Why did the Jews tell Jesus in St. John's gospel it took 46 years to build Solomon's temple?
They told Him this because it was true. It did take 46 years to
build Solomon's temple. If you think of how they had to build
everything back then, it would take seemingly forever to build
anything. They had no electric/battery operated machines. And they
also had to do all the heavy lifting without any help...other than
more humans. And If you know the story, the temple is rather large.
So it is believable that it took that long to build the temple.