This video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1uKbzgcR9M
part 3, needs to be shared to everyone. It's absolutely perfect!!One last thing... Several times throughout the video I could just sense God all over it and His presence would get so thick. When Leah says she was made for this, you can tell in this video!
Video
If you have been following our course on all things End Time- y ie Revelation, The Tribulation, the Secret Rapture, you are way ahead of the game. If not, join us for this episode and then go back and watch the previous Two which are filled with so many truth bombs, you'd think Jesus was about to come back...get it, wars and rumors of wars... okay, moving on.
Last week I attempted to cover what has been come to be called the Olivet Discourse, the part in three of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke (notable absence is John who wrote a detailed play by play in a book we call Revelation). The way these three different authors recount what Jesus said to his disciples just after a severe brow beating to the Jewish leaders in the Temple, is astonishing, but what is absolutely jaw dropping and earth shattering is that what Jesus says here actually came to pass.
Like I told you last week, during our trip down fulfilled prophesy lane, (which to some may seem boring but to me is as boring as visiting the great wonders of the world, mountains, oceans, which all point to a rich history and a God that is reigning on high. We aren't waiting for God to one day make the mountains and oceans, they are here) we will be referring back to Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 OFTEN. I get that people don't understand the book of Revelation that reads like Harry Potter meets the Avengers. But Matthew 24, Luke 21, and Mark 13 are not just simple and straight forward, what Jesus was saying is also quite easy to understand. I'm going to use Luke 21 and fill in any parts that Mark or Matthew flesh out. over halfway through the chapter, the facts state in the same terms, that Jesus expects these things to occur in His own [Mosaic] generation. ‘Verily I say to you this generation shall not pass away until all these things come to pass.’ (Matt. 24:34)
"Jesus is speaking to His own generation about things that will occur in their own lifetime and history proves Jesus to be quite the prophet. Remember John said; ‘the axe is laid on the root’, the imminent fulfillment of what was foretold 1,000 years before saying; ‘I will cut off Israel of the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight.’ (I Kgs 9:7) These prophecies also correspond to the historical events which shortly came to pass in Jesus’ generation in 70 AD. Just forty years after Jesus uttered the words of Matthew 24, on the 15th of Nisan 70AD, the national Jewish temple was surrounded by the Roman armies of Titus and sacked. (Exactly the same date in the same month as the first temple burned down in BC 586.) It was then plundered, dismantled stone by stone, its walls leveled with the ground, the land ploughed up and salted so that nothing would ever grow, and finally sold along with all Judea. The human cost was appalling. At the time of the Passover there were approximately 3,000,000 people trapped in the holy city. Of these approximately 1,100,000 died terrible deaths from famine and injury, and 97,000 were taken captive and sold to work in Egyptian mines, or eaten by wild beasts in games at Roman theatres. The decimation of the nation was cataclysmic, total, and definitive, the subject of a detailed prophecy fulfilled as recorded by eyewitness and historian Flavius Josephus in his work, Wars of the Jews. Following is a correlation of the tragic history with the tragic prophecy of Matthew 23 and 24" Morris Lee MATTHEW 24: The End of the Holy City
Luke 21
5Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, 6“These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
Josephus (A.D. 37-
101). He writes, “Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple,
but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest immanency; that is,
Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Marianme, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west
side...but for all of the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those
that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither
believe it had ever been inhabited”
Because of the current popularity of futurist interpretations, it is important to note that
Jesus could not be speaking about another Jewish temple to be built almost 2,000 years in the
future. Our Lord said “Do you not see all these things” to His disciples. The buildings to be destroyed were right in front of their eyes. Note also the phrase, “not one stone shall be left here
upon another” http://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/matthew_24_and_the_great_tribulation.pdf
The Signs of the Times and the End of the Age
7So they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?”
*Matt 24 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age
*Mark 13 3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked Him privately,
1. We are looking at a time frame and three questions to be answered
a.WHEN b. WHAT SIGN WHERE THERE BE? c. THE END OF THE AGE
Age here is aeon, which is not the end of the world, but of an age, a fixed time period
He is referring to the end of the age of the Law
Paul could write, “they were written for
our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). “It means that the
Corinthian Christians had lived in and had witnessed the completion of the Mosaic and earlier
epochs.”
29 Christ Himself appeared to put away sin “once at the end of the ages” (Heb. 9:26). Peter said, “He indeed was foreordained...but was manifest in these last
times for you” (1 Pet. 1:20). The author of Hebrews said that God “has in these last days spoken
to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:2). James, writing to Christians in his day, said “You have heaped up
treasure in the last days” (Jas. 5:3). On the day of Pentecost, Peter applied the prophecy of Joel
2:28-32 to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that had just occurred saying “It shall come to pass
in the last days, says God” (Ac. 2:17).30 Since the divinely inspired apostles said that they were
living in “the last days” at “the end of the age,” their question regarding the end of the age in
Matthew 24:3 must apply to something that occurred in their own generation. The context and
the manner in which the New Testament uses this terminology prove that they wanted to know
when the temple would be destroyed and the Mosaic economy would end to the disciples the
destruction of the temple, the end of the sacrificial system and the end of Israel as a special
covenant nation was exceedingly radical. From the time of Moses the true covenant religion was
organized around one central sanctuary (Dt. 12:5 ff.). If a person wanted to join himself to the true religion he or she would have to essentially become a part of the covenant nation (e.g., Ruth
1:16). With the coming of Christ, however, true worship will exist anywhere in the world where
believers gather, hear the preaching of the word, sing psalms and partake of the sacraments. As
Jesus had promised, “the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in
Jerusalem, worship the Father....But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (Jn. 4:21, 23; cf. Mal. 1:11). Also, no longer did
people have to become Jews in order to follow God for the apostles were to disciple all nations
(Mt. 28:19) and preach the gospel to every creature (Mk. 16:15). The new covenant temple is the
multi-national, pan-ethnic body of Christ-the church (Ac. 15:16 ff.; Eph. 2:21). http://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/matthew_24_and_the_great_tribulation.pdf
Hebrews 8 8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
Hebrews 8 8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
A New Covenant
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away
CROSS REFERENCE, FULFILLED Jeremiah 31 A New Covenant
31“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
"becoming obsolete" is so important here, as this refers to the Temple still standing and yet the apostles knew, from the teachings of Jesus that the Temple would be destroyed and the Old Covenant was "becoming obsolete" literally to fail from age
Matthew 5:17 p“Do not think that I have come to abolish qthe Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but rto fulfill them.
2. Many "Messiahs"
8And He said: “Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ (the Messiah, the Christ) and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them. “From Josephus it appears that in the first century before the destruction of the Temple a number of Messiahs arose promising relief from the Roman yoke, and finding ready followers. Josephus speaks of them thus: ‘Another body of wicked men also sprung up, cleaner in their hands, but more wicked in their intentions, who destroyed the peace of the city no less than did these murderers [the Sicarii]. For they were deceivers and deluders of the people, and, under pretense of divine illumination, were for innovations and changes, and prevailed on the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them in the wilderness, pretending that God would there show them signs of liberty’.”
Josephus states that the leaders of the Jewish rebellion bribed or in some way coerced a number of people to pretend to be prophets. During the war with Rome, these people were instructed to predict that God would deliver the Israelites from their enemies in order to inspire courage and prevent desertion https://revelationrevolution.org/matthew-24-commentary-that-generation-shall-not-pass/
“Matt. 24, warning against ‘false Christs and false prophets,’ gives testimony to the same effect. Thus about AD 44, Josephus reports, a certain impostor, Theudas, who claimed to be a prophet, appeared and urged the people to follow him with their belongings to the Jordan, which he would divide for them. According to Acts 5:36 (which seems to refer to a different date), he secured about 400 followers. Cuspius Fadus sent a troop of horsemen after him and his band, slew many of them, and took captive others, together with their leader, beheading the latter.
“But there was a certain man called Simon, who
previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he
was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man
is the great power of God’” (Ac. 8:9-10)
“Another, an Egyptian, is said to have gathered together 30,000 adherents, whom he summoned to the Mount of Olives, opposite Jerusalem, promising that at his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall down, and that he and his followers would enter and possess themselves of the city. But Felix, the procurator, met the throng with his soldiery. The prophet escaped, but those with him were killed or taken, and the multitude dispersed (see also Acts 21:38).
