CHAPTER XV
THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM AS DESCRIBED BY JOSEPHUS
In bringing now to the attention of our readers some of the things recorded
by Josephus in his well known history of the last days of Jerusalem and
the Jewish nation, it will be understood that we do not cite that work
as evidence whereby we are to interpret the Scriptures; for we interpret
the Word of God by comparing scripture with scripture. In fact we did
not consult Josephus, or any other human writer, until after our conclusions
as to the meaning of these prophecies (as stated in the foregoing pages)
had been reached. We cite his work simply for what it is recognized on
all hands to be, a trustworthy recital by an eyewitness of things which
he had personal knowledge of, which things show that the word of Christ
was fulfilled in the most literal way.
Farquharson quotes the following tribute to Josephus by Bishop Porteus:
The fidelity, the veracity, and the probity of the writer are universally
allowed; and Scaliger in particular declares, that not only in the affairs
of the Jews, but even of foreign nations, he deserves more credit than
all the Greek and Roman writers put together.
It is a matter of common knowledge that Jerusalem is, up to the present
time, "trodden down of the Gentiles, " even as the Lord said;
and that the Jews are still "scattered" among all nations. This
is enough in itself to assure us that the Lords prophecy in Luke
21 (#Lu 21:24) (and hence every other prophecy concerning the same event)
has been, and is being, fulfilled. But surely it is a matter of deep interest
to know how, when, and under what circumstances, those prophecies were
fulfilled. The history of Josephus fully satisfies this legitimate desire;
and we reiterate our belief that his account of those great events has
been preserved providentially. Moreover, since Josephus was not a disciple
of Christ at the time of writing his history, he cannot be suspected of
having written his account of the destruction of Jerusalem with a view
to supplying a fulfilment of the Lords prophecy. His account was
published in the year 75, so that it was written while the things he described
were fresh in his memory. Their publication at a time when the truth of
the matters related by him was known to thousands then living, is a further
reason for our having confidence in the narrative.
Josephus describes the troubles which began under Pilate, the Roman governor,
especially when he "sent by night those images of Caesar which are
called ensigns into Jerusalem" (Bk. II ch. 9, sec. 2). Those ensigns
or "images of Caesar" were particularly hateful to the Jews;
and inasmuch as they were conspicuously carried in the Roman armies, we
have here a reason why the latter were termed "the abomination of
desolation."
In the days when Cumanus was Roman Governor "began the troubles,
and the Jews ruin came on" (II 12:1). At that time Herod Agrippa
II (the "Agrippa" before whom Paul appeared) was reigning as
king over Galilee. He was by far the best of the Herod family; but we
have no record that he was ever fully "persuaded" to accept
Christ. At that time various calamities and disturbances began to take
place. Bands of robbers infested the country, and in the city there arose
an organized company of assassins called "Sicarii, " who "slew
men in the daytime, and in the city. This they did chiefly at festivals,
when they mingled with the multitudes and, by means of daggers concealed
under their garments, they stabbed those who were their enemies."
The high priest Jonathan was one of their victims (II 13, 3).
Another class of trouble makers were certain men who, though not thieves
or murderers, yet "laid waste the happy state of the city no less
than did those murderers. These were such men as deceived and deluded
the people under pretence of Divine inspiration." It is easy to recognize
in these men the false prophets whereof the Lord warned His disciples.
Continuing, Josephus says "These prevailed with the multitude
to act like madmen and went before them into the wilderness, pretending
that God would there show them the signals of liberty" (II 13:4).
There was also "an Egyptian false prophet, " who "got together
thirty thousand men that were deluded by him. These he led about from
the wilderness to the mount which is called the mount of Olives."
This, according to Josephus, was in the days when Felix was governor.
Consequently it was at the time of Pauls last visit to Jerusalem,
which calls to mind that the chief captain before whom Paul was taken
after the disturbance in the Temple, supposed that he was "that Egyptian,
which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness
four thousand men that were murderers" (#Ac 21:38). It also brings
to mind the definite warning of Christ, "Wherefore, if they shall
say to you, Behold, He is in the desert, go not forth" (#Mt 24:26).
