the house the Gospel of Thomas saying 71

(71) I will des[troy this] house, and none shall be able to build it [again].

Jesus is here first speaking of his body and secondly about the house of God the temple in Jerusalem. Here Jesus is speaking a prophecy of the shattering of the old covenant no longer is worship of God based in a building the temple or a church but in spirit and truth everywhere, a worship founded within the heart and mind and life of the elect.

The fact that the Temple was never rebuilt would eventually prove awkward for such predictions. One way to ease off the problem would be to allegorize it, as does John, in terms of the resurrection (2:21); another way would be to ease off the prediction itself (so Thomas)" (The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus, pp. 109-110)

The temple to be built is the body of Christ for this reason, the Lord also said, “I will destroy this temple and rebuild it in tree days.” The Lord is speaking of rebuilding the temple of his body by resurrection and all those in him who make up the body of Christ. The temple that will be destroyed, not to be rebuilt again is the Jerusalem temple until the Lord comes again for Jesus could have said in the lost text is “no one will be able to build it again except me.”

71)# Jesus said, "I shall destroy [this] house [the old religion/covenant which was soon to pass away], and no one will be able to rebuild it [it was faulty for no life could be found within it]."