“Another, whom Josephus styles an impostor, promised the people ‘deliverance and freedom from their miseries’ if they would follow him to the wilderness. Both leader and followers were killed by the troops of Festus, the procurator. Even when Jerusalem was already in process of destruction by the Romans, a prophet, according to Josephus, suborned by the defenders to keep the people from deserting, announced that God commanded them to come to the Temple, there to receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Those who came met death in the flames.”
There were so many false teachers in the first century that John could write: “Little
children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many
antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour” (1 Jn. 2:18)
A false prophet was the occasion of these people’s destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that very day, that God commanded them to get up upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now, there was then a great number of false prophets suborned by the tyrants [zealot leaders] to impose upon the people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverance from God: and this was in order to keep them from deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and care by such hopes.14 Josephus Wars 6.4.2
Wars and Rumors of Wars
9But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified; for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately.”
10Then He said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
By about 4 B.C. Augstus had finished most of his constitutional reforms in the Roman Empire, and the Roman system of government was fixed for the next several decades. The stability is typified by the succession, which remained in the Augustan line until the suicide of Nero in A.D. 68. Politically, this was a perid of the Pax Romana. “Augustus’ inauguration of an Age of Peace at the Ludi Saeculares in 17 B.C. (Horace Carmen saeculare) was not an empty gesture. In the Roman Empire proper, this period of peace remained comparatively undisturbed until the time of Nero.” Like two haringers of revolution, however, fire broke out in Rome in AD 64 and a war at Zion in 66;after Nero's death, the whole Roman Empire was ablaze and at war during the year 69. The same homo novus who conquered the Jews, Vespasian, was soon able to restore the power of the emperors, but upon and new foundation" Reicke, New Testament Era, pp109-110 During Nero’s reign Rome went to war with the Parthians, there was a war in Britain and various other rebellious disturbances across the empire. All these uprisings and wars immediately preceded the Jewish War in fulfillment of vs. 6-7.
In A.D. 66, toward the end of Nero’s reign, the province of Israel revolted against Rome. While the Israelites fought the Romans, they also turned their weapons against each other; and civil war broke out all over Israel between those wanting peace and those seeking sovereignty.6 Then in A.D. 68, the disease of civil war spread to the rest of the Roman Empire. https://revelationrevolution.org/matthew-24-commentary-that-generation-shall-not-pass/
while Vespasian was about Alexandria, and Titus was lying at the siege of Jerusalem, a great multitude of the Germans were in commotion, and tended to rebellion, and as the Gauls in the neighborhood joined with them..hoping to free themselves of Roman dominion.. At the very same time with the forementioned revolt of the Germans did the bold attempt of the Scythians against the Romans occur, for those Scythians, who are called Samaitans, being a very numerous people, transported themselves over the Danube into Mysia without being perceived..and slew a great many Romans that guarded the frontiers. Wars 7:4:75ff
Rome, during the time of Jesus was actually pretty quite on the Western front
"This was spoken of by Origen as the "abundance of peace that began at the birth of Christ" Origen, Romans 1:3
Latourette states that "the internal peace and order which Augustus achieved endured, with occasional interruption , for about two centuries. Due to this famed, empire wide peace, Christ's prophetic reference to "wars and rumors of was" serves as a remarkable "sign" for the end of the Temple and Jewish age" Ken Gentry Before Jerusalem fell pg 242
"This was spoken of by Origen as the "abundance of peace that began at the birth of Christ" Origen, Romans 1:3
Latourette states that "the internal peace and order which Augustus achieved endured, with occasional interruption , for about two centuries. Due to this famed, empire wide peace, Christ's prophetic reference to "wars and rumors of was" serves as a remarkable "sign" for the end of the Temple and Jewish age" Ken Gentry Before Jerusalem fell pg 242
Earthquakes, famines, pestiliences Oh my, and Great Signs From Heaven
11And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
During the reign of Claudius Caesar, the emperor immediately preceding Nero, a colossal famine struck the Roman world. Concerning this famine, James Stuart Russell writes, “In the fourth year of his [Claudius] reign, the famine in Judea was so severe, that the price of food became enormous and great numbers perished.”7
One example of the earthquakes mentioned in v. 7 is the earthquake that struck Laodicea sometime between A.D. 60 and A.D. 64 during the reign of Nero.8 It is interesting to note that one of the churches addressed by John in the Book of Revelation was a church in this city (Revelation 3:14-22). Prior to A.D. 70 there were also earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Hierapolis, Colossae, Campania, Rome and Judea.9
..when the war about Actium was at the height, at the beginning of the Spring the earth was shaken, and destroyed an immense number of cattle, with thirty-thousand men, but the army received no harm because it lay in the open air. Wars 1:19:370
Moreover at the feast called Pentecost..the priest of the inner court felt a quaking Wars 6:5:298ff
Seneca wrote (A.D. 58): “How often have cities of
Africa and Achaea fallen with one fatal shock! How many cities have been swallowed up in Syria, how many in Macedonia! How often have Pathos become a ruin! News has often been
brought us of the demolition of whole cities at once.”
“All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Mt. 24:8). The word
translated “sorrows” (odinon) is used in Scripture for both the sharp pains of childbirth (Ps. 48:7;
1 Th. 5:3) "In
the OT the pangs of birth are a recurring image of divine judgment, often in the context of God's
eschatological action (cf. Isa. 13:8; 26:17; Mic. 4:9 ff.; Hos. 13:13; Jer. 4:31; 6:24; 13:21; 22:23;
49:22; 50:43)
Famines 7. Famine
Now of those who perished by famine in the city, the number was prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if the shadow of any kind of food did anywhere appear, a war was commenced presently; and the dearest friends fell a fighting one with another over it…nor would men believe those dying had no food, but the robbers would search them when they were expiring, lest any should have concealed food in their bosoms and counterfeited dying. Moreover their hunger was so intolerable that it obliged them to chew everything, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch and endured to eat them; nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes, and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed; the very wisps of old hay became food to some, and some gathered up the fibers and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic drachmae. Wars 6:3:193-198
..I am going to relate a matter of fact the like to which no history relates, either among the Greeks or barbarians! It is horrible to speak of and incredible when heard…but that I have innumerable witnesses to it in my own age. ..a certain Mary, her father was Eleazar.. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem. [When it became impossible for her anyway to find more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels…she then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast she said; “O thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, this sedition? Come on: be thou my food…and a byword to the world..” As soon as she said this she slew her son, and roasted him, and ate one half of him, and kept the other half concealed. Wars 6:3:199ff.
the book of Acts we read, “Then one of them, named
Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout
all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each
according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea” (11:28-29).
The famine prophesied in Acts occurred in the ninth year of Claudius (A.D. 49). “It was great at
Rome, -and therefore probably Egypt and Africa, on which the Romans depended so much for
supplies, were themselves much affected by it. Suetonius speaks of continual droughts; and
Tacitus of death of crops, and thence famine, about the same time. There was famine in Judea in
the reign of Claudius...”
37 This great famine did indeed affect the whole world (oikoumene, the
inhabited world; an expression often used in Jesus’ day to describe the Roman Empire). There
were also a series of localized famines in A.D. 41-54 as well as a particularly severe famine in
Palestine between 46 and 48.38 Remember Paul’s appeal for funds to relieve the Jerusalem
church in 1 Corinthians 16:1-5 and Romans 15:25-28 http://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/matthew_24_and_the_great_tribulation.pdf
Here, Eucebius, early church historian, recounts the famines and atrocities recorded by Josephus
1. Taking the fifth book of the History of Josephus again in our hands, let us go through the tragedy of events which then occurred.
2.
For the wealthy,he says, it was equally dangerous to remain. For under pretense that they were going to desert, men were put to death for their wealth. The madness of the seditions increased with the famine and both the miseries were inflamed more and more day by day.
3. Nowhere was food to be seen; but, bursting into the houses men searched them thoroughly, and whenever they found anything to eat they tormented the owners on the ground that they had denied that they had anything; but if they found nothing, they tortured them on the ground that they had more carefully concealed it.
