The forecast calls for not one stone left standing upon another…

#64: “The forecast calls for not one stone left standing upon another…” by Brendon Wahlberg
“As he came near and saw the city [Jerusalem], he wept over it, saying, […] ‘Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.’” (Luke 19:41-44)
“When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ […] ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:5-24)
Did Jesus really predict the destruction of the second Jewish Temple? This is an easy question for the faithful to answer. It says he did, in these passages from the Gospel of Luke, and in similar passages in Mark 13 and Matthew 24. Therefore it must be true. A more skeptical scholar might hesitate to answer so readily. There are places in the Bible where prophets seem to predict the future. It is possible that in some cases, what seems to be a prediction was written after the event in question. In other words, if the Gospel of Luke says Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple, then maybe the Gospel was really written after the Temple was destroyed. The author knew what had already happened, reasoned that Jesus must have predicted such a major event, and put the words into Jesus’ mouth.
How do we decide what we think is the truth? Well, there are at least two ways we can look at this. First, we can use our knowledge of history to see how accurate the predictions themselves were. Second, if the predictions were accurate, we can use our knowledge of the New Testament books to look for clues about when they were really written down; either before or after the destruction of the Temple.
What did Jesus say would happen? He said that an enemy army would surround Jerusalem and conquer it. Many people would die, and many would be captured and taken away. Women and their infants and children would not be spared. As for the Temple, it would be torn down stone by stone. The city would be in the hands of the Gentiles for a long time. These were heartbreaking and catastrophic predictions. Jesus himself wept over them. Yet, how accurate did they turn out to be? Very accurate, sadly. In 70CE, about forty years after Jesus spoke, the Romans attacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.
How did these events come to pass? Actually, we know what happened in great detail, thanks to the Jewish historian Josephus. He lived though the events, and wrote them down in his book, The Jewish War, about five years after the destruction of the Temple. Each of the things Jesus predicted may be found in the writings of Josephus. The historian tells us that the Jewish nation revolted against Roman rule, beginning a four year war that ended when the Roman General Titus arrived at Jerusalem with four legions of soldiers. Just as Jesus had said, the Romans surrounded the city, and considered what to do, whether to attack the defensive walls or besiege the city and starve the Jews. Titus decided to strip the land of trees for miles around, and build a wooden wall of his own around the entire city, to prevent any of the Jews from escaping. Jesus had said, your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side.
The effect of the siege was devastating. Inside the city, there was a famine. Entire families began to die, and desperate people turned on each other within the walls. But the Zealot rebels refused to surrender. Josephus blamed the rebels for the suffering that followed; he was ultimately captured, surrendering to the Romans and joining them. Josephus felt that the entire city should have surrendered. How bad did it get in Jerusalem? The following horrible story is recorded in The Jewish War.
A wealthy woman named Mary fled to Jerusalem during the war, and was caught in the city during the siege. What little food she had brought was soon stolen by the guards, and it became impossible to find any more food. Driven mad by hunger, she took her infant son, who was still breastfeeding, and said in despair that there was nothing to preserve him for in a world of war, famine, and rebellion. If they did not die of hunger, they would be killed by the violent Zealots within the city, or enslaved by the Romans. She killed her son, roasted him, and ate one half of him. Then she hid the rest of him until some Zealots, smelling her cooking, threatened to kill her unless she gave them the food she had hidden. When she uncovered her son’s remains, even the Zealots were amazed and horrified, and left her with her prize. The story spread around the city, bringing more despair. Jesus had said, Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days!
Meanwhile, General Titus’ legions built earthwork ramps and eventually gained entry into the city. In the fighting, they took the fortress of Antonia and moved on to the Temple. The Temple was made of white stone, and plated with gold. Battering rams could not penetrate its walls, but there were wooden gates which the soldiers burned. Titus wanted to preserve the huge, beautiful building, but the fires spread out of control, and the Temple burned. The Jews watched in horror. When the fighting was over, Titus walked into the Holy of Holies, the small room that once housed the Ark of the Covenant. To his disappointment, he found only an empty room. When the Temple burned, the gold plating that decorated it, and the gold and silver treasures within, had melted and run in between the cracks in the great stones. Roman soldiers, greedy for this wealth, pried the stones apart and knocked them down to get the precious metals. Titus then ordered the Temple and the whole city to be razed to the ground. Jesus had said, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.
