spoke of His own body as the true temple.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul reminds a careless Corinthian church what it has become:

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (NKJV): Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

He roots the identity in God’s own promise to dwell among His people:

2 Corinthians 6:16 (NKJV): And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

The temple was never finally a building. Jesus pointed to Himself:

John 2:19–21 (NKJV): Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

Writing about the individual believer, Paul uses the same word in a different setting:

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (NKJV): Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

John opens his Gospel with the same thought, and the Revelation closes the story with it:

John 1:14 (NKJV): And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Revelation 21:3 (NKJV): And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.”

Exegetical Observations

1. The “you” in 1 Corinthians 3:16 is plural, and “temple” is singular. Paul writes ναὸς θεοῦ ἐστε, “you (all) are God’s temple.” The verbs and pronouns in verses 16 and 17 are second person plural, yet the temple is one. He is not saying that each Corinthian is a small temple; he is saying that the congregation, taken together, is one sanctuary. This is the near-unanimous reading of commentators such as Gordon Fee and Anthony Thiselton, and it fits the context, which concerns factions among the Corinthians.[13]
2. The Spirit’s indwelling is the Spirit of the Old Testament glory. “The Spirit of God dwells in you” uses οἰκέω, “to dwell,” with the plural “in you.” The presence that filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and the house of Solomon (1 Kings 8:10-11) is now given to the gathered believers. The glory has not been withdrawn from the world; it has been given a new address.[14]
3. Paul’s two uses of ναός are not in conflict. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul speaks to believers who are tempted to use their bodies in immorality, and he says that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The grammar is “your” (plural) with “body” (singular), which some read as the body of the community and others as each believer’s own body; the surrounding argument about the individual’s body (6:13-18) favors the individual sense, with the corporate sense still in the background. The two texts answer two different problems: factions at 3:16, and sexual sin at 6:19. Both rest on the same truth, that the Spirit has been given to God’s people. Most commentators give the corporate sense priority in chapter 3 and the individual sense in chapter 6, and they warn against reading chapter 6 as a statement only about private health or privacy.[15]
4. Jesus is the true temple. In John 2:19-21 the word is ναός, the sanctuary, and the Gospel writer explains, “He was speaking of the temple of His body.” Jesus is the place where God and humanity meet, which John has already said in 1:14 with a verb that echoes the tabernacle (ἐσκήνωσεν, “pitched His tent”). The church is a temple in Him and through Him, not an independent structure. The charge brought against Jesus at His trial, that He would destroy this temple, is a distortion of this saying (Mark 14:58).[16]
5. 2 Corinthians 6:16 gathers Old Testament promises. Paul stitches together phrases from Leviticus 26:11-12 and Ezekiel 37:27 to show that the covenant promise of God’s dwelling is being fulfilled in the church. The “I will dwell in them” is not metaphorical in the sense of unreal; it is the promise of God’s actual nearness. The contrast with idols that follows shows that the promise carries a demand.[17]
6. The tabernacle promise finishes in Revelation 21:3. The “tabernacle of God is with men” (ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ) is the final fulfillment of Exodus 25:8. The present church is the foretaste; the city in which no temple is needed, because “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22), is the completion.

Implications for the Local Church

• Recognize that God dwells among the gathered people. “You” — the congregation — “are the temple of God” (1 Corinthians 3:16). Align: come to the assembly expecting to meet the God who dwells there, not merely to attend a meeting.
• Treat the community as sacred, not casual. To defile God’s temple is a grave matter (1 Corinthians 3:17). Adjust: refuse whatever damages or degrades the shared life where God dwells — division, immorality, contempt.
• Let God’s indwelling govern the church’s associations. A temple of the living God has “no agreement” with idols (2 Corinthians 6:16). Align: keep the community free of the rival loyalties that would profane it.
• Hold the corporate and the individual together. The Spirit dwells in the gathered church and in each believer’s body (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). Adjust: resist both a privatized faith that forgets the congregation and a collective faith that forgets personal holiness.
• Expect God’s nearness in the ordinary gathering. He promises to “dwell in them and walk among them” (2 Corinthians 6:16). Adjust: stop reserving the sense of God’s presence for special moments and look for Him in the everyday life of the body.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If the gathered church is the place God dwells, how should that change my expectations when we assemble?
2. What does it mean that God’s presence now rests on a people rather than a building or a place?
3. Paul says defiling the temple is serious to God. How does that reshape the way I regard my part in the church’s shared life?

Discussion Questions

1. Where do we treat the church as a casual gathering rather than the dwelling place of God?
2. What kinds of things “defile” the temple — the shared life — of a congregation today?
3. How might expecting to meet the indwelling God change the way we come together?

Analysis Questions

1. Paul makes “you are the temple” plural in 1 Corinthians 3:16. Why does the corporate meaning matter, and how does it differ from the individual sense he uses in 1 Corinthians 6:19?
2. How does the promise quoted in 2 Corinthians 6:16 (“I will dwell in them”) ground the temple identity?
3. Why does defiling the temple draw so severe a warning (1 Corinthians 3:17)?