4. The proof of their having or not having food was found in the bodies of the poor wretches. Those of them who were still in good condition they assumed were well supplied with food, while those who were already wasted away they passed by, for it seemed absurd to slay those who were on the point of perishing for want.
5. Many, indeed, secretly sold their possessions for one measure of wheat, if they belonged to the wealthier class, of barley if they were poorer. Then shutting themselves up in the innermost parts of their houses, some ate the grain uncooked on account of their terrible want, while others baked it according as necessity and fear dictated.
6. Nowhere were tables set, but, snatching the yet uncooked food from the fire, they tore it in pieces. Wretched was the fare, and a lamentable spectacle it was to see the more powerful secure an abundance while the weaker mourned.
7. Of all evils, indeed, famine is the worst, and it destroys nothing so effectively as shame. For that which under other circumstances is worthy of respect, in the midst of famine is despised. Thus women snatched the food from the very mouths of their husbands and children, from their fathers, and what was most pitiable of all, mothers from their babes. And while their dearest ones were wasting away in their arms, they were not ashamed to take away from them the last drops that supported life.
8. And even while they were eating thus they did not remain undiscovered. But everywhere the rioters appeared, to rob them even of these portions of food. For whenever they saw a house shut up, they regarded it as a sign that those inside were taking food. And immediately bursting open the doors they rushed in and seized what they were eating, almost forcing it out of their very throats.
9. Old men who clung to their food were beaten, and if the women concealed it in their hands, their hair was torn for so doing. There was pity neither for gray hairs nor for infants, but, taking up the babes that clung to their morsels of food, they dashed them to the ground. But to those that anticipated their entrance and swallowed what they were about to seize, they were still more cruel, just as if they had been wronged by them.
10. And they devised the most terrible modes of torture to discover food, stopping up the privy passages of the poor wretches with bitter herbs, and piercing their seats with sharp rods. And men suffered things horrible even to hear of, for the sake of compelling them to confess to the possession of one loaf of bread, or in order that they might be made to disclose a single drachm of barley which they had concealed. But the tormentors themselves did not suffer hunger.
11. Their conduct might indeed have seemed less barbarous if they had been driven to it by necessity; but they did it for the sake of exercising their madness and of providing sustenance for themselves for days to come.
12. And when any one crept out of the city by night as far as the outposts of the Romans to collect wild herbs and grass, they went to meet him; and when he thought he had already escaped the enemy, they seized what he had brought with him, and even though oftentimes the man would entreat them, and, calling upon the most awful name of God, adjure them to give him a portion of what he had obtained at the risk of his life, they would give him nothing back. Indeed, it was fortunate if the one that was plundered was not also slain.
13. To this account Josephus, after relating other things, adds the following: The possibility of going out of the city being brought to an end, all hope of safety for the Jews was cut off. And the famine increased and devoured the people by houses and families. And the rooms were filled with dead women and children, the lanes of the city with the corpses of old men.
14. Children and youths, swollen with the famine, wandered about the marketplaces like shadows, and fell down wherever the death agony overtook them. The sick were not strong enough to bury even their own relatives, and those who had the strength hesitated because of the multitude of the dead and the uncertainty as to their own fate. Many, indeed, died while they were burying others, and many betook themselves to their graves before death came upon them.
15. There was neither weeping nor lamentation under these misfortunes; but the famine stifled the natural affections. Those that were dying a lingering death looked with dry eyes upon those that had gone to their rest before them. Deep silence and death-laden night encircled the city.
16. But the robbers were more terrible than these miseries; for they broke open the houses, which were now mere sepulchres, robbed the dead and stripped the covering from their bodies, and went away with a laugh. They tried the points of their swords in the dead bodies, and some that were lying on the ground still alive they thrust through in order to test their weapons. But those that prayed that they would use their right hand and their sword upon them, they contemptuously left to be destroyed by the famine. Every one of these died with eyes fixed upon the temple; and they left the seditious alive.
17. These at first gave orders that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury, for they could not endure the stench. But afterward, when they were not able to do this, they threw the bodies from the walls into the trenches.
18. And as Titus went around and saw the trenches filled with the dead, and the thick blood oozing out of the putrid bodies, he groaned aloud, and, raising his hands, called God to witness that this was not his doing.
19. After speaking of some other things, Josephus proceeds as follows:
I cannot hesitate to declare what my feelings compel me to. I suppose, if the Romans had longer delayed in coming against these guilty wretches, the city would have been swallowed up by a chasm, or overwhelmed with a flood, or struck with such thunderbolts as destroyed Sodom. For it had brought forth a generation of men much more godless than were those that suffered such punishment. By their madness indeed was the whole people brought to destruction.
20. And in the sixth book he writes as follows: Of those that perished by famine in the city the number was countless, and the miseries they underwent unspeakable. For if so much as the shadow of food appeared in any house, there was war, and the dearest friends engaged in hand-to-hand conflict with one another, and snatched from each other the most wretched supports of life.
21. Nor would they believe that even the dying were without food; but the robbers would search them while they were expiring, lest any one should feign death while concealing food in his bosom. With mouths gaping for want of food, they stumbled and staggered along like mad dogs, and beat the doors as if they were drunk, and in their impotence they would rush into the same houses twice or thrice in one hour.
23. But why should I speak of the shamelessness which was displayed during the famine toward inanimate things? For I am going to relate a fact such as is recorded neither by Greeks nor Barbarians; horrible to relate, incredible to hear. And indeed I should gladly have omitted this calamity, that I might not seem to posterity to be a teller of fabulous tales, if I had not innumerable witnesses to it in my own age. And besides, I should render my country poor service if I suppressed the account of the sufferings which she endured.
24. There was a certain woman named Mary that dwelt beyond Jordan, whose father was Eleazer, of the village of Bathezor (which signifies the house of hyssop). She was distinguished for her family and her wealth, and had fled with the rest of the multitude to Jerusalem and was shut up there with them during the siege.
25. The tyrants had robbed her of the rest of the property which she had brought with her into the city from Perea. And the remnants of her possessions and whatever food was to be seen the guards rushed in daily and snatched away from her. This made the woman terribly angry, and by her frequent reproaches and imprecations she aroused the anger of the rapacious villains against herself.
26. But no one either through anger or pity would slay her; and she grew weary of finding food for others to eat. The search, too, was already become everywhere difficult, and the famine was piercing her bowels and marrow, and resentment was raging more violently than famine. Taking, therefore, anger and necessity as her counsellors, she proceeded to do a most unnatural thing.
27. Seizing her child, a boy which was sucking at her breast, she said, Oh, wretched child, in war, in famine, in sedition, for what do I preserve you? Slaves among the Romans we shall be even if we are allowed to live by them. But even slavery is anticipated by the famine, and the rioters are more cruel than both. Come, be food for me, a fury for these rioters, and a bye-word to the world, for this is all that is wanting to complete the calamities of the Jews.
28. And when she had said this she slew her son; and having roasted him, she ate one half herself, and covering up the remainder, she kept it. Very soon the rioters appeared on the scene, and, smelling the nefarious odor, they threatened to slay her immediately unless she should show them what she had prepared. She replied that she had saved an excellent portion for them, and with that she uncovered the remains of the child.
29. They were immediately seized with horror and amazement and stood transfixed at the sight. But she said, This is my own son, and the deed is mine. Eat for I too have eaten. Be not more merciful than a woman, nor more compassionate than a mother. But if you are too pious and shrink from my sacrifice, I have already eaten of it; let the rest also remain for me.
30. At these words the men went out trembling, in this one case being affrighted; yet with difficulty did they yield that food to the mother. Forthwith the whole city was filled with the awful crime, and as all pictured the terrible deed before their own eyes, they trembled as if they had done it themselves.
31. Those that were suffering from the famine now longed for death; and blessed were they that had died before hearing and seeing miseries like these.
32. Such was the reward which the Jews received for their wickedness and impiety, against the Christ of God.
Delivered up to Synagogues, Brother Against Brother
12But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. 13But it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. 14Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer; 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. 18But not a hair of your head shall be lost. 19By your patience possess your souls.