Josephus likens the social conditions at that time to those of a body
which is thoroughly diseased, in that when trouble subsided in one place
it broke out immediately in another. "For, " says he, "a
company of deceivers and robbers got together, and persuaded the Jews
to revolt, and exhorted them to assert their liberty" (id. 6).
About this time Felix was succeeded by Festus (as is also recorded in
(#Ac 24:27)), and he by Florus, who was the most wicked of all the Roman
governors, and the immediate occasion of the war. This was in the twelfth
year of Emperor Nero, A.D. 66. Josephus relates that when Cestius Gallus
came to Jerusalem at the passover season "the people came about him
not fewer in number than three millions" (II 14:3). This shows the
immense numbers which gathered in Jerusalem at that season.
Josephus relates with much detail the atrocities and barbarities which
the people suffered at the hands of the soldiers, and describes their
"agonies" and "lamentations." On one occasion the
soldiers, after plundering the citizens, crucified many of them, the number
of those slain (including women and children) being about 3600 on that
single occasion. It appears to have been the deliberate purpose of Florus
to goad the Jews into a revolt, so that thereby his own acts of plunder
and other crimes might be covered up (II 14, 9).
In ch. 16 (Bk. II) Josephus gives a speech by Herod Agrippa, in which
he used every persuasion and argument to restrain the Jews from the madness
of revolting against the Romans. He eloquently pictured the vast power
and extent of the Roman dominion as stretching from east to west, and
from north to south. "Indeed, " said Agrippa, "they have
sought for another habitable earth beyond the ocean, and have carried
their arms as far as the British Isles, which were never known before"
(II 16, 4). It seems strange to us that one of whom we read in the Bible
should have spoken to the Jews in Jerusalem about "the British Isles."
King Agrippa, as a final argument, attributed the world wide success of
the Roman arms to "the providence of God, " for which reason
he urged the Jews that it was vain for them to contend against them, and
he concluded his speech with this strong appeal:
Have pity therefore, if not upon your children and wives, yet upon
this your Metropolis and its sacred walls! Spare the Temple and preserve
the Holy House, with its holy furniture! For if the Romans get you under
their power they will no longer abstain from (destroying) them, when their
former abstinence shall have been so ungratefully requited. I call to
witness your Sanctuary, and the holy angels of God, and this country,
common to us all, that I have not kept back anything that is for your
preservation." Josephus adds that, "When Agrippa had spoken
thus, both he and his sister (Bernice) wept, and by their tears repressed
a great deal of the violence of the people.
Soon after this, however, the priests were persuaded that they should
refuse "to receive any gift or sacrifice for any foreigner. And this
was the true beginning of our war with the Romans; for they (the temple
authorities) rejected the sacrifice of Caesar on this account" (II
17, 2).
There were at that time two parties in Jerusalem. One turbulent faction
advocated immediate revolt against the Romans. The other party, led by
the priests and the chief of the Pharisees, realizing the madness of the
proposal, sought to restrain the seditious element; but finding they would
not listen to argument or persuasion, they sent to the governor Florus,
and also to Agrippa, for troops to quell the revolt. From that time the
fighting began; but the Jews killed one another in numbers far greater
than those slain by the soldiers. The Roman garrison was about that time
besieged in the fortress of Antonia (in the temple area), and was taken
and either slain or dispersed (II 17, 7). A little later another Roman
garrison, besieged at Mesada, which had been Herods stronghold,
surrendered under promise that their lives would be spared, but they were
treacherously slain after they had laid down their arms (II 17, 10). These
actions, of course, aroused the Roman authorities, who began to make preparations
to subdue the revolters. In the city of Caesarea (built by Herod the Great),
above 20,000 Jews were killed in one hour, " and all Caesarea was
emptied of its Jewish inhabitants; for Florus caught such as ran away,
and sent them to the galleys."
This enraged the whole Jewish nation, so that they laid waste the villages
of Syria and elsewhere, burning some cities to the ground.