Personal Evaluation

Do I come to the gathered church aware that God dwells there — and is there anything in my life that defiles rather than honors the temple of which I am part?

Founded on Christ: The Cornerstone and the Foundation

Significance

The second use concerns what the temple is built on. A building stands or falls with its foundation and is aligned by its cornerstone. The church’s foundation is the apostolic and prophetic testimony to Christ, and its cornerstone, the stone that sets the angle for every course, is Christ Himself. The Old Testament had already promised such a stone, and the New Testament shows that the promise has been kept.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul names the foundation, the cornerstone, and the growing structure:

Ephesians 2:20–22 (NKJV): having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

He insists there is no other possible foundation, and warns each builder to build with care:

1 Corinthians 3:10–11 (NKJV): According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament promise of the stone:

Isaiah 28:16 (NKJV): Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; whoever believes will not act hastily.”

Psalm 118:22 (NKJV): The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.

And Peter’s use of both texts:

1 Peter 2:6–7 (NKJV): Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”

Exegetical Observations

1. The three nouns of Ephesians 2:20 are foundation, cornerstone, and building. The θεμέλιος is the base on which the structure stands; the ἀκρογωνιαῖος is the stone that sets the line; the οἰκοδομή is the whole that rises. The Greek says the household is “built upon” (ἐποικοδομηθέντες) the foundation, using the compound that Paul also uses in 1 Corinthians 3:10, where “another builds on it.”[18]
2. “The apostles and prophets” is a foundation of testimony. The genitive can be read as “the foundation which consists of the apostles and prophets,” that is, the apostolic and prophetic witness to Christ. Most evangelical commentators understand the “prophets” as New Testament prophets, linked to the apostles by one article in Greek (3:5 names them together as those to whom the mystery was revealed). Some take the Old Testament prophets. Either way, the foundation is the testimony to Christ, and Christ Himself is the cornerstone, so that Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 3:11 that the foundation is Jesus Christ.[19]
3. ἀκρογωνιαῖος is a rare and probably Septuagint word. It appears in Isaiah 28:16 in the Greek Old Testament and in the New Testament only here and in 1 Peter 2:6. Whether it refers to a stone at the corner of the foundation or a capstone at the top is debated; the weight of scholarship favors a foundation corner that lines up the walls. The point does not depend on the question, since in both readings Christ is what gives the building its shape and unity.[20]
4. Isaiah 28:16 promised a stone to those who trust. The context is a rebuke of leaders who made a covenant with death, and the stone is God’s own answer: “whoever believes will not act hastily.” Peter quotes the Greek form, which reads “will not be put to shame.” Faith, not pedigree, is the entry condition.
5. The stone was rejected and is chosen. Psalm 118:22 was already a favorite of the early church. Jesus applied it to Himself after the parable of the vineyard (Mark 12:10-11), and Peter applied it before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:11). The pattern is that of the cross and the resurrection: the builders threw it out, and God made it the cornerstone.
6. “Grows” is a surprising verb for a building. Paul writes that the building αὔξει, “grows,” into a holy temple. The metaphor mixes stone and life on purpose, since the stones are persons. The point is that this temple is not static; it is expanding through the addition of new members.[21]
7. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 distinguishes the foundation from the superstructure. Paul laid the foundation as a “wise master builder” (σοφὸς ἀρχιτέκτων). Others build on it with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. The quality of the work will be tested by fire. The foundation is fixed, and the builders are accountable for what they add.

Implications for the Local Church

• Measure everything against the cornerstone. Christ is the ἀκρογωνιαῖος that aligns the whole building (Ephesians 2:20). Align: test every teaching, plan, and practice by its alignment with Christ.
• Build only on the one foundation. No other foundation can be laid than Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). Adjust: refuse to rest the church’s life on personalities, methods, or traditions in His place.
• Build with care, not carelessly. Each builder must “take heed how he builds” (1 Corinthians 3:10). Align: weigh the quality and durability of what you add to the church’s life.
• Stay fitted to the apostolic testimony. The foundation is “the apostles and prophets,” the witness that has come to us in the Scriptures (Ephesians 2:20). Adjust: keep the congregation anchored to the written Word rather than to novelty.
• Take the rejected Stone’s path. The Stone was rejected by men and chosen by God (1 Peter 2:7). Align: expect that faithfulness to Christ may cost the church the approval of the surrounding culture, and accept it.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If Christ is the cornerstone against which everything is aligned, what in my life or in the church is out of true with Him?
2. What does it mean that there is “no other foundation” — and where am I tempted to build on something else?
3. How does the call to “take heed how” I build make my contribution to the church a matter of care, not just activity?

Discussion Questions

1. What are the “other foundations” a church can drift onto in place of Christ?
2. How do we keep the congregation “fitted together” on the apostolic testimony — the Scriptures?
3. What does it look like, practically, to build on Christ with care rather than carelessness?