First they [the Jews] stoned Stephen to death; then James the son of Zebedee and the brother of John was beheaded; and finally James, the first after our Saviour’s Ascension to be raised to the bishop’s throne there, lost his life in the way described, while the remaining apostles, in constant danger from murderous plots, were driven out of Judaea Eucibeus, Church History 3.5
First they [the Jews] stoned Stephen to death; then James the son of Zebedee and the brother of John was beheaded; and finally James, the first after our Saviour’s Ascension to be raised to the bishop’s throne there, lost his life in the way described, while the remaining apostles, in constant danger from murderous plots, were driven out of Judaea Eucibeus, Church History 3.5
At this time some Christians were arrested, “then on their information a very large multitude was convicted. Tacitus Annals 15.44.4, cited in Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 2000), 42
“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. . . .” These Christians who were betrayed by their brethren were draped in animal skins and ripped apart by dogs or crucified in a major public spectacle. And at night, these people were burned as torches to light the streets of Rome.Ibid., 18.3.1.
According to church tradition, (and while this is probably not entirely accurate, it is helpful to recount) it was during this massacre that Peter was crucified and Paul, beheaded. This same tradition teaches that nearly all of the disciples were martyred. Matthew was killed by a sword in Ethiopia. Mark was dragged by horses through the streets of Alexandria. Luke was hanged in Greece. Bartholomew was flogged to death. Andrew was crucified. Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India. Jude was pierced with arrows. Matthias was stoned then beheaded, and Barnabas was stoned in Salonica. Grant R. Jeffrey, The Signature of God, (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), 337-339.
We also see this in Josephus' accounts...
And here, a certain old man - the father of seven children, whose children, together with their mother decided to give them leave to go out [to Herod] – slew them after the following manner: he ordered them to go out while he himself stood at the cave’s mouth, and slew that son of his perpetually who went out. Herod was near enough to see this sight, and his bowels of compassion were moved at it… yet did he not relent at all…but reproached Herod for his lowness of descent and slew his wife as well as his children, and when he had thrown their dead bodies down the precipice, he at last threw himself down after them. Wars 1:17:312
Eucebius writes
1. After Nero had held the power thirteen years, and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months, Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there. Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus.
2. For the Jews after the ascension of our Saviour, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them, and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded, and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour, died in the manner already described. But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel, relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them,
Go and make disciples of all the nations in my name.
3. But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war, to leave the city and to dwell in a certain town of Perea called Pella. And when those that believed in Christ had come there from Jerusalem, then, as if the royal city of the Jews and the whole land of Judea were entirely destitute of holy men, the judgment of God at length overtook those who had committed such outrages against Christ and his apostles, and totally destroyed that generation of impious men.
4. But the number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes to which the inhabitants of Judea were especially subjected, the thousands of men, as well as women and children, that perished by the sword, by famine, and by other forms of death innumerable — all these things, as well as the many great sieges which were carried on against the cities of Judea, and the excessive sufferings endured by those that fled to Jerusalem itself, as to a city of perfect safety, and finally the general course of the whole war, as well as its particular occurrences in detail, and how at last the abomination of desolation, proclaimed by the prophets, Daniel 9:27 stood in the very temple of God, so celebrated of old, the temple which was now awaiting its total and final destruction by fire — all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus.
5. But it is necessary to state that this writer records that the multitude of those who were assembled from all Judea at the time of the Passover, to the number of three million souls, were shut up in Jerusalem
as in a prison,to use his own words.
6. For it was right that in the very days in which they had inflicted suffering upon the Saviour and the Benefactor of all, the Christ of God, that in those days, shut up
as in a prison,they should meet with destruction at the hands of divine justice.
7. But passing by the particular calamities which they suffered from the attempts made upon them by the sword and by other means, I think it necessary to relate only the misfortunes which the famine caused, that those who read this work may have some means of knowing that God was not long in executing vengeance upon them for their wickedness against the Christ of God.
Matthew 24 adds " And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. "
In Matthew 12:39, Jesus calls His contemporaries “a wicked and adulterous generation.” The wickedness predicted in v. 12 and mentioned in Matthew 12:39 is echoed in Josephus’ own words in his history of the Jewish War with Rome: “[N]either did any other city [Jerusalem] ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness that this was, from the beginning of the world.”17 https://revelationrevolution.org/matthew-24-commentary-that-generation-shall-not-pass/#easy-footnote-bottom-12-117
Again, Brian Schwertley writes: "The first
persecution is recorded in Acts chapter 4 where Peter and John are arrested, placed in custody
(4:3), commanded not to preach (4:18) and threatened by the Sanhedrin (4:21). In Acts chapter 5
the apostles are arrested, placed in prison (5:18) and commanded once again to stop teaching in
Jesus' name (5:28). The persecution escalates in Acts chapter 6 when Stephen is arrested and
falsely accused of blasphemy (6:12-13). This results in Stephen’s murder (7:58-60). A “great
persecution” is discussed in Acts chapter 8. It is so severe that the Jerusalem church is scattered
throughout Judea and Samaria. In this persecution both men and women are dragged from their
homes, placed in prison (Ac. 8:1, 3; 9:1-2, 26:9-10) and put to death (Ac. 26:10). Saul even attempted to force believers to blaspheme the Lord (Ac. 26:11). In Acts chapter 12 Herod also
begins to persecute the church “because he saw that it pleased the Jews” (vs. 3). Herod’s policy
led to the murder of James (12:2) and the arrest of Peter (12:4-5). Fortunately, God delivered the
apostle by supernatural means (12:7ff.).
The disciples were also persecuted by the Greeks and Romans. At the instigation of
unbelieving Jews, the mob at Lystra “stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him
to be dead” (Ac. 14:19). Paul gives us a glimpse of his experience as an apostle to the Gentiles in
2 Corinthians 11: “From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was
beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have
been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own
countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren” (vs. 24-26). In 1 Corinthians Paul speaks of the “present
distress” (7:26). In 2 Thessalonians the apostle writes about the suffering of believers “in all your
persecutions and tribulations that you endure” (1:4) and promises that God will “repay with
tribulation those who trouble you” (1:6). Peter warns the church “concerning the fiery trial which
is about to try you” (1 Pet. 4:12). The Roman persecution, which was often sporadic and
unorganized, became an official policy under Nero. Bromily writes, “A drastic change came in
July of A.D., 64, when Nero accused of setting a disastrous fire in Rome and unable to clear
himself by gifts or sacrifices, decided to make the Christians scapegoats, and started a
persecution which for its cruelty would evoke censure even from those who regarded
Christianity as a debased superstition (Tacitus Ann. xv. 44). References to this persecution may
perhaps be found in 1 Peter, and also in 2 Timothy, in which Paul mentions his trial and
impending death. 1 Clem. 1:1 also refers to the martyrdom of Peter and Paul at this time, and
Eusebius (HE ii.25.5ff.) adds that Peter suffered death by crucifixion and Paul by beheading. If
Revelation belongs to the age of Nero, the persecution extended to Asia Minor, for the opening
letters mention pressures and martyrdoms (2:2, 10, 13, 19; 3:8), and the author himself suffered
exile for the word of God and the witness of Christ
Now, Matthew 24 adds something here Luke leaves out.
13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Now, the question is what is the world and who are the nations? The short answer is this- the Bible repeatedly refers to the whole world as the known world.