But, " says Josephus, "the Syrians were even with the
Jews in the multitude of the men they slew. The disorders in all Syria
were terrible. Every city was divided into two armies, and the preservation
of the one party was in the destruction of the other. So the daytime was
spent in shedding of blood, and the night in fear, which was, of the two,
the more terrible ***" It was then common to see cities filled with
dead bodies, still lying unburied; those of old men mingled with infants,
all scattered about together. Women also lay among them without any covering.
You might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities.
In some places the horrors were worse because Jews fought against Jews.
In Scythopolis alone above 13,000 were slain at one time (II 18:1 &
2). Josephus relates the case of one prominent man who, because of the
terrible things happening all around, and in order to save his family
from a worse fate, killed first his father and mother with the swordthey
willingly submittingand afterwards his wife and children, finally
taking his own life (II 18:3). This incident will give us at least a faint
idea of the awful conditions of those days of vengeance, and of
wrath upon this people."
Many pages are filled with accounts of the slaughter of the Jews in various
places. Reading them we are impressed with the Saviours saying that
"except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved"
(#Mt 24:22). The calamities were beyond description. Thus, at Alexandria,
where the Jews had enjoyed the greatest privileges for centuries, they
were incited to rise in revolt by the seditious element, and "were
destroyed unmercifully, and this, their destruction, was complete. Houses
were first plundered of what was in them, and then set on fire by the
Romans. No mercy was shown to the infants, and no regard had to the aged;
but they went on with the slaughter of persons of every age, till all
the place was overflowed with blood, and fifty thousand of them lay dead
in heaps" (II l8:8).
THE STRANGE RETREAT OF CESTIUS
The Roman general, Cestius, now led his army from Syria into Judea, destroying
widely, and laid siege to Jerusalem. He made such rapid progress that
the city was on the point of being captured. The seditious element fled
in large numbers, and the peaceable inhabitants were about to throw open
the gates to the Romans, when a remarkable thing took place, so unaccountable
from any natural standpoint that it can only be attributed to the direct
intervention of God, and for the fulfilment of the word of Christ. Josephus
tells how the people were about to admit Cestius as their benefactor,
when he suddenly recalled his soldiers and retired from the city "without
any reason in the world." Had he not withdrawn when he did, the city
and the sanctuary would, of course, have been spared; and Josephus says
"it was, I suppose, owing to the aversion God already had towards
the city and the sanctuary that he (Cestius) was hindered from putting
an end to the war that very day" (II 19:6).
But the translator of the history, Wm. Whiston, adds a note at this point,
which we quote in full:
There may be another very important and very providential reason
assigned for this strange and foolish retreat of Cestius, which, if Josephus
had been at the time of writing his history a Christian, he might probably
have taken notice of also; and that is the opportunity afforded the Jewish
Christians in the city, of calling to mind the prediction and caution
given them by Christ that when they should see the abomination of
desolation (the idolatrous Roman armies, with the images of their
idols in their ensigns) ready to lay Jerusalem desolate, stand
where it ought not, or in the holy place; or when
they should see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, they should then
flee to the mountains. By complying with which, those Jewish
Christians fled to the mountains of Perea, and escaped this destruction.
Nor was there perhaps any one instance of a more unpolitic, but more providential
conduct, than this retreat of Cestius visible during this whole siege
of Jerusalem, which (siege) was providentially such a great tribulation
as has not been from the beginning of the world to that time; no, nor
ever should be.
It was very apparent to this learned translator, and must be apparent,
we should think, to all who are acquainted both with the three inspired
records of our Lords Olivet prophecy, and also with the historical
facts so wonderfully preserved in this history by Josephus, that the three
accounts refer to the same event, that "the abomination of desolation"
was the armies of imperial and pagan Rome, and that the unparalleled sufferings
of the Jews during those five years of terror, were the "great tribulation"
foretold by the Lord in Matthew 24:21 (#Mt 24:21).