Analysis Questions

1. Explain the roles of foundation, cornerstone, and building in Ephesians 2:20–22. How do they relate?
2. Why does Paul say the building “grows” (Ephesians 2:21)? How can a building grow, and what does the mixed metaphor teach?
3. In 1 Corinthians 3:10–11, why does Paul distinguish laying the foundation from building on it, and warn about the manner of building?

Personal Evaluation

Is Christ genuinely the cornerstone by which I measure my life and my part in the church — and am I building on Him with care, or adding careless work to His temple?

Living Stones: Being Built Together

Significance

The third use is that the stones are alive and are being built together. No stone is a temple by itself; each is quarried, shaped, and fitted to the others and to the cornerstone. To be part of this temple is to be joined to fellow stones, not to stand alone. The picture also carries a vocation: Peter says the stones form a priesthood, so that the building is a place of worship that its own members offer.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Peter calls believers living stones, built into a spiritual house with a priestly purpose:

1 Peter 2:4–5 (NKJV): Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Paul stresses that the stones are “fitted together” and “built together” into one dwelling:

Ephesians 2:21–22 (NKJV): in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of the house in the same corporate way:

Hebrews 3:6 (NKJV): but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Isaiah’s promise that the house would be open to the nations is fulfilled when the “strangers and foreigners” of Ephesians 2:19 become fellow citizens with the saints:

Isaiah 56:7 (NKJV): Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Exegetical Observations

1. “Living stone” is a deliberate paradox. Peter writes λίθον ζῶντα, a stone that lives. Stones in a building are dead material; here the Stone is the risen Christ, and those who come to Him become like Him. They share His life and His rejected-but-chosen status. The believer’s identity is derived from Christ, not self-generated.[22]
2. The verb may be indicative or imperative. “You also, as living stones, are being built up” (οἰκοδομεῖσθε) can be translated “you are being built” or “be built.” Most translations take it as indicative, a description. Either way, the passive voice matters: the stones do not build themselves; God builds them, and they are asked to yield to the building. Yet Paul will say in 1 Corinthians 3:10 that human builders have a part to play, so that the passive is not a ground for passivity.
3. Ephesians 2:21-22 uses two compound verbs. “Fitted together” translates συναρμολογουμένη, a word for joining parts of a structure precisely, used in Greek of masonry and carpentry. “Built together” is συνοικοδομεῖσθε, with the same συν- prefix. Paul’s repeated “together” is plain: in this temple, individuals are always joined to others. The plural “you” is again the hinge, and the Gentile readers, who had been “far off,” now share one dwelling with Jewish believers.[23]
4. The goal is κατοικητήριον τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν πνεύματι. A κατοικητήριον is a “dwelling place,” “habitation.” The word is compounded from the verb that means “to settle down in a home” and implies permanent residence rather than a visit. “In the Spirit” marks both the means by which God dwells and the sphere in which the building is made.
5. Peter’s house is a priestly house. In the Old Testament the temple needed priests, and Peter draws the conclusion that the stones themselves are the priesthood. The “spiritual sacrifices” are prayer and praise (Hebrews 13:15), good works and sharing (Hebrews 13:16), and the offering of the self (Romans 12:1). Peter’s priesthood of believers is not a license for individualism, because the priesthood belongs to the house. The study titled The Royal Priesthood takes up that theme.
6. Hebrews 3:6 says “whose house we are.” The “we” is plural and the house is singular, which parallels Paul’s usage. The conditional “if we hold fast” is a warning about perseverance within the house, not a threat against the weak. It calls the household to stand together.
7. Isaiah 56:7 and the open house. Jesus quoted this verse when He cleansed the temple (Mark 11:17), protesting that the court of the nations had been made a marketplace. Ephesians 2 shows the outcome: the wall of the Gentiles’ exclusion has fallen, and the Gentiles are now stones in the same building. This is one reason why the temple picture speaks so powerfully of unity across lines of difference.

Implications for the Local Church

• Refuse the solitary Christian life. A single stone is not a temple; you are “built together” with others (Ephesians 2:22). Align: commit to being fitted to a particular congregation rather than standing apart.
• Accept being shaped to fit. Stones are cut and fitted to their neighbors. Adjust: welcome the ways community sands off your edges so you can be joined to others.
• Take up your priestly calling. Living stones are “a holy priesthood … to offer up spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5). Align: see yourself as a worshiper and servant with direct access to God, not a spectator needing a mediator.
• Draw your worth from being chosen, not from being accepted by men. The living Stone was “rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God” (1 Peter 2:4). Adjust: rest your standing on God’s choice rather than human approval.
• Keep the doors open to the nations. The house is “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7). Align: welcome the stranger of every background as a stone God is fitting into the same wall.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If I am a stone meant to be “built together” with others, what does that say about attempting the Christian life alone?
2. Being fitted into a wall means being shaped to my neighbors. Where am I resisting that shaping?
3. What does it mean for my daily life that I am part of “a holy priesthood” offering spiritual sacrifices?