To the inspired authors of
the gospels and epistles the term “world” (oikoumen) meant the inhabited “civilized” world of
their day-the Roman Empire. Luke writes, “And it came to pass in those days that a degree went
out from Caesar Augustus that all the world [oikoumene] should be registered” (Lk. 2:1). The
word world in this context obviously refers to Roman citizens and subjects
Acts 11:28 reads, “Agabus...showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.” Hackett writes, “Over all the inhabited land-i.e. Judea and the adjacent countries, or, according to some, the Roman Empire. The Greek and Roman writers employed the inhabited (land) (oikoumene) to denote the Greek and Roman world, and a Jewish writer would naturally employ such a term to denote the Jewish world. Josephus appears to restrict the word to Palestine in Ant., 8.13.4.” 47 Thus, not only is it biblically permissible to regard the phrase “all the world” as the whole Roman Empire, the Bible also explicitly teaches that the gospel was indeed preached throughout the whole world before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Writing around A.D. 64 to the Colossian Church Paul said, “…the word of the truth of the gospel...has come to you, as it has also in all the world” (Col. 1:5-6). He also exhorted the Colossians to have “the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven” (Col. 1:23). To the church at Rome Paul wrote, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). Plummer writes, “Her faith was spoken of over the Roman empire, which now embraced Western Asia and Northern Africa, as well as nearly all Europe. In Luke 2:1 the phrase all the world is so used, though the Greek terms are not the same in the two places [one uses oikoumene, the other kosmos]; but they mean the same thing.” 48 In Romans 10:18 Paul says that the voice of gospel preachers, “has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Acts 11:28 reads, “Agabus...showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.” Hackett writes, “Over all the inhabited land-i.e. Judea and the adjacent countries, or, according to some, the Roman Empire. The Greek and Roman writers employed the inhabited (land) (oikoumene) to denote the Greek and Roman world, and a Jewish writer would naturally employ such a term to denote the Jewish world. Josephus appears to restrict the word to Palestine in Ant., 8.13.4.” 47 Thus, not only is it biblically permissible to regard the phrase “all the world” as the whole Roman Empire, the Bible also explicitly teaches that the gospel was indeed preached throughout the whole world before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Writing around A.D. 64 to the Colossian Church Paul said, “…the word of the truth of the gospel...has come to you, as it has also in all the world” (Col. 1:5-6). He also exhorted the Colossians to have “the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven” (Col. 1:23). To the church at Rome Paul wrote, “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8). Plummer writes, “Her faith was spoken of over the Roman empire, which now embraced Western Asia and Northern Africa, as well as nearly all Europe. In Luke 2:1 the phrase all the world is so used, though the Greek terms are not the same in the two places [one uses oikoumene, the other kosmos]; but they mean the same thing.” 48 In Romans 10:18 Paul says that the voice of gospel preachers, “has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
Nations: “And there were
dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven” (2:5).
The Destruction of Jerusalem/ Abomination of Desolation
Now, here is where Luke, writing to mostly Gentiles gives us a super interpretation of not just Matthew 24 but of Daniel and it makes me so excited when I see the Bible interpreting the Bible!
Matthew says 15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. 19 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the [c]elect’s sake those days will be shortened.
But Luke, my man, praise God, tells you what this means...
20“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.
Josephus tells of such a story that is almost impossible to behold. I do not have room or time to tell you of all the abonimations the Jews brought upon themselves and upon each other but Michelle will hopefully read through the War of the Jews and you can listen to all the gory details. There was a madness that had a hold of the seditious and rebellious zealots who we will hopefully cover in more detail but understand this. The Romans had more respect for the Temple then the Jews defending Jerusalem. The tears of Josephus, who was captured by the Roman army and befriended by Vespasian and Titus once Joshephus saw the cause was lost to madmen who would sooner die on their sword or kill desterters, starve them, burn the food, then bring peace.
Wars 6.2.3. However, when Titus had recalled those men from Gophna, he gave orders that they should go round the wall, together with Josephus, and shew themselves to the people. Upon which a great many fled to the Romans. These men also got in a great number together, and stood before the Romans, and besought the seditious, with groans, and tears in their eyes; in the first place to receive the Romans intirely into the city, and save that their own place of residence again; but that, if they would not agree to such a proposal, they would at least depart out of the temple, and save the holy house for their own use. For that the Romans would not venture to set the sanctuary on fire; but under the most pressing necessity. Yet did the seditious still more and more contradict them: and while they cast loud and bitter reproaches upon those deserters, they also set their engines for throwing of darts, and javelins, and stones, upon the sacred gates of the temple, at due distances from one another. Insomuch that all the space round about, within the temple, might be compared to a burying ground: so great was the number of the dead bodies therein. As might the holy house itself be compared to a citadel. Accordingly these men rushed upon these holy places in their armour, that were otherwise unapproachable: and that while their hands were yet warm with the blood of their own people, which they had shed. Nay they proceeded to such great transgressions, that the very same indignation which Jews would naturally have against Romans, had they been guilty of such abuses against them, the Romans now had against Jews, for their impiety in regard to their own religious customs. Nay indeed there were none of the Roman soldiers, who did not look with a sacred horror upon the holy house; and adored it; and wished that the robbers would repent, before their miseries became incurable.
4. Now Titus was deeply affected with this state of things, and reproached John, and his party, and said to them, “Have not you, Vile wretches that you are, by our permission put up this partition wall before your sanctuary? Have not you been allowed to put up the pillars thereto belonging, at due distances, and on it to engrave in Greek, and in your own letters this prohibition, that No foreigner should go beyond that wall? (9) Have not we given you leave to kill such as go beyond it, though he were a Roman? And what do you do now, You pernicious villains! Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple? And why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreigners, and Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of my own country; and to every god that ever had any regard to this place: (for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by any of them:) I also appeal to my own army; and to those Jews that are now with me, and even to your selves, that I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary. And if you will but change the place whereon you will fight, no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to it. Nay I will endeavour to preserve you your holy house, whether you will or not
Josehphus lays the zealots bare in a long exposition stating that God is not with them.
Wherefore I cannot but suppose that God is fled out of his sanctuary, and stands on the side of those against whom you fight. Now even a man, if he be but a good man, will fly from an impure house, and will hate those that are in it: and do you persuade your selves that God will abide with you in your iniquities; who sees all secret things; and hears what is kept most private? Now what crime is there, I pray you, that is so much as kept secret among you; or is concealed by you? Nay what is there that is not open to your very enemies? For you shew your transgressions after a pompous manner; and contend one with another which of you shall be more wicked than another: and you make a publick demonstration of your injustice; as if it were virtue. However, there is a place left for your preservation, if you be willing to accept of it: and God is easily reconciled to those that confess their faults, and repent of them. O hard-hearted wretches as you are! Cast away all your arms, and take pity of your country, already going to ruin, return from your wicked ways, and have regard to the excellency of that city you are going to betray; to that excellent temple, with the donations of so many countries in it. Who could bear to be the first that should set that temple on fire? Who could be willing that these things should be no more? And what is there that can better deserve to be preserved? O insensible creatures, and more stupid than are the stones themselves! And if you cannot look at these things with discerning eyes; yet, however, have pity upon your families; and set before every one of your eyes your children, and wives, and parents; who will be gradually consumed, either by famine, or by war. I am sensible that this danger will extend to my mother, and wife, and to that family of mine who have been by no means ignoble; and indeed to one that hath been very eminent in old time. And perhaps you may imagine that it is on their account only that I give you this advice. If that be all; kill them: nay take my own blood, as a reward, if it may but procure your preservation. For I am ready to die; in case you will but return to a sound mind after my death Wars 5.9.4
What is the abomination that makes desolation? It's the Jews themselves that bring upon the desolation of the Roman army. The ones inside the city, fighting each other, killing one another, desecrating the Temple. We will study Daniel's prophesy of the 70 weeks but Jesus referred to Daniel so we must make mention of that here.
Daniel 9:27, “Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end
to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate.” A covenant is confirmed that is already in
existence. Jesus, the Messiah would confirm that covenant. Most scholars rightly
argue that the final week of Daniel 9 begins with the baptism of Jesus, the anointing of the most
Holy One (Dan. 9:24). Christ ministered to the Jews for 3½ years, then in the middle of the week
“He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offerings” (Dan. 9:27). This statement has nothing to do
with a supposed (still future) antichrist that will break a covenant with the Jews. It refers to the
fact that Christ’s perfect sacrifice of Himself brought a complete end to the sacrificial system.
The religion of the early Roman soldier was not distinguishable from the religion of the average citizen, as Republican soldiers were recruits or conscripts who returned to civilian life after their tour of duty. By the time of the empire the legions had become a professional fighting force, the chief appendage of the ever-expansive Roman State. The religion of the imperial legions was therefore modeled on the State religion. In the imperial legions this took on a quasi-religious element which is perhaps unique even within paganism. The various cohorts within the legion held their own standards, and the legion itself, since the times of Marius, was represented by an eagle. The fearsome and elegant bird of pray was a perfect symbol of the legion's fighting prowess; more so it was the sacred sigil of Jupiter, King of the Gods and patron of the Roman State.
