44 "The tent of the testimony, according to the pattern that Moses had seen, just as the One speaking to him had commanded to make it, was with our fathers in the wilderness; 45 which, having received it in turn, our fathers with Joshua brought into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, until the days of David; 46 who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God*The same handful of early manuscripts of inferior quality that NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc. usually follow have ‘house’ instead of ‘God’, but are abandoned by their usually faithful followers. of Jacob, 47 but Solomon built Him a house. 48 However, the Most High does not dwell in handmade sanctuaries, just as the prophet says:

49 ‘Heaven is my throne,

while the earth is a footstool for my feet.

What kind of house will you build me,’ says the Lord,

‘or what place for my rest?

50 Did not my hand make all these things?’*See Isaiah 66:1-2. This could be an oblique defense against their allegation that he had blasphemed the temple—if God does not dwell there (and in fact Jesus had formally abandoned it) [and Josephus says that the Ark was no longer there] it has lost its importance.