THE DAYS OF VENGEANCE
Josephus devotes nearly two hundred large pages (they would fill upwards
of four hundred ordinary size) to the account of the events of those days
of vengeance, which l (as we have seen) involved not only the Jews
in Palestine, but Jews all over the world. We can refer to but a very
few of those tragic events; but, inasmuch as not many of our readers have
access to the history of Josephus, we believe we are rendering them a
service in giving the best idea we can, in small compass, of the happenings
of those times.
After the retreat of Cestius, there was a slaughter of about 10,000 Jews
at Damascus; and then, it being evident that war with the Romans was inevitable,
the Jews began making preparations to defend Jerusalem. At that time Josephus,
the writer of this history, was appointed general of the armies in Galilee.
He seems to have had great ability and success as a soldier, though he
was finally overpowered and captured by the Romans. Concerning one of
his military operations his translator says: "I cannot but think
this stratagem of Josephus to be one of the finest that ever was invented
and executed by any warrior whatsoever."
At this point the emperor Nero appointed Vespasian, a valiant and experienced
general, to the task of subduing the Jews; and Vespasian designated his
son Titus to assist him. They invaded Judea from the north, marching along
the coast, and killing many18,000 at Askelon alone. Thus "Galilee
was all over filled with fire and blood; nor was it exempt from any kind
of misery or calamity" (III 4:1). Josephus opposed the Roman invasion
with such forces as he had, but one by one the cities were taken and their
inhabitants slain. Finally, Josephus himself was driven to take refuge
in Jotapata, which, after long and desperate resistance, was taken by
Vespasian. The incidents of this siege were terrible; and among them were
events which forcibly recall the Lords words, "But woe to them
that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days." The
Romans were so enraged by the long and fierce resistance of the Jews that
"they spared none, nor pitied any." Many, moreover, in desperation,
killed themselves. The life of Josephus was spared in a manner which seems
miraculous (III 8:4-7), and he was taken captive to Vespasian, to whom
he prophesied that both he and Titus his son would be "Caesar and
emperor." .... From that time till the end of the war Josephus was
kept a prisoner; but he was with Titus during the subsequent siege of
Jerusalem, in which the atrocities and miseries reached a limit impossible
to be exceeded on earth. Only the state of the lost in hell could be worse.
After Jotapata fell, Joppa was taken, and then Tiberias and Taricheae
on Lake Gennesaret. Thousands were killed, and upwards of 30,000 from
the last named place alone were sold into slavery. Having now completely
subdued Galilee, Vespasian led his army to Jerusalem.
For a right understanding of Matthew 24:15-21 it is important to know
that the Roman armies were, for more than a year, occupied with the devastation
of the provinces of Galilee and Judea, before Jerusalem was besieged.
It should be noted also that Christs first warnings to flee were
"to them which be in Judea" (#Mt 24:16). This makes it perfectly
certain that "the abomination of desolation" standing "in
the holy place, " which was the appointed signal for "them which
be in Judea to flee into the mountains, " was not an idol set up
in the inner sanctuary of the Temple. For the desolation of Judea was
completed long before Jerusalem and the Temple were taken.
At the time Vespasian led his armies to Jerusalem, that doomed city was
in a state of indescribable disorder and confusion insomuch that, during
the entire siege, the Jews suffered far more from one another inside the
walls than from the enemy outside. Josephus says there were "disorders
and civil war in every city, and all those that were at quiet from the
Romans turned their hands one against another. There was also a bitter
contest between those that were for war, and those that were desirous
for peace" (IV 3:2).
Josephus further tells of the utter disgrace and ruin of the high priesthood,
the basest of men being exalted to that office; and also of the profanation
of the sanctuary.