The Eagle was made of gold or silvergilt. It was mounted on a large pole with a tapered point at the end which could be thrust in the ground. On the pole beneath the eagle were imagines, medallions featuring portraits of the emperors. The legion's eagle, along with the cohort standards, were housed within a small shrine in the legion's headquarters. The first cohort of the legion and in particular the primus pilus was charged with guarding the eagle, though the day-to-day care was in the hands of the aquilifer. The aquila was considered sacred and oaths were sworn by it. The legion felt the aquila embodied their spirit and dignity; it was a kind of genius for the company of soldiers. The standards were utilized in various festivals and ceremonies, in particular the anniversary of a legion's founding. To lose the aquila was the ultimate disgrace, and battles were fought merely to regain lost aquila.
Gods of the State
Jupiter, Juno and Minerva were a holy trinity constituting the Capitoline Triad. These trio of gods had been the patron divinities of the Roman Republic for some five centuries, and the sheer weight of tradition continued into the empire even when the Republic was a distant memory. Jupiter the Best and the Greatest was held in particular esteem. He was considered the special protector of the Roman people. In Republican times he was the god of victorious generals. Votive inscriptions and offerings to Jupiter and his two feminine counterparts were quite common in military installations.
Mars, the ancient god of war and mythological father of the Roman people, was also a divinity near and dear to a soldier's heart. In imperial times Mars had been recast as the divine avenger of the Caesars, and troops marching to war from Rome would proceed from the temple of Mars.
Hercules, the demigod of strength and protection, was honored by some.
Needless to say the soldiers honored the imperial genius of past and present emperors.
In addition to these proper gods, a variety of personified divine traits were also honored. Victory, Discipline, Fortune, Honor, Piety, Virtue all had their cults. The city of Rome was also personified and worshipped alongside the imperial genius.
Josephus says that Titus and his generals entered the holy place of the Temple before fire engulfed the building:
And now, since Caesar [Titus] was no way able to restrain the enthusiastic fury of the soldiers, and the fire proceeded on more and more, he went into the holy place of the temple, with his commanders, and saw it, with what was in it, which he found to be far superior to what the relations of foreigners contained, and not inferior to what we ourselves boasted of and believed about it. But as the flame had not as yet reached to its inward parts, but was still consuming the rooms that were about the holy house[.]24
In the middle of Iyyar of A.D. 66, the Procurator Gessius Florus entered the holy city with the Roman army and killed 3,600 people in the Upper Marketplace of Jerusalem.21 This slaughter occurred just a couple days before the miraculous army was seen in the clouds on the 21st of Iyyar of A.D. 66. The next occasion was during the Feast of Tabernacles of A.D. 66 when Cestius briefly besieged Jerusalem with the 12th Legion before mysteriously departing shortly thereafter.22 The final time in which the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem during the Jewish War was in A.D. 70 just before the fall of the city under Caesar Titus.
As warned in Luke 21:20-21, the presence of the Roman army and its ensigns (the abomination that causes desolation) outside of Jerusalem in Iyyar of A.D. 66 under Florus and perhaps later in Tishri of A.D. 66 under Cestius was a sign to the Christians in Jerusalem to flee the city. The great slaughter at the Upper Marketplace upon Florus’ entry into Jerusalem in Iyyar of A.D. 66 was the reason Jesus urged His people to immediately flee to the mountains in Matthew 24:16-18.
The Coming of the Son of Man
Matthew adds... 26 “Therefore if they say to you, ‘Look, He is in the desert!’ do not go out; or ‘Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
First, we must make note of the Roman legion's use of an eagle as their symbol.
Signs, signs, and more signs
25“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Lightning is also used to describe God’s coming judgment upon Assyria. “Behold, the
name of Jehovah cometh from far, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke: his lips are
full of indignation, and his tongue is as a devouring fire...And Jehovah will cause his glorious
voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger,
and the flame of a devouring fire, with a blast, and tempest, and hailstones” (Isa. 30:27, 30
ASV). Such apocalyptic imagery is also found in Zechariah 9:14: “Then the Lord will be seen
over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and
go with whirlwinds from the south.”
Lightning and the judgment associated with it is also repeatedly found in the book of
Revelation. “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices” (4:5). After we
read a song celebrating God's power for deliverance and judgment the Holy Spirit says, “And
there was opened the temple of God that is in heaven; and there was seen in his temple the ark of
his covenant; and there followed lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and an earthquake, and
great hail” (11:19 ASV). After the seventh seal of God’s wrath is poured out we read, “And there
were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake...” (Rev. 16:18)
Jesus is using
apocalyptic imagery associated with the terror, judgment and destruction of a nation by God.
When the prophet Isaiah described the coming destruction of Babylon by the Medes he uttered
these prophetic words. “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light;
the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine” (Isa.
13:10). One of the central features of apocalyptic “day of the Lord” judgment imagery is that
God turns the lights out. God extinguishes the heavenly lights to show that a nation has been set
apart for darkness. God has decreed the death of that wicked nation. Isaiah adds, “Therefore I
will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts
and in the day of His fierce anger” (Isa. 13:13).
The imagery of cosmic convulsions is also applied to Edom. “All the host of heaven shall
be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; all their host shall fall down as the
leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree....For it is the day of the Lord's
vengeance” (Isa. 34:4, 8). “Once again, it is immaterial whether the literal stars will fall in the
day of God's judgment; the point is that even the mysterious, unchanging stars, the seeming
guarantors of the universe's perpetuity, are in the hands of the God of Jerusalem.” When Ezekiel writing under divine inspiration describes God’s destruction of Egypt he
says, “‘When I put out your light, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover
the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. All the bright lights of the heavens I
will make dark over you, and bring darkness upon your land,’ says the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 32:7-
8 http://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/matthew_24_and_the_great_tribulation.pdf
Peter says Joel is fulfilled in Acts "But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:... ‘I will
show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of
smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the
great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of
the Lord shall be saved’ (Ac. 2:16, 19-21; cf. Joel 2:30-31).”
Haggai said, “For thus says the Lord
of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and
I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the desire of all nations, and I will fill this temple
with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts” (Hag. 2:6-7). The author of Hebrews takes the Haggai
passage (2:6) and applies it directly to the desolation of the old covenant order and the receiving
of the new covenant expression of Christ’s kingdom. The inspired writer says that the old
ceremonial Levitical system has been surpassed and superseded by the perfect sacrifice of Christ.
The destruction of Jerusalem is a shaking of the heavens. The old order is dissolved and replace
by a kingdom that cannot be shaken (cf. Heb. 12:25-29).
Psalm 110:1 which our Lord
quoted to the Sanhedrin. “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your
enemies Your footstool.’ The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! ...The Lord is at Your right hand; He shall execute kings in the day of
His wrath. He shall judge among the nations, He shall fill the places with dead bodies, He shall
execute the heads of many countries” (Ps. 110:1-2, 5-6)
Coming on the Clouds
“The burden against Egypt. Behold, the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will
come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt
in its midst” (Isa. 19:1).
Psalm 104 says that
Jehovah makes “the clouds His chariot”
“Clouds and darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of
His throne. A fire goes before Him, and burns up His enemies round about” (Ps. 97:2-3). “The
LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has
His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet” (Nah. 1:3).
Chapter 8. The Signs which preceded the War.
1. Taking, then, the work of this author, read what he records in the sixth book of his History. His words are as follows: Thus were the miserable people won over at this time by the impostors and false prophets; but they did not heed nor give credit to the visions and signs that foretold the approaching desolation. On the contrary, as if struck by lightning, and as if possessing neither eyes nor understanding, they slighted the proclamations of God.
2. At one time a star, in form like a sword, stood over the city, and a comet, which lasted for a whole year; and again before the revolt and before the disturbances that led to the war, when the people were gathered for the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone about the altar and the temple that it seemed to be bright day; and this continued for half an hour. This seemed to the unskillful a good sign, but was interpreted by the sacred scribes as portending those events which very soon took place.
3. And at the same feast a cow, led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple.
4. And the eastern gate of the inner temple, which was of bronze and very massive, and which at evening was closed with difficulty by twenty men, and rested upon iron-bound beams, and had bars sunk deep in the ground, was seen at the sixth hour of the night to open of itself.
