Lecture Fifteen

Disclaimer:

I will type the notes as presented to me.
Again let me stress that what follows are NOT my words.
I will not add my thoughts in the post.
Comments allowed for friendly discussion and edifying.

II Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto G-D, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.

I Thessalonians 5:11
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

And for the record no one is ruling out dual fulfillment.








1. As vespasian became emperor, he left his son titus in Jerusalem to continue the siege of Jerusalem. There were other problems besides the romans for those defending Jerusalem including at least three Zealot groups battling each other within the walls. Josephus describes it: 'The missiles shot by catapults, stonethrowers, and quick-firers flew all over the Temple, killing priests and worshipers at the very altar itself. For despite war, the sacrifices went on, and those who journeyed from all over the world to worship there sprinkled the altar with their own blood. The three warring camps (Zealots) regularly rushed out and burned each other's food supplies. This, the area around the Temple, became a mass of ruins and great stores of grain, which would have supplied the besieged for years, were destroyed and teh city would fall to self-imposed famine.'

2. The Book of Revelation describes this time of famine: 'When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come! I looked and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand' (Rev 6:5). The black horse is often an image of famine, hunger and deprivation, as these conditions befell Jerusalem. The different Zealot groups fighting against each other constantly weakened their forces until the arrival of the romans at their door dashed the last hope. Josephus comments: 'Day after day the factions fought, each party devising new ways to destroy the other...(then suddenly) the romans appeared at the walls of Jerusalem...'

3. As the writer of the Revelation reported: 'As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying midair call out in a loud voice: Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels' (Rev 8:13). This is the prophetic announcement that rome, the eagle, is about to lay siege to the city. The Dead Sea sects saw it long before it took place writing: 'Mighty men have fixed their camps against me, and have encompassed me with all their weapons of war...they are an assembly of deceit and a horde of hasatan' (the Psalm Scroll, col. II).

4. Titus brings the twelfth and fifteenth legions from mt. scopus to the north, circling to the west, and finally battering down Jerusalem's weakest third wall. The New Quarter around the third wall area is overrun and a siege wall is constructed around the entire city to ensure death to all. Josephus is dispatched by titus to try to reason with the Jewish people in their own tongue to surrender before it is too late. His record describes the scene: 'Titus sent me to negotiate with the Jews in their native tongue. I therefore went around the wall, keeping out of range of the projectiles and yet within earshot, and implored the people, "Spare yourselves, your country, and your Temple!" But during my address, many on the ramparts derided and cursed me, while others threw missiles at me. The people cried, "We prefer death to slavery, and as long as we continue to breathe we will continue to damage the romans in every way possible!" They did not yield to my tearful appeal. Some of the people however, decided to desert. Famine now raged in the city, and the rebels took all the food they could find in a house to house search, while the poor starved to death by the thousands. People gave all their wealth for a little measure of wheat, and hid it to eat it hastily and in secret so it would not be taken from them. Wives would snatch the food from their husbands, children from their fathers, and mothers from the very mouths of infants.' The Book of Revelation reported: 'Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a days wages, and three quarts of barley for a days wages, and do not harm the oil and wine!' (Rev 6:6) This concern for the oil and wine had to do with the fact that the Temple sacrifices were continuing and this oil and wine were necessary libations for the Temple ritual. This also dates these events to before 70 AD and the destruction of the Temple. Josephus tells us that the Zealots lost control and one Zealot leader named John of Gischala, began to plunder the Temple itself 'taking its golden vessels, bowls, tables...and even the sacred wine and oil and gave them to his followers to use'.

5. In Matthew 24:21-22 Jesus foretold this great tribulation, 'such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now... (the word now is another indication that these events are about to happen in the first century)... but for the sake of the elect, those days shall be cut short'. With the words of Jesus in mind, consider Josephus' report: 'No other city ever endured such miseries. Not since the world began was there ever a generation more prolific in crime than this b-st-rd scum of the nation who destroyed the city...' The Book of Revelation continues by telling us: 'They did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts' (Rev 9:21).

6. As this famine and torture continued, Josephus writes about many deserters who fled from the city in search of scraps of food and: 'When caught they were tortured and crucified before the walls as a terrible warning to the people within. Out of rage and hatred, the soldiers nailed their prisoners in different positions, and so great was their number that space could not be found for the crosses... all hope of escape and all food supplies were cut off from the Jews, and famine devoured thousands upon thousands. The alleys were choked with bodies, the survivors not having enough strength to bury the dead and even falling into the graves with them. No mourning was heard in Jerusalem, for famine stifled all emotions, and an awful silence shrouded the city'. The Book of Revelation records: 'And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name death; and hades followed with him, and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth' (Rev 6:8). Could a fourth of the population of any modern city in the 1990's be killed with a sword?

7. Josephus said that one refugee, who had been in charge of a single gate, reported to titus that, "115,880 corpses had been carried out in an eleven week period...while other leaders reported that 600,000 bodies of the lower classes had been thrown out, and it was impossible to the number the rest. A measure of wheat was sold for a talent, and when it was not longer possible to gather herbs after the city was walled in, some searched the sewers for offal or ate old cow dung. Yet the rebels were relentless.'

8. Josephus reports that: 'thousands of Jews died of hunger. In every house where there was the least morsel of food, relatives fought over it. Gaping with hunger, the outlaws prowled around like mad dogs, gnawing at anything: belts, shoes, and even the leather from their shields. Others devoured wisps of hay, and then there was the incredible sorrow of Mary of Bethezuba...maddened by hunger, she seized the infant at her breast and said, "Poor baby, why should I preserve you for war, famine, and rebellion? Come, be my food - vengeance against the rebels, and the climax of Jewish tragedy for the world." With that, she killed her infant son, roasted his body, and devoured half of it, hiding the remainder... The whole city rocked with this abomination.'

9. As things reached its worse point, the romans set fire to the very gates of the Temple court and rushed onto the broad plateau on which the Temple stood. There they had hand to hand fighting in the Holy Courts, as thousands more fell by the sword. In August of 70 AD, the sacrifices ceased in the Temple and Josephus reported that: 'Around the altar were heaps of corpses, while streams of blood flowed down the steps of the Sanctuary.'









Go to lecture XIV or XVI (final)