The most violent party in the city was the Zealots. These called to their
aid a band of blood thirsty Idumeans, who set upon the people who were
peaceably inclined, and slaughtered young and old until "the outer
temple was all of it overflowed with blood, and that day they saw 8500
dead bodies there." Among the slain was Ananias, formerly high priest,
a venerable and worthy man, concerning whom Josephus said:
I should not mistake if I said that the death of Ananias was the
beginning of the destruction of the city, and that from this very day
may be dated the overthrow of her wall, and the ruin of her affairs; that
being the day whereon they saw their high priest, and the procurer of
their preservation, slain in the midst of their city. *** And I cannot
but think it was because God had doomed this city to destruction, as a
polluted city, and was resolved to purge His sanctuary with fire, that
He cut off these, their great defenders, while those that a little before
had worn the sacred garments and presided over the public worship, were
cast out naked to be the food of dogs and wild beasts. ***
Now after these were slain the Zealots and the Idumeans fell upon
the people as upon a flock of profane animals, and cut their throats.
Josephus also tells of the "terrible torments" inflicted upon
nobles and citizens of the better sort who refused to comply with the
demands of the Zealots. Those, after being horribly tortured, were slain,
and through fear, none dared bury them. In this way 12,000 of the more
eminent inhabitants perished (IV 5:3). We quote further:
Along all the roads also vast numbers of dead bodies lay in heaps;
and many who at first were zealous to desert the city chose rather to
perish there; for the hopes of burial made death in their own city appear
less terrible to them. But those zealots came at last to that degree of
barbarity as not to bestow a burial either on those slain in the city
or on those that lay along the roads; as if *** at the same time that
they defiled men with their wicked actions they would pollute the Deity
itself also, they left the dead bodies to putrefy under the sun."
(IV. 6. 3).
About this time above 15,000 fugitive Jews were killed by the Romans,
"and the number of those that were forced to leap into the Jordan
was prodigious. *** The whole country through which they fled was filled
with slaughter, and Jordan could not be passed over, by reason of the
dead bodies that were in it(IV. 8. 5, 6).
VESPASIAN RECALLED. TITUS PLACED IN CHARGE
At this point Vespasian was called to Rome by reason of the death of the
emperor Nero, and the operations against the Jews devolved upon Titus.
Vespasian himself was soon thereafter made emperor.
Meanwhile another tyrant rose up, whose name was Simon, and of him Josephus
says: "Now this Simon, who was without the wall, was a greater terror
to the people than the Romans themselves; while the Zealots who were within
it were more heavy upon them than both the other." Those Zealots
were led by a tyrant named John; and the excesses of murder and uncleanness
in which they habitually indulged are indescribable (see Bk. IV, ch. 9,
sec. 10).
In order to overthrow John, the people finally admitted Simon and his
followers. From that time onward the civil warfare within the city became
more incessant and deadly. The distracted city was now divided into three
factions instead of two. The fighting was carried even into the inner
court of the temple; whereupon Josephus laments that even those who came
with sacrifices to offer them in the temple were slain, "and sprinkled
that altar with their own blood, till the dead bodies of strangers were
mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane
persons with those of priests, and the blood of all sort of dead carcases
stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves" (v 1:3).
Surely there never were such conditions as these in any city before or
since.
Among the dire calamities which befell the wretched people was the destruction
of the granaries and storehouses of food; so that famine was soon added
to the other horrors. The warring factions were "agreed in nothing
but to kill those that were innocent." Says Josephus:
The noise of those that were fighting was incessant, both by day
and by night; but the lamentations of those that mourned exceeded the
noise of the fighting. Nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave
off their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually, one
upon another. *** But as for the seditious bands themselves, they fought
against each other while trampling upon the dead bodies which lay heaped
one upon another, and being filled with a mad rage from those dead bodies
under their feet, they became the more fierce. They, moreover, were still
inventing pernicious things against each other; and when they had resolved
upon anything, they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of
torment or of barbarity (V. 2. 5).
At the time described in the preceding paragraphs, the Roman armies had
not yet reached the city, and inasmuch as the Passover season now came
on, and things seemed to quiet down momentarily, the gates were opened
for such as wished to observe the great feast. The translator, in a footnote,
says:
Here we see the true occasion of those vast numbers of Jews that
were in Jerusalem during this siege by Titus and who perished therein.