5. And not many days after the feast, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisium, a certain marvelous vision was seen which passes belief. The prodigy might seem fabulous were it not related by those who saw it, and were not the calamities which followed deserving of such signs. For before the setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen throughout the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the clouds and encircling the cities.
6. And at the feast which is called Pentecost, when the priests entered the temple at night, as was their custom, to perform the services, they said that at first they perceived a movement and a noise, and afterward a voice as of a great multitude, saying, 'Let us go hence.'
7. But what follows is still more terrible; for a certain Jesus, the son of Ananias, a common countryman, four years before the war, when the city was particularly prosperous and peaceful, came to the feast, at which it was customary for all to make tents at the temple to the honor of God, and suddenly began to cry out: 'A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.' Day and night he went through all the alleys crying thus.
8. But certain of the more distinguished citizens, vexed at the ominous cry, seized the man and beat him with many stripes. But without uttering a word in his own behalf, or saying anything in particular to those that were present, he continued to cry out in the same words as before.
9. And the rulers, thinking, as was true, that the man was moved by a higher power, brought him before the Roman governor. And then, though he was scourged to the bone, he neither made supplication nor shed tears, but, changing his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, he answered each stroke with the words, 'Woe, woe unto Jerusalem.'
10. The same historian records another fact still more wonderful than this. He says that a certain oracle was found in their sacred writings which declared that at that time a certain person should go forth from their country to rule the world. He himself understood that this was fulfilled in Vespasian.
11. But Vespasian did not rule the whole world, but only that part of it which was subject to the Romans. With better right could it be applied to Christ; to whom it was said by the Father,
Ask of me, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession.At that very time, indeed, the voice of his holy apostles
went throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
Gathering the Elect
Matthew 24 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His [d]elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The word angle there, angelos, often means messenger. In Revelation, I am certain he is John is referring to the messengers or ministers of each church as in many cases they too are caught up in admonishment. John the Baptist is referred to as angelos 3x. Jesus' disciples are referred to as
messengers in Luke 9:52. Paul uses the word angelos to describe the messenger of Satan that
came to buffet him. James calls the Jewish spies hidden by Rahab messengers (Ja. 2:25) It is the preachers that
have been given the task of gathering the elect from the four corners of the earth. They are
Christ’s messengers. The world-wide mission of preaching the gospel to all nations given to the
apostles at the great commission (Mt. 28:18) is empowered at Pentecost and then forever
separated from Judaism and the old covenant order at the destruction of Jerusalem
Isaiah 11 11
Isaiah 11 11
3 His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
6 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
7 The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.
10 “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”
11 It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the [d]islands of the sea.
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the [d]islands of the sea.
12 He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will [e]assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four [f]corners of the earth.
13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
And will [e]assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four [f]corners of the earth.
13 Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart,
And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
We are talking about a gathering together of Jew and Gentile through the preaching of the Gospel
“[H]e prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for
that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were
scattered abroad” (Jn. 11:51-52) Isaiah 27:12-13:
“And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will thresh, from the channel of the River to
the Brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be
in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; they will come, who are about to perish in the land
of Assyria, and they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt.” Note that this gathering is preceded
by the trumpet blast as in Matthew 24:31. The trumpet blast is a call to gather together
Zechariah 2 6 “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,” says the Lord. 7 “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.” 11 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. 12 And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven
and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations” (Mt. 28:18-19).
Brian Schwertly in Matthew 24 and the Great Tribulation writes "The purpose
of these passages is to show the disciples that the cost of discipleship is well worth it. The
suffering and humiliation of the saints will be vindicated by an awesome manifestation of the
glorified Savior’s power as the eschatological judge. “The kingdom with power” means that in
the destruction of the Jewish nation the Lord Jesus will openly manifest His power and glory as
the King of the nations who sits at the right hand of God. “The ordinary workings of the
kingdom are invisible, but in this judgment upon the Jews the royal rule of Jesus ‘in power’
would actually be seen as fulfilling what he now tells his hearers.”
Matthew Henry concurs,
Here is, I. A prediction of Christ’s kingdom now near approaching, Mk. 9:1. That which is
foretold, is, 1. That the kingdom of God would come, and would come so as to be seen: the
kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up in the world by the utter destruction of the Jewish polity,
which stood in the way of it; this was the restoring of the kingdom of God among men, which
had been in a manner lost by the woeful degeneracy both of Jews and Gentiles. 2. That it would
come with power, so as to make its own way, and bear down the opposition that was given to it.
It came with power, when vengeance was taken on the Jews for crucifying Christ, and when it
conquered the idolatry of the Gentile world. 3. That it would come while some now present
were alive; There are some standing here, that shall not taste of death, till they see it; this speaks
the same with Mt 24:34, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Those
that were standing here with Christ, should see it, when the others could not discern it to be the
kingdom of God, for it came not with observation.
21
In addition, this interpretation is supported by Matthew 26:63-64. “And the high priest
answered and said to Him, ‘I put you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ,
the Son of God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you
will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven"
After identifying Himself as the Christ, the Son of God our Lord applies Psalm 110:1
and Daniel 7:13-14 directly to Himself. The phrase “you will see” is not a reference to the
second coming and final judgment, but a reference to Jesus' manifestation of power in the
destruction Jerusalem and the Jewish nation. This point is evident from the phrase “coming on
the clouds” which in Scripture symbolizes divine judgment (cf. Ps. 104:3; Isa. 19:1; Nah. 1:3;
Mt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7) and the word “hereafter” which is equivalent to “soon.” Jesus in essence is
telling the high priest and his accomplices that “Yes, I am the Messiah, however, you will not see
the power you expect in this office until I am glorified and exhibit My power by destroying you
and your unbelieving comrades.”
Another passage that speaks of Christ coming in the first century is John 21:21-22.
“Peter, seeing him [the apostle John] said to Jesus, ‘But Lord, what about this man?’ Jesus said
to him, ‘If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?’” The “coming” in this passage
cannot refer to Pentecost for both Peter and John were still alive. Nor can it refer to the second
bodily coming of Christ for both apostles have already died. The only logical alternative is that
Jesus promised “the preservation of John’s life until the great judgment in the fall of
Jerusalem.”22 It is a fact of history that all the apostles died before the destruction of Jerusalem
(A.D. 70) except the apostle John. Hengstenberg writes,
The coming of Jesus could not have had an individual meaning in relation to John; not the
coming to take him in the hour of death, ch. xiv. 3, for in this sense the Lord came even to Peter.
But we must find a sense in which John remained, and Peter did not, until Christ came. If the
coming was one of universal import, we must needs think at once of the Lord’s coming in
judgment upon Jerusalem, concerning which He had said, Matt. xvi. 28, ‘Verily I say unto you,
there be some standing her who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of man coming in
His kingdom:’ comp. Mark ix. 1; Matt. xiv. 34, which teaches that that generation was not to
pass before the sign of the Son of man would be seen in heaven. Peter fulfilled his course in
martyrdom some few years before that catastrophe: John, on the other hand, survived that great
and solemn coming of Jesus.” http://www.reformedonline.com/uploads/1/5/0/3/15030584/matthew_24_and_the_great_tribulation.pdf
Because the Jewish people had the oracles of God (Rom. 3:2) and were in covenant with Jehovah
(Ex. 19:8), they had a much greater responsibility to believe in, love and serve the Son of God.
To reject Jesus would be the final straw in their rebellion. Luke writes, “Now as He drew near,
He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known, even you, especially in this your
day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will
come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and
close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they
will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your
visitation’” (Lk. 19:41-44). The Jews could commit no greater crime than murdering the Prince
of life (Ac. 3:15). Although the Jewish leaders held the chief responsibility in delivering up the
Messiah unto death (cf. Jn. 19:11), the people were also guilty. At our Lord's trial “all the people
answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children’” (Mt. 27:25). Thus on the way to the
cross Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for
your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren,
wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the
mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’” (Lk 23:28-30).