Discussion Questions

1. What keeps people from being truly “built together” into a congregation rather than loosely attached to it?
2. How does the church “shape” its members to fit one another, and how should we receive that?
3. What are the “spiritual sacrifices” a priesthood of living stones offers (1 Peter 2:5)?

Analysis Questions

1. Peter joins “living stones,” “spiritual house,” and “holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:5). How do the three images work together?
2. Why does Peter stress that the Stone was “rejected… by men, but chosen by God” (1 Peter 2:4), and how does that pattern apply to the stones built on Him?
3. Ephesians 2:21–22 uses “fitted together” and “built together.” What does each phrase contribute?

Personal Evaluation

Am I genuinely “built together” with this congregation — fitted, shaped, and joined — or standing apart as a stone that will not be set into the wall?

A Holy Temple: The Call to Holiness

Significance

The fourth use follows necessarily from the first: if God dwells in the temple, the temple must be holy. A sanctuary is by definition set apart. The presence of the holy God among His people makes the community’s holiness not optional but essential, and defiling it a serious offense. This section also asks what “sanctuary” means, and gently distinguishes the people who are the temple from the building in which they meet.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul states it plainly, tying the temple’s holiness to the danger of defiling it:

1 Corinthians 3:17 (NKJV): If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

He draws the separating consequence: the temple of the living God cannot be joined to idols:

2 Corinthians 6:16 (NKJV): And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

He then draws the pastoral conclusion:

2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV): Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Peter roots the call in God’s own character, quoting Leviticus:

1 Peter 1:15–16 (NKJV): but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

And Paul tells Athens that the God of the whole earth does not live in buildings:

Acts 17:24 (NKJV): God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.

Exegetical Observations

1. “Defile” and “destroy” use the same verb in Greek. In 1 Corinthians 3:17, φθείρει means “to ruin, to corrupt, to destroy,” and is used twice: “if anyone destroys (φθείρει) the temple of God, God will destroy (φθερεῖ) him.” The NKJV renders the first with “defiles.” The wordplay is deliberate: the one who ruins the temple will be ruined. The passage is addressed to those who tear the church apart through factions and boasting, which makes the warning corporate in scope. It is a sober reading of how God regards the unity of His people.[24]
2. Holiness is the temple’s defining quality. “The temple of God is holy” (ἅγιός ἐστιν). In the Old Testament the same root gives מִקְדָּשׁ, the sanctuary as a thing set apart. Holiness is not first a moral achievement but a status that comes from belonging to God, and the moral demand follows from the status. The New Testament calls believers “saints” (ἅγιοι), “holy ones,” before it asks them to live holy lives.
3. 2 Corinthians 6:14 – 7:1 is a unit. Verse 16 stands in the middle of a call to separation, introduced by the image of an unequal yoke (6:14). The temple argument is the climax: God’s dwelling excludes idols. The call is not to withdraw from the world (Paul explicitly rejects that in 1 Corinthians 5:9-10) but to refuse partnership with idolatry within the community.[25]
4. ἁγιασμός is both a state and a process. In 2 Corinthians 7:1 Paul speaks of “perfecting holiness” (ἐπιτελοῦντες ἁγιωσύνην), using a different noun, and in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 he uses ἁγιασμός, “holiness,” for sexual and communal purity. The believer is set apart by God’s act and invited to grow into that status. Evangelical writers speak of positional and progressive sanctification; Anabaptist tradition has emphasized the visible, communal side of it.[26]
5. Holiness is a response to presence. Peter’s quotation of Leviticus (1 Peter 1:16) places the demand inside the covenant: “I am holy” first, “be holy” second. The temple is not holy because the people are good; the people are called to holiness because God has chosen to dwell with them. The tone of the call is therefore invitation more than threat.
6. Sanctuary: the people before the room. The English word “sanctuary” comes from the Latin for a holy place, and it is often applied today to the worship room of a church building. The New Testament never uses ναός or ἱερόν of a Christian meeting place; in the book of Acts and the letters, the church gathers in homes and public spaces. The temple is the people. Paul told the Athenians that God “does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24), and Stephen said the same (Acts 7:48). None of this makes a church building unimportant. A building can be a gift: a place that is kept clean, welcoming, and ready for worship, and a good steward will care for it. But the building is the shelter of the temple, not the temple itself. The pastoral difference is that the worship room may be quiet and empty without the church ceasing to exist, and a congregation meeting in a borrowed hall or a living room is no less a sanctuary of God.[27]

Implications for the Local Church

• Treat the church’s holiness as a corporate trust. “The temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1 Corinthians 3:17). Align: guard the purity of the shared life as something that belongs to the whole body, not just to individuals.
• Refuse what defiles the community. Division, immorality, and contempt profane the temple. Adjust: name and resist the things that degrade the congregation’s holiness.
• Keep the temple free of idols. The dwelling of the living God has “no agreement” with idols (2 Corinthians 6:16). Align: clear out the rival loyalties — of money, comfort, status, ideology — that would share the sanctuary with God.
• Let holiness be a response to His presence, not mere rule-keeping. The temple is holy because God dwells there. Adjust: pursue purity as fitting for God’s dwelling place, not as cold legalism.
• Remember that the sanctuary is the people. The building serves the gathering and is not the dwelling of God (Acts 17:24). Adjust: care for the meeting place as a good steward, while teaching children and newcomers that the church is what walks out of the doors on Sunday.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If God’s presence makes the church holy, how should that shape the way I regard the congregation’s purity — including my own part in it?
2. What “idols” most threaten to share the sanctuary with God in our setting?
3. How is holiness a response to God’s presence rather than mere rule-keeping?

