ESPAÑOL: Maldijo Jesús en secreto el Templo Judío asegurando que nunca sería reconstruido?

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A recent Israel365 News article highlighted the importance of a third Jewish temple for the Jewish faith. Yet an incident recorded in both Matthew and Mark hints that Jesus may have secretly cursed the temple, ensuring it will never be rebuilt.

In his article, Adam Berkowitz wrote about three pronouncements made by Israel’s nascent Sanhedrin which was set up in 2004, as a rabbinical court of Jewish law.

It hopes to eventually have the Israeli government recognize it as the country’s official Sanhedrin and integrate it into the political and legal system.

Though this hasn’t happened yet, the nascent Sanhedrin released three psaks.

According to Berkowitz, a psak is a “binding halachic ruling, and that, in matters concerning the fate of the Jewish people, a court above is bound to follow the ruling of a court below.”

In other words, these psaks uttered by the lower Sanhedrin court will be carried out by the higher Heavenly court.

One psak called for the removal of all of Israel’s enemies. Another called for the return of a spirit of prophecy, and a third called for the Messiah to be revealed and the Jewish temple rebuilt.

In its psak about the Temple, the nascent Sanhedrin declared:

“The court asks that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, reveal our righteous Mashiach. The court asks that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, remove and erase every obstacle so that we may build the Beit HaMikdash.”

The Beit HaMikdash refers to the Jewish Temple which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

Berkowitz added, “The document closes by repeating the formula that just as the court below has ruled, the court above should rule the same, “and so may it stand.”

The Sandwich Theory and the Fig Tree

But I am not convinced the latter will happen. Not only did Jesus prophesy the destruction of the Temple in Matthew 24, but the Lord’s cursing of a fig tree may have permanently sealed the Temple’s fate.

There are incidents in the Gospels that seem totally out of place with their surrounding context. Some scholars have developed a method for interpreting these passages.

Called the sandwich theory, it states that if what takes place before and after an incident shares the same theme, then the story in the middle is connected to that same theme.

Similar to the sandwich, what is in the middle is the key point of what is really taking place.

In Matthew 21, we have the story of Jesus cursing the fig tree. The Lord went to the tree looking for figs, but it had none because it was out of season. Yet despite it being out of season, Jesus cursed the tree and it died.

But immediately before this account, Jesus had just cleansed the Temple, after which He and the disciples withdrew to Bethany.

It was on this journey that they encountered the fig tree.

The next day, Jesus and the disciples returned to the Temple and were immediately confronted by the priests over what He had done the previous day.

So if the incidents before and after involved the temple, then according to the sandwich theory, the fig tree story is also about the temple. In fact, it is the main part of this spiritual sandwich.

If this is the case, it suggests that Jesus was actually cursing the temple.

Matthew noted that Jesus cursed the fig tree with these words, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you” (Matthew 21:19).

Mark repeated the curse and added that the fig tree was “withered from the roots up” (Mark 11:20). This meant there was no chance of regrowth. It was permanently dead.

So if the fig tree was secretly the temple, this means it will never be rebuilt.

We know that Jesus’ attitude towards the temple was the catalyst behind His arrest.

When the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas arrested Jesus, one of the first charges he brought against the Lord was that He wanted to destroy the temple (Matthew 26:59-61).

But I suspect in the fig tree account recorded in Matthew 21, Jesus was delivering the final verdict on the temple. Then three chapters later, the Lord would prophesy its complete destruction.