This study will examine Ezekiel 40-48[2]. (But, we will not read every verse -- thankfully). These chapters are the source of the Dispensational view of an eschatological temple being built in Jerusalem[1]. This study will argue against that interpretation. General hermuenetical principles will be an important part of this investigation.
Ezekiel 40:1 sets the historical context. Hebrew theology is unique in ancient religions, being focused on history rather than on myth. Note how the bulk of the Old Testament is a more or less continuous historical narrative, starting with Genesis, through the rest of the Penteteuch, Joshua, Judges-Ruth, Samuel, and Kings (repeated again more briefly in Chronicles), and finally Ezra-Nehemiah and Esther. Old Testament passages should always be studied in their historical contexts: doubly so when the text itself goes out of its way to specify an exact time and place, as the opening of our subject scripture does.
The Babylonian exile that Ezekiel cites did not begin with the destruction of Jerusalem. Rather, it began a little over a decade earlier when the young King Jehoiachin was captured (See 2 Kings 24:8-17). This happened in mid-597 BC[3][4][5]. Nebuchadnezzer setup up Zedekiah as a puppet king. After he rebelled, Nebuchanezzer destroyed the city about Aug 14, 586 BC (See 2 Kings 25:1-12).
Ezekiel was carried away captive in 597 BC and had been in exile 25 years -- it had been 14 years since Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. It would not be till about 538 BC that the Persian king Cyrus would issue the edict that would end the exile (Ezra 1:1ff). The exact date specified in Ezekiel 40:1 was April 19, 573. (If you're doing the math, Ezekiel is counting calendar years which years begin in the spring[5]... the 14th calendar year was really 12 elapsed years and some change). Most of the adults that Ezekiel was ministering to would not live to see the end of the exile, and fewer would live to see the completion of the temple's reconstruction in c. 516 BC (Ezra 6:15).
Ezekiel 40:2 establishes more of our context. "In the visions of God," he begins. The entire contents of chapters 40-48 are of one or more visions. This is very important for understanding these chapters because visions are rarely, if ever, straight-forward representations of reality. Let's do a quick sampling of some visions in the Bible.
It would be quite proper to question, to the extent that Ezekiel 40-48 is predictive, whether it is predictive of a literal temple, as such visions elsewhere are not literal.
Literary form is important in understanding any literature. Poetry is different from narrative is different from an informal letter, etc. My thesis is that Ezekiel 40-48 is deliberately imitative of Moses' instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and its rituals.
Let's first look at how the design for the tabernacle was revealed to Moses. See Exodus 25:9, Exodus 25:40, Numbers 8:4, and Hebrews 8:5 . Moses was shown a vision of what he was to construct. The vision did not function predictively, but prescriptively. Compare Exodus 26 and Ezekiel 41, then compare Exodus 29 and Ezekiel 43:13-27. Ezekiel's vision serves the same prescriptive purpose as Exodus' regulations.
It is not necessary to find a literal historical fulfilment. Rather, while Moses and his generation followed the prescription and constructed the Tabernacle and its furnishings as directed, the generation returning from the exile did not.
The presence of sacrifice in the temple in the vision shows that a literal fulfilment cannot come after the advent of the Messiah. Look at Daniel 9:20-27. Near the end of the 70 "weeks", which represent about 5 centuries symbolically (a day for a year), the sacrifice and offering cease and the city and santuary are destroyed. This is brought about by a "desolating abomination" which Jesus refered to when he spoke of the destruction of the temple in the Olivet Discourse (Mark 13:14, and see Luke's interpretation of this in Luke 21:20-21). The temple was in fact destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, right when Daniel's prophecy says it would be.
Hebrews 10:1-18 further makes it clear that after the sacrifice of Jesus, there is no further sacrifice needed. "Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin." (Hebrews 10:18)
In Revelation, there is no indication of an eschatological temple as part of God's plan. The only temple mentioned is in heaven itself, except possibly Revelation 11:1-14. Preterist vs. futurist interpretations of Revelation are beyond the scope of this essay, but suffice it to say that it not to be identified with Ezekiel's temple[7]. In Revelation 21:22, it explicitly states that in the New Jerusalem "I saw no temple in the city". Even more significantly, it says "the Lord God, the All-Powerful, and the Lamb are its temple". This is important for understanding both the actual physical temples, and the prescribed temple in Ezekiel. They are types that foreshadow the Jesus and his sacrifice.
John 2:12-22 also makes this link, when Jesus refers to his resurrection as a rebuilding of "this temple". In John 4:21 how Jesus declares the irrelevance of the physical temples in the future.
Further, consider the water that Jesus offers the Samaritan woman (John 4:10-14), in light of the river flowing from the Temple in Ezekiel 47:1-12. The image of the small stream coming from the temple and growing to a great river in the space of only a few thousand feet is as realistic as, say, the great sea monsters of Daniel's visions. It is obvious that it is to be taken figuratively. It is no coincidence that fish (the early symbol for Christianity) figures so prominently there.[6]
Ezekiel is ministering to Israel in exile. Solomon's temple and the whole city of Jerusalem have been destroyed. He has a vision of a new temple in the same way that Moses had a vision of the tabernacle. The vision give Israel a blueprint for the construction of a new temple, and, implicitly, hope of eventual restoration to the land. Israel was eventually restored to the land but never built the temple as prescribed. This should not be surprising as Israel never fully lived up to their covenant requirements. Ultimately, the actual and prescribed temples and sacrificial systems are types of Jesus Christ. Jesus claimed to be the true temple and the source of living water. After his sacrifice, there is no place for temple or sacrifice in God's plan. Revelation specifically says that there will be no temple in New Jerusalem because God and Christ are the temple.