Many people had died during the siege, and of the survivors, the aged and the infirm were killed outright. Some of the tall and beautiful survivors were saved for parading in a triumphal march to Rome. As for the rest, those younger than seventeen were sold as slaves all over the Empire. Those older than seventeen were sent to work in Egyptian mines. Jesus had said, they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations. As for Jerusalem, the city was torn down, including its walls. The Judeans were foolish enough to revolt against Rome again in 132 CE, under their would-be military messiah Bar-Kochba. After that revolt failed, the site where Jerusalem once stood became the location for a newly built Roman city. Jesus had said, and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Apparently, that time lasted until the modern age, up until the founding of the modern state of Israel.
So now we can clearly see that Jesus’ predictions were remarkably accurate…so accurate that we might wonder if they were written down after the fact, as I explained above. So now we have to examine the issue of when they were written down. Was the Gospel of Luke written before or after 70CE, when the Temple was destroyed? Although scholars cannot be sure, there are several clues that suggest it was before 70CE. Luke’s gospel was actually a two-part work along with the Book of Acts. Luke was written first, then the sequel, Acts. Acts is mostly about the Apostle Paul, but the book concludes with Paul still alive. Paul died as a martyr in 64 or 65 CE, beheaded by the Romans. If Acts was written after 65, it is very unlikely that Luke would have omitted the story of the death of Paul (or the death of Peter in 67CE, for that matter).
Other things that Acts omits are descriptions of the terrible persecution of Christians by the Roman Emperor Nero in 64CE, and the murder of James the brother of Jesus in 62CE. Therefore, the Gospel of Luke was probably written just before 62CE, and thus also before 70CE – in other words, before the Temple was destroyed. Jesus’ predictions about the Temple also appear in Mark. Most scholars think Mark was written before Luke in any case. I do not know if this reasoning is airtight, and certainly many scholars disagree with such an early date. This is based on the view that predictive prophecy is impossible. But let us look at the question from another angle. If Luke was writing about the destruction of the Temple after it happened, then why would he only have included the prediction of the destruction? Wouldn’t he also have been sure to write about how Jesus’ prediction came true, as more proof of Jesus’ divinity?
Before we leave this topic, it may be worth looking at one other aspect of it. Jesus made his predictions privately to his disciples. He did not shout a warning to the whole people from a hilltop. That may lead us to question whether it was fair to warn only a few people about something so catastrophic. Perhaps the spreading of the gospels with the predictions in them, a few years before the tragedy, counts as a warning. However, Josephus does record several other signs and warnings that were given, suggesting that God does not destroy without warning. A comet resembling a sword stood over the city for a year. Before the rebellion, on one Passover, a great light shone around the Temple at night, a heifer gave birth to a lamb, a huge brass Temple gate opened all by itself, and a vision of soldiers surrounding cities appeared in the clouds. Four years before the war began, a prophet named Jesus, son of Ananus, walked around Jerusalem day and night, crying out, ‘A voice against Jerusalem and the Holy House and a voice against this whole people! Woe, woe to Jerusalem!’ He was whipped and dismissed as a madman, but he continued his efforts for seven or eight years, until he finally saw happen the doom he had foretold. He was struck and killed by a stone from a Roman siege engine. Josephus’ main point was that God warns us in order to save us from the miseries which we bring upon ourselves. But the people saw some of these signs as good omens, and ignored the rest.
And so, what do you think about our main question? Having looked at all of this carefully, I say that there seems to be enough evidence for us to conclude that Jesus did probably predict the destruction of the Temple, a remarkable prophecy that was full of tragedy, yet very suggestive of Jesus’ divine nature. We can only hope that we ourselves would heed such warnings if we were given them.