For the siege began at the feast of Passover, when such prodigious multitudes
of the Jews and proselytes were come from all parts of Judea, and from
other countries. *** As to the number that perished during this siege,
Josephus assures us, as we shall see hereafter, they were 1,100,000, besides
97,000 captives.
This is notable as the last Passover. That joyous feast of remembrance
of Gods great deliverance of His people out of Egypt ended in an
orgy of blood. The tyrant John took advantage of this opportunity to introduce
some of his followers, with concealed weapons, among the throngs of worshippers
in the temple, who slew many, while others "were rolled in heaps
together, and trampled upon, and beaten without mercy."
And now, though the Roman armies were at their gates, the warring factions
began again to destroy one another and the innocent inhabitants.
For, " says Josephus, "they returned to their former madness,
and separated one from another, and fought it out; and they did everything
that the besiegers could desire them to do. For they never suffered from
the Romans anything worse than they made each other suffer; nor was there
any misery endured by the city which, after what these men did, could
be esteemed new. It was most of all unhappy before it was overthrown;
and those that took it did it a kindness. For I venture to say that the
sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition. This
was a much harder thing to do than to destroy the walls. So that we may
justly ascribe our misfortunes to our own people(V. 6. 2).
This is the most astonishing feature of this "great tribulation";
for surely there never was a besieged city whose inhabitants suffered
more from one another than from the common enemy. In this feature of the
case we see most clearly that it is one of judgment; and that, as the
apostle Paul said, "the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."
At this point the siege began in earnest. Titus, however, sent Josephus
to speak to the Jews, offering them clemency, and exhorting them to yield.
Josephus made a most earnest plea to them not to resist the might of Rome,
pointing out that God was no longer with them. But it was to no purpose.
So the siege proceeded outside, and the famine began to rage inside, insomuch
that children pulled out of their parents mouths the morsels they
were eating, and even mothers deprived their infants of the last bits
of food that might have sustained their lives.
The fighters, of course, kept for their own use what food there was, and
it seems that they took a keen delight in seeing others suffer. It was
a species of madness. They invented terrible methods of torments, such
as it would not be seemly for us to describe. "And this was done,
" says Josephus, "to keep their madness in exercise" (V
10:3). The most horrible and unbelievable torments were inflicted upon
all who were suspected of having any food concealed. The following passage
will give an idea of the conditions:
It is impossible to give every instance of the iniquity of these
men. I shall therefore speak my mind here at once briefly:that neither
did any other city suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a
generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was, from the beginning
of the world." (This forcibly brings to mind the Lords own
words.) "Finally they brought the Hebrew nation into contempt, that
they might themselves appear comparatively less impious with regard to
strangers. They confessed, what was true, that they were the scum, and
the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation, while they overthrew
the city themselves, and forced the Romans, whether they would or no,
to gain a melancholy reputation by acting gloriously against them; and
did almost draw that fire upon the temple which they seemed to think came
too slowly(V. 10. 5).
Under pressure of the famine many Jews went out at night into the valleys
in search of food. These were caught, tortured and crucified in sight
of those on the walls of the city. About five hundred every day were thus
treated. The number became finally so great that there was not room enough
for the crosses, nor crosses enough for the victims. So several were ofttimes
nailed to one cross.
A little later the Roman armies encompassed the entire city, so that there
was no longer any egress therefrom.
Then, " says Josephus, "did the famine widen its progress
and devour the people by whole houses and families. The upper rooms were
full of women and children dying by famine; and the lanes of the city
were full of the dead bodies of the aged. The children also and the young
men wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, all swelled with the
famine, and fell down dead, wheresoever their misery seized them(V.
12. 3).
Thus did the miseries of Jerusalem grow worse and worse every day.
*** And indeed the multitude of carcases that lay in heaps, one upon another,
was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench which was a hindrance
to those that would make sallies out of the city and fight the enemy(VI.
1. 1).
The number of those that perished by famine in the city was prodigious,
and their miseries were unspeakable. For if so much as the shadow of any
kind of food did anywhere appear, a war was commenced presently, and the
dearest friends fell a fighting one another about it.