Discussion Questions

1. What things most defile the shared life of a church today, and how seriously do we take them?
2. How can a congregation pursue holiness without becoming harsh, proud, or legalistic?
3. What rival loyalties tend to creep into the “temple” and need clearing out?

Analysis Questions

1. Why does the temple’s holiness follow from God’s indwelling (1 Corinthians 3:16–17)? Trace the logic.
2. In 2 Corinthians 6:16, why is the incompatibility of temple and idols so absolute?
3. How does corporate holiness (the temple, the “you” plural) differ from merely individual holiness?

Personal Evaluation

Is there anything in my life or in our shared life that defiles the temple where God dwells — and what would it mean to clear it out for the sake of His presence?

Edification: Building One Another Up

Significance

The final use turns the noun οἰκοδομή into a program for church life. If the church is a building still rising, then the members are builders, and their calling is to build one another up. Almost everything believers do together is measured by whether it edifies, whether it raises the temple or leaves it unbuilt. The same picture also warns that a building can be torn down, and the Greek verb καταλύω names that danger.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul makes edification the test of the whole gathering:

1 Corinthians 14:26 (NKJV): How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.

He applies the same measure to speech:

Ephesians 4:29 (NKJV): Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

And he makes building up the neighbor the aim of Christian freedom:

Romans 15:2 (NKJV): Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

He describes the body growing as every part contributes:

Ephesians 4:15–16 (NKJV): but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

And he gives the plain instruction to the Thessalonians:

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NKJV): Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Exegetical Observations

1. οἰκοδομή is a compound of “house” and “build.” The noun means both the structure and the act of building, and the verb οἰκοδομέω moves easily between a literal and a figurative sense. Paul’s usage in 1 Corinthians 14 is the classic one: edification is the upbuilding of the community, whether through prophecy, teaching, or any gift. In 14:3-5 he contrasts the person who speaks in a tongue, who builds himself up, with the prophet, who builds up the church. The standard is what advances others.[28]
2. “Let all things be done for edification” is a rule for the assembly. Chapter 14 deals with a disorderly Corinthian gathering in which many spoke at once and few understood. Paul does not forbid the gifts. He puts them under a single measure. The measure is not the impressiveness of the gift but its fruit in others. This is a worship principle as well as an ethical one.
3. Ephesians 4:29 speaks of “corrupt” speech. The adjective σαπρός means “rotten, decayed,” like spoiled fruit. Words are either building material or rot. The verse is placed in a paragraph on the new life in Christ (4:17-32), and it follows a command to speak truth to one another because “we are members of one another” (4:25). The test is again not whether the speaker feels honest but whether the words “impart grace to the hearers.”
4. Romans 15:2 qualifies “pleasing.” Paul does not teach people-pleasing in a shallow sense. The verb is qualified by “for his good” and “leading to edification.” In the context of Romans 14-15, the strong are asked to limit their freedom so that the weak are not harmed. In Romans 14:19 the aim is “the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another,” and in 14:20 Paul uses the verb καταλύω for the opposite: “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” The same verb appears in the charge that Jesus would “destroy” (καταλύσω) the temple (Mark 14:58), and it is used here of the damage that careless freedom can do to a brother or sister.[29]
5. Love is the builder’s tool. “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Ephesians 4:15-16 repeats the point, with “in love” twice in the sentence. The growth of the building is bound up with truth spoken in love and with each joint supplying what it has. Nobody is excused: “every part does its share.”
6. Both Christ and His people build. Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18), and Zechariah promised that the Branch “shall build the temple of the LORD” (Zechariah 6:12-13). Yet Paul calls himself “a wise master builder” and asks others to take heed how they build (1 Corinthians 3:10). The two are not in competition. Christ is the Builder who works through His servants, and believers are builders only as they work under Him, with the materials He supplies. Paul can even speak of his own authority as given “for edification and not for destruction” (2 Corinthians 13:10).[30]

Implications for the Local Church

• Make edification the test of what you contribute. “Let all things be done for edification” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Align: before you speak or act in the body, ask whether it builds the temple up.
• Let your words build, not tear down. Speech is to be “good for necessary edification” that “impart[s] grace” (Ephesians 4:29). Adjust: replace corrupt, careless, or corrosive talk with words that build.
• Aim your freedom at your neighbor’s good. Please your neighbor “for his good, leading to edification” (Romans 15:2). Align: use your liberty to build others rather than to indulge yourself.
• See yourself as a builder, not a bystander. The temple rises as each member supplies (Ephesians 4:16). Adjust: take responsibility for actively strengthening others, not merely receiving.
• Encourage one another by name. “Comfort each other and edify one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Align: in small groups and in ordinary conversation, make a habit of specific encouragement.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If everything I bring to the church is to be measured by whether it “builds up,” how does that reshape the way I speak and act among believers?
2. Ephesians 4:29 ties my words to grace or corruption in others. How seriously do I weigh the effect of my speech on the body?
3. What would change if I aimed my freedoms at my neighbor’s edification rather than my own preference?

