It is my thought that the error was somewhere in-between what Jesus said in Aramaic and what the Greek relates. As you said, Jesus did say this in John 2.19, though John explains that's not what Jesus meant by it—but He did say it. Mark clarifies that their testimony didn't agree, leading us to believe there was something in error about the accusation. It obviously didn't stand up under cross-examination. Perhaps the EXACT wording was lost in translation.

At his trial, some "false witnesses" accused Jesus of saying something:

Mark 14:57-59

[quote]"And some stood up and bore false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, ‘I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, not made with hands,' Yet even about this their testimony did not agree.[/quote]

But was this false? What did Jesus actually say earlier in his ministry?

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

What exactly was incorrect about what the witnesses said? Jesus did say words to the effect of the so-called false accusation. Sure, the accusation wasn't word-for-word (police don't actually believe accounts that are word for word - or so I'm told by defenders of the Gospel discrepancies), but Jesus did say something similar to the reported phrase.

If Jesus was referring to his body and not the physical temple, he did not make that clear. If I say "I'm going to "murder the president," but what I actually mean is I'm going to eat a really big new Subway sandwich called "The President", it's my fault if bystanders misunderstand, especially if I was deliberately being vague or cryptic (as Christ often was), and those bystanders aren't lying by alleging I said I was going to murder the president.