11:2 {3} But the {a} court which is without the temple {b} leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the {4} Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot {5} forty [and] two months.
(3) As if he should say, it is not your place to judge those who are outside, 1Co 5:12 who are innumerable: look to those of the household only, or to the house of the living God.
(a) He speaks of the outer court, which was called the peoples court, because all men might come into that.
(b) That is counted to be cast out, which in measuring is refused as profane.
(4) To profane persons, wicked and unbelievers, adversaries to the Church.
(5) Or a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, as is said in Re 11:3: that is, a thousand two hundred and sixty years, a day for a year, as often in Ezekiel and Daniel, which I noted before see Geneva Re 2:10. The beginning of these thousand two hundred and sixty years, we account from the passion of Christ, by which (the partition wall being broken down) we were made from two into one Eph 2:14. I say, one flock under one shepherd in Joh 10:16 and the end of these years precisely falls into the reign of pope Boniface the eighth, who a little before the end of 1294, entered Rome in the feast of Saint Lucie (as Bergomensis says) having put in prison his predecessor Coelestinus, whom by fraud, under colour of Oracle, he deceived: for which cause it was well said of him, Intravit ut vulpes, regnavit ut leo, mortuus est ut canis. That is, He entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog. For if from 1294, you subtract the number of years Christ lived on the earth, you will find there remains just one thousand two hundred and sixty years, which are mentioned in this place and many others.
11:2 And the court which is without the temple. This was the outer court, the court of the Gentiles, the type of the world. This measurement does not relate to the world so much as to the Church.
It is given unto the Gentiles. Not only it, but
the holy city. By the Holy City Jerusalem is meant when the term is named literally, but Jerusalem is used often by both Paul and John as a symbol of the Church. See Ga 4:26 Heb 12:22 Isa 2:2 52:01:00 Re 21:2.
Shall they tread under foot. Hence, the prediction is to be fulfilled by a prostration or desecration of the Church by worldly influences.
Forty [and] two months. This period is given several times in prophecy in varied forms. These will all be considered at once below. Here it will suffice to say that this is a period of 1260 days, and a day being a symbol of a year, the period meant is 1260 years.
11:2 But the court which is without the temple - The old temple had a court in the open air, for the heathens who worshipped the God of Israel. Cast out - Of thy account. And measure it not - As not being holy In so high a degree. And they shall tread - Inhabit. The holy city - Jerusalem, Matt 4:5. So they began to do, before St. John wrote. And it has been trodden almost ever since by the Romans, Persians, Saracens, and Turks. But that severe kind of treading which is here peculiarly spoken of, will not be till under the trumpet of the seventh angel, and toward the end of the troublous times. This will continue but forty - two common months, or twelve hundred and sixty common days; being but a small part of the non - chronos.
11:1,2 This prophetical passage about measuring the temple seems to refer to Ezekiel's vision. The design of this measuring seems to be the preservation of the church in times of public danger; or for its trial, or for its reformation. The worshippers must be measured; whether they make God's glory their end, and his word their rule, in all their acts of worship. Those in the outer court, worship in a false manner, or with dissembling hearts, and will be found among his enemies. God will have a temple and an altar in the world, till the end of time. He looks strictly to his temple. The holy city, the visible church, is trodden under foot; is filled with idolaters, infidels, and hypocrites. But the desolations of the church are limited, and she shall be delivered out of all her troubles.