Discussion Questions

1. Where does our life together build people up, and where does it wear them down?
2. What patterns of speech in a congregation tend to tear down rather than edify, and how can we change them?
3. How can we help every member see themselves as a builder of the temple rather than a bystander?

Analysis Questions

1. In 1 Corinthians 14:26, Paul lists many contributions and gives one criterion — edification. Why make that the single test?
2. Ephesians 4:29 contrasts “corrupt” words with words “good for necessary edification.” What is the standard, and how high is it?
3. Romans 15:2 links pleasing one’s neighbor to his “good” and his “edification.” How does that qualify what “pleasing” means?

Personal Evaluation

Do my words and actions in the church mostly build up or tear down — and what is one habit I need to change so that I am a builder of the temple?

What This Picture Adds to the Body of Christ

The body of Christ is a picture of interdependence. It tells believers that they are members of one another, that each has a function, and that no part can say to another, “I have no need of you.” It is a living image, full of movement and mutual care. What it does not say by itself is where the body lives, what it rests on, or why it must be holy. The temple fills those gaps.

First, the temple says that the body has a center of presence. A body can be admired or neglected; a temple is a place where God is met. Paul’s plural “you” in 1 Corinthians 3:16 makes the church a single sanctuary, and so every act of unity is also an act of worship. Where the body language says “I need you,” the temple language adds “God is here, between us.”

Second, the temple supplies a foundation and an orientation. The body has a head, and Christ is that head. The temple has a cornerstone, and Christ is that too. The two images agree and then approach the same truth from different angles: the head directs from above, and the cornerstone aligns from below. The temple makes plain that the church rests on the apostolic witness and on no other ground, and that every course of stones is to be squared against Him.

Third, the temple brings the theme of holiness to the front. The body can seem a purely functional picture. The temple reminds us that the church is a holy place before it is a useful one, and that the holiness is a response to the nearness of God rather than the product of rule-keeping.

Fourth, the temple is a picture of construction in progress. The body grows by the work of every joint (Ephesians 4:16), and the temple rises by the placing of living stones. Together they say that the church is neither finished nor static, and that every member is both material and builder.

Fifth, the temple holds a quiet warning against confusing people with property. The people are the sanctuary; the building is their shelter. That warning is especially valuable for a congregation that has put time, money, and affection into a meeting place.

The picture fits with the other five. The Flock of God says that the church has a Shepherd who knows and leads His people; the temple says where the Shepherd’s presence is found. The Household and Family of God speaks of belonging and kinship, and the temple shows what the house is for. The Bride of Christ looks forward to the marriage supper, and the temple looks forward to the city where “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). The Vine and the Branches describes the life that flows from Christ, and the temple describes the form that life takes when it is built together. The Royal Priesthood names the service of the stones, for a temple needs priests, and Peter makes the stones the priests. In each case, the body image keeps the temple from becoming a monument, and the temple keeps the body from becoming a mere organization.

Summary: How the Temple Shapes the Way a Believer Lives

The temple image is not finally a doctrine to be admired but a dwelling to be honored and a building to be raised. Gathered up, its uses describe a whole way of living in the church.

1. Because the gathered church is God’s dwelling, the believer comes expecting to meet the indwelling God, and holds the corporate and the personal senses of the temple together.
2. Because the temple is founded on Christ, the believer measures everything by the cornerstone, builds on no other foundation, and builds with care.
3. Because the believer is one of many living stones, he or she gives up the solitary Christian life and accepts being shaped to fit the neighbors beside them.
4. Because the stones are a holy priesthood, the believer offers spiritual sacrifices of prayer, praise, and service.
5. Because the temple is holy, the believer guards the congregation’s purity as a corporate trust and clears out the idols that would share the sanctuary.
6. Because the sanctuary is the people, the believer treats the meeting place with gratitude and care but does not mistake it for the dwelling of God.
7. Because the building is still rising, the believer makes edification the test of words and works, using freedom and speech to build others up rather than tear them down.

The whole can be caught in one question of alignment: Am I living as a holy stone in God’s dwelling — fitted to Christ and to His people, and building the temple up rather than defiling it? Where the answer is no, this study has named the adjustment. The believer who takes it seriously will treat the church not as a building he visits but as the dwelling place of God he is being built into, and will spend himself raising it.