In this connection Josephus relates in detail the case of a woman, eminent
for her family and her wealth, who, while suffering the ravages of famine,
slew her infant son and roasted him, and having eaten half of him, concealed
the other half. When presently the seditious Jews came in to search the
premises, and smelt the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her
life if she did not show them what food she had prepared. She replied
that she had saved for them a choice part, and withal uncovered what was
left of the little body, saying, "Come, eat of this food; for I have
eaten of it myself. Do not you pretend to be more tender than a woman,
or more compassionate than a mother." Even those desperate and hardened
men were horrified at the sight, and stood aghast at the deed of this
mother. They left trembling; and the whole city was full of what the woman
had done. It must be remembered that all this time the lives of all in
the city would have been spared and the city and temple saved, had they
but yielded to the Romans. But how then should the Scripture be fulfilled?
(see #De 28:56,57)
Soon after this the temple was set on fire and was burned down, though
Titus tried to save it. Josephus says:
But as for that house, God had for certain long ago doomed it to
the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution
of ages. It was the tenth day of the month Ab, the day upon which it was
formerly burnt by the king of Babylon(VI
4. 5).
Further Josephus says:
While the holy house was on fire everything was plundered that came
to hand, and ten thousand of those were slain. Nor was there commiseration
of any age, or any reverence of gravity; but children, old men, profane
persons, and priests were all slain in the same manner. *** Moreover many,
when they saw the fire, exerted their utmost strength, and did break out
into groans and outcries. Perea also did return the echo, as well as the
mountains round about Jerusalem, and augmented the force of the noise.
Yet was the misery itself more terrible than this disorder. For
one would have thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood,
was seething hot, as if full of fire on every part, that the blood was
more in quantity than the fire, and that the slain were more in numbers
than they who slew them. For the ground did nowhere appear visible because
of the dead bodies that lay upon it(VL 5. 1).
In describing how a number were killed in a certain cloister, which the
soldiers set on fire, Josephus says:
A false prophet was the occasion of the destruction of those people,
he having made a public proclamation that very day that God commanded
them to get upon the temple and that they should receive miraculous signs
of their deliverance. There was then a large number of false prophets
suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who announced to them
that they should wait for deliverance from God(VI. 5. 2).
In this detail also the Lords Olivet prophecy was most literally
fulfilled.
When at last the Romans gained entrance into the city, the soldiers had
become so exasperated by the stubborn resistance of the Jews, that they
could not be restrained from wreaking vengeance upon the survivors. So
they indulged in slaughter until weary of it. The survivors were sold
into slavery, but at a very low price, because they were so numerous,
and the buyers were few. Thus was fulfilled the word of the Lord by Moses,
"And there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen,
and no man shall buy you" (#De 28:68).
Many were put into bonds and sold to slavery in the Egyptian mines, thus
fulfilling several prophecies that they should be sold into Egypt again,
whence God had delivered them (#Ho 8:13; 9:3).
In concluding this part of his history Josephus gives the number of those
who perished (a million one hundred thousand) and of those sold into slavery
(ninety seven thousand), and explains, as we have already stated, that
"they were come up from all the country to the feast of unleavened
bread, and were on a sudden shut up by an army." And he adds:
Now this vast multitude was indeed collected out of remote places,
but the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in prison, and the Roman
army encompassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants. Accordingly
the multitude of those that perished therein exceeded all the destructions
that either men or God ever brought upon the world(VI. 9. 4).
Thus ended, in the greatest of all calamities of the sort, the national
existence of the Jewish people, and all that pertained to that old covenant
which was instituted with glory (#2Co 3:7,9,11), but which was "to
be done away."
Here may be seen an example of the thoroughness of Gods judgments,
when He arises to do His "strange work." "Judgment must
begin at the house of God"; and in view of what is brought to our
notice in this history of Josephus, how impressive is the question, "And
if it begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel
of God?" (#1Pe 4:17).
Index - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - Appendix