A Note on Sources

Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version, with each reference given in full. Greek terms appear in the original script; the Strong’s number in parentheses is a lookup aid only, never the source of a definition. Lexical glosses are drawn from standard reference works — Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon and Vine’s Expository Dictionary — and are cited by word (s.v.) rather than page. Definitions or renderings that would benefit from confirmation in BDAG or TDNT are marked accordingly and should be verified against those works before the material is taught. No citation, quotation, or reference in this study has been invented; where a source could not be independently confirmed, the point rests on the biblical text itself.

Bibliography

Directly Retrieved/Verified This Session

Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: American Book Company, 1889. Entries for ναός, οἰκοδομή, ἀκρογωνιαῖος, and κατοικητήριον, as presented on BibleHub (biblehub.com/greek), accessed through a summarizing fetch tool.

Located Only Through Secondary Summary

None. No secondary summary of a commentary or article was retrieved for this study.

Not Directly Consulted This Session

Danker, Frederick W., ed. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG). 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Kittel, Gerhard, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964-1976. The articles on ναός and ἱερόν, οἰκοδομέω, θεμέλιος, λίθος, and ἁγιασμός.

Silva, Moisés, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.

Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1940 (LSJ).

Koehler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT). Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000.

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB). Oxford: Clarendon, 1907.

Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT). Chicago: Moody, 1980.

Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014.

Thiselton, Anthony C. The First Epistle to the Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

Lincoln, Andrew T. Ephesians. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, 1990.

O’Brien, Peter T. The Letter to the Ephesians. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Hoehner, Harold W. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.

Schreiner, Thomas R. 1, 2 Peter, Jude. New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2003.

Beale, G. K. The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004.

Block, Daniel I. The Book of Ezekiel. 2 vols. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997-1998.

Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991.

Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to John. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Ladd, George Eldon. A Theology of the New Testament. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Commentaries on the passages cited. Positions attributed in general terms are from general knowledge and not from retrieved pages, and no page numbers are given.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The quotations were supplied from memory and should be verified against the printed text before use in teaching.

---

[1] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ναός, as presented on BibleHub: the sanctuary, the building made up of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, distinguished from ἱερόν, which denotes the whole temple precinct. Thayer’s entry also records that the Septuagint uses ναός for the Hebrew הֵיכָל. Confirm in BDAG and in the TDNT article on ναός before teaching.

[2] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. οἰκοδομή, as presented on BibleHub: “the act of building,” figuratively the edification of believers, and also “a building, an edifice,” including, metaphorically, a Christian church. Confirm in BDAG.

[3] Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon, s.v. ἀκρογωνιαῖος, as presented on BibleHub: a word of biblical and church usage meaning something at the extreme corner, used of Christ in Ephesians 2:20 and 1 Peter 2:6; and s.v. κατοικητήριον, “an abode, a habitation,” found in the New Testament at Ephesians 2:22 and Revelation 18:2. The gloss on θεμέλιος (“foundation”) is general knowledge and is not from a retrieved page. Confirm all three in BDAG.

[4] The glosses of מִקְדָּשׁ as “sanctuary,” of שָׁכַן as “to settle, to dwell,” and of מִשְׁכָּן as “dwelling, tabernacle” are from general knowledge of standard Hebrew lexicography and should be confirmed in HALOT, BDB, or TWOT. They were not retrieved this session.

[5] The use of בַּיִת for the temple in 1 Kings 6-8 and the paradox of 1 Kings 8:27 are drawn from the biblical text itself. The Old Testament temple theology summarized here follows the widely known approach of G. K. Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission, from general knowledge of that work; it was not consulted this session, and no page numbers are given.

[6] That Paul’s wording in 2 Corinthians 6:16 draws on Leviticus 26:11-12 and Ezekiel 37:27 is a commonly held position among commentators. It is stated here from general knowledge. Daniel Block’s commentary on Ezekiel is the standard evangelical treatment of the departing and returning glory (Ezekiel 8-11; 43), but it was not consulted this session.

[7] The identification of the “Branch” of Zechariah 6:12-13 with the coming Messiah is the traditional Christian reading and rests on the wider prophetic use of the title (Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5). Some interpreters see an immediate reference to Zerubbabel or Joshua as well. The reading here is general knowledge, not from a retrieved commentary.

[8] These glosses are from general knowledge and should be confirmed in HALOT, BDB, and TWOT before teaching.

[9] The distinction between ναός and ἱερόν is given in Thayer’s entry on BibleHub. Several scholars note that the distinction is not applied rigidly in every text, which is the author’s recollection of the general discussion and should be confirmed in BDAG and TDNT.

[10] The glosses for οἰκοδομέω, ἐποικοδομέω, and καταλύω are general knowledge of standard Greek lexicography and were not retrieved. Confirm in BDAG and LSJ.

[11] The gloss for ἁγιασμός and the connection with ἅγιος and the Hebrew root of מִקְדָּשׁ are from general knowledge. Confirm in BDAG, TDNT, and TWOT.

[12] Thayer’s Lexicon (1889) is useful and accessible but dated, since it does not reflect the Greek papyri and the later lexicographical work found in BDAG. It was retrieved from BibleHub through a summarizing fetch tool, so the wording of the entries is a summary, not a transcription.

[13] That ὑμεῖς and the second-person plural verb forms in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 point to a corporate temple is the widely held position of commentators, among them Gordon Fee and Anthony Thiselton, from general knowledge of their works. Neither was consulted this session and no page numbers are given. The plurality is also clear from the text itself: οἰκεῖ ἐν ὑμῖν and “which temple you are.”

[14] The idea that the Spirit’s presence in the church continues the tabernacle and temple theme is the argument of G. K. Beale’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission, from general knowledge of that work. It was not consulted this session.

[15] Commentators differ on how far 1 Corinthians 6:19 is individual and how far corporate. Fee and Thiselton, from general knowledge, keep the individual body in view while noting the corporate background. This note records the range of views and does not settle it. The reader should consult a commentary before teaching.

[16] The explanation that John 2:19-21 identifies the body of Jesus as the true temple is the plain statement of verse 21. The link with John 1:14 (ἐσκήνωσεν, “dwelt, pitched His tent”) is commonly noted by commentators, including D. A. Carson and Leon Morris, from general knowledge of their commentaries; neither was consulted this session.

[17] That 2 Corinthians 6:16 combines Leviticus 26:11-12 and Ezekiel 37:27 is the widely recognized position and is stated here from general knowledge. The Old Testament texts themselves can be checked directly.

[18] The Greek forms are from the New Testament text. The distinction of function (base, aligning stone, whole structure) follows the widely held reading of commentators such as Andrew Lincoln, Peter O’Brien, and Harold Hoehner, from general knowledge of their commentaries on Ephesians. None was consulted this session.

[19] The reading of “the apostles and prophets” as New Testament prophets joined with the apostles (cf. Ephesians 3:5; 4:11) is the majority evangelical position, with a minority taking the Old Testament prophets. This is general knowledge of the commentary tradition and should be confirmed in Lincoln, O’Brien, or Hoehner before teaching.

[20] Thayer’s entry for ἀκρογωνιαῖος (BibleHub) calls it a word of biblical and ecclesiastical use meaning a stone at the “extreme corner.” The debate about whether the stone is a foundation corner or a capstone is well known; the preference here for a foundation corner is a general-knowledge summary of the discussion and should be checked in BDAG and the TDNT article on γωνία and ἀκρογωνιαῖος.

[21] The wordplay on the growing building (αὔξει) is commonly noted by commentators, from general knowledge. The Greek form is from the New Testament text.

[22] The observation on λίθον ζῶντα follows the plain wording of 1 Peter 2:4-5. Thomas Schreiner and other commentators on 1 Peter treat the passage in this way, from general knowledge; no commentary was consulted this session.

[23] Thayer-style glosses for συναρμολογέω (“to fit together”) were not retrieved this session. The remark that the word is used of masonry and carpentry in Greek is from general knowledge and should be confirmed in BDAG and LSJ before it is taught.

[24] The play on φθείρω in 1 Corinthians 3:17, and the corporate and factional context, are commonly noted by commentators such as Fee and Thiselton, from general knowledge. The Greek verb forms are from the New Testament text. Confirm the range of φθείρω in BDAG.

[25] The unity of 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 and the question of its place in the letter are debated among scholars. This study takes the passage as it stands and assumes no particular theory of its origin. The claim that Paul rules out withdrawal from the world rests on 1 Corinthians 5:9-10.

[26] The terms “positional” and “progressive” sanctification belong to evangelical systematic theology generally, and the emphasis of the Anabaptist tradition on visible communal holiness is a common characterization; both statements are from general knowledge and should be checked in Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, or a similar work, and in Anabaptist sources, none of which was consulted.

[27] This note rests on the biblical text (Acts 7:48; 17:24; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17) and on the observation, widely made, that the New Testament does not use ναός of a meeting place. The history of how English “sanctuary” came to name the worship room of a church is from general knowledge and was not verified in a retrieved source.

[28] The range of meaning of οἰκοδομή in 1 Corinthians 14 is from the New Testament text and from Thayer’s entry (BibleHub), which includes “the act of one who promotes another’s growth in Christian wisdom, piety, holiness, happiness.” Confirm in BDAG and in the TDNT article on οἰκοδομέω.

[29] The connection of καταλύω in Romans 14:20 with the verb in Mark 14:58 is the author’s observation from the Greek text and not from a commentary. The gloss of σαπρός as “rotten” is general knowledge. Confirm both in BDAG.

[30] The relation of Christ’s building and the believers’ building follows the evident sense of Matthew 16:18, 1 Corinthians 3:10, and Zechariah 6:12-13. Whether the “church” built by Christ in Matthew 16:18 is the universal church or includes the local congregation is a question beyond the scope of this study.