The gospels carefully documented the covenant nation's rejection, hatred and persecution
of Christ
Roman army surrounded Jerusalem, built embankments and a wall around Jerusalem to trap the inhabitants inside and laid siege to the city. The Romans eventually broke through the fortified walls and a great slaughter began. After Jerusalem had been secured, “Caesar gave orders that they should . . . demolish the entire city and temple.”2 On the ninth day of Av, the temple was destroyed on exactly the same day it had been destroyed by the Babylonians six and a half centuries earlier.3 The rest of Jerusalem suffered a similar fate. With the exception of the western wall and a few towers, the city was burned and the walls were torn down to the foundation. Jerusalem was so thoroughly ruined that according to Josephus, an eyewitness of the war, “there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.”4
Josephus’ account of the Jewish War opens with the following:
Whereas the war which the Jews made with the Romans hath been the greatest of all those, not only that have been in our times, but, in a manner, of those that ever were heard of; both of those wherein cities have fought against cities, or nations against nations.
“Accordingly, the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world.”29 “[N]either, did any other city ever suffer such miseries . . . from the beginning of the world.”
..but the entire nation was now shut up by fate as in a prison, and the Roman army compassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitant. Accordingly the multitude of those that therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either men or God ever brought upon the world… Wars 6:9:428ff.
Accordingly, it appears to me, that the misfortunes of all men from the beginning of the world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so considerable as they were.. Wars Preface:12
THIS GENERATION WILL NOT PASS TILL ALL THESE THINGS ARE FULFILLED. We have already touched on this but truly, this is the linch pin that messes up all future fulfillments of these prophesies.
word generation (genea) in the gospels always refers to a specific generation living
at the same period of time The Greek Thayer discusses the classical Greek
usage of genea he writes, “the whole multitude of men living at the same time: “Of the 43 references to genea in the NT, 33 are in the Synoptic, where
the word refers in 25 of its occurrences to the Jewish people in the time of Jesus, 17 times in the
expression ‘this generation.’” In other words every time the expression “this generation”
occurs in the synoptic gospels it refers to the Jewish people living in the time of Jesus
Robert H. Gundry writes, “[T]he combinations of ‘you’ and ‘this’ in Mark 13:29-30 (note
esp. the emphatic umeis in v. 29) makes a reference to Jesus’ contemporaries much more
natural. We might therefore restrict ‘these things...all these things’to the destruction of
the Temple, which, occurring in A.D. 70, did fall within the lifetime of Jesus’
contemporaries. Support for this restriction comes from the appearance of ‘these
things...all these things’ in the question of the disciples, who, so far as we can tell from
the text, had in mind only the destruction of the Temple, which Jesus had just
predicted.
Throughout the discourse, our Lord looked the disciples in the
eye and use the personal pronoun “you” 26 times. In the illustration of the fig tree Jesus said, “So
you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-at the doors” (Mt. 24:33)! “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things
will come upon this generation” (Mt. 23:36). He then added, “See! Your house is left to you
desolate” (23:38). Then when Jesus and the disciples left the temple area and the disciples
pointed out the magnificence of the buildings, Christ said “Do you not see all these things”
(24:2). This statement is immediately followed by a prophecy of the destruction of the temple
complex.
Eucebius could clearly see what any rational person can see. Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Temple, the Wars and Rumors of Wars, the famines, everything.
1. It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction of our Saviour in which he foretold these very events.
2. His words are as follows:
Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
3. The historian, reckoning the whole number of the slain, says that eleven hundred thousand persons perished by famine and sword, and that the rest of the rioters and robbers, being betrayed by each other after the taking of the city, were slain. But the tallest of the youths and those that were distinguished for beauty were preserved for the triumph. Of the rest of the multitude, those that were over seventeen years of age were sent as prisoners to labor in the works of Egypt, while still more were scattered through the provinces to meet their death in the theaters by the sword and by beasts. Those under seventeen years of age were carried away to be sold as slaves, and of these alone the number reached ninety thousand.
4. These things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, in accordance with the prophecies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power saw them beforehand as if they were already present, and wept and mourned according to the statement of the holy evangelists, who give the very words which he uttered, when, as if addressing Jerusalem herself, he said:
5.
If you had known, even you, in this day, the things which belong unto your peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a rampart about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side, and shall lay you and your children even with the ground.
6. And then, as if speaking concerning the people, he says,
For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.And again:
When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is near.
7. If any one compares the words of our Saviour with the other accounts of the historian concerning the whole war, how can one fail to wonder, and to admit that the foreknowledge and the prophecy of our Saviour were truly divine and marvellously strange.
8. Concerning those calamities, then, that befell the whole Jewish nation after the Saviour's passion and after the words which the multitude of the Jews uttered, when they begged the release of the robber and murderer, but besought that the Prince of Life should be taken from their midst, it is not necessary to add anything to the account of the historian.
9. But it may be proper to mention also those events which exhibited the graciousness of that all-good Providence which held back their destruction full forty years after their crime against Christ — during which time many of the apostles and disciples, and James himself the first bishop there, the one who is called the brother of the Lord, were still alive, and dwelling in Jerusalem itself, remained the surest bulwark of the place. Divine Providence thus still proved itself long-suffering toward them in order to see whether by repentance for what they had done they might obtain pardon and salvation; and in addition to such long-suffering, Providence also furnished wonderful signs of the things which were about to happen to them if they did not repent.
10. Since these matters have been thought worthy of mention by the historian already cited, we cannot do better than to recount them for the benefit of the readers of this work.
Now, I hoped I would make it to this very part...
THE CHRISTIANS THAT FLED TO PELLA... ST. EPIPHANIUS
15. So Aquila, while he was in Jerusalem, also saw the disciples 136of the disciples136 of the apostles flourishing in the faith and working |31 great signs, healings, and other miracles. For they were such as had come back from the city of Pella to Jerusalem and were 137living there and137 teaching. For when the city was about to be taken 137and destroyed137 by the Romans, it was revealed in advance to all the disciples by an angel of God that they should remove from the city, as it was going to be completely destroyed. They sojourned as emigrants in Pella, the city above mentioned, {55a} in Transjordania. And this city is said to be of the Decapolis. But after the destruction of Jerusalem, when they had returned 138to Jerusalem,138 as I have said, they wrought great signs, 138as I have already said.138
See this link for a detailed account of Early Church history
(and ST. EPIPHANIUS
goes on to tell a story about a wayward Christian which I find historically interesting and so I leave it here... it has nothing to do with the topic at hand but shows the day to day in Christianity) So Aquila, after he had been strongly stirred in mind, believed in Christianity, and after a while, when he asked, he received the seal in Christ.139 But according to his former habit,140 while yet thinking the things of the heathen, he had been thoroughly trained in vain astronomy, so that also after he became a Christian he never departed from this fault of his, but every day he made calculations on the horoscope of his birth. He was reproved by the teachers, and they rebuked him for this 141every day141 but did not accomplish anything. But instead of standing rebuked, he became bold in disputation and tried to establish things that have no existence, tales about fate. Hence, as one who proved useless and could not be saved, he was expelled from {55b} the church. But as one who had become embittered in mind over how he had suffered dishonor, he was puffed up with vain jealousy, and having cursed142 Christianity and renounced his life he became a proselyte143 and was circumcised as a Jew. And, being painfully ambitious, he dedicated himself to learning the language of the Hebrews and their writings. After he had first been thoroughly trained for it, he made his translation. He was moved not by the right motive, but (by the desire) so to distort certain of the words occurring in the translation of the seventy-two that he might proclaim the things testified to about Christ in the divine Scriptures |32 to be fulfilled in some other way, on account of a certain shame that he felt (to proffer) a senseless excuse for himself.
See this link for a detailed account of Early Church history
Church History (Book III)
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm(and ST. EPIPHANIUS
goes on to tell a story about a wayward Christian which I find historically interesting and so I leave it here... it has nothing to do with the topic at hand but shows the day to day in Christianity) So Aquila, after he had been strongly stirred in mind, believed in Christianity, and after a while, when he asked, he received the seal in Christ.139 But according to his former habit,140 while yet thinking the things of the heathen, he had been thoroughly trained in vain astronomy, so that also after he became a Christian he never departed from this fault of his, but every day he made calculations on the horoscope of his birth. He was reproved by the teachers, and they rebuked him for this 141every day141 but did not accomplish anything. But instead of standing rebuked, he became bold in disputation and tried to establish things that have no existence, tales about fate. Hence, as one who proved useless and could not be saved, he was expelled from {55b} the church. But as one who had become embittered in mind over how he had suffered dishonor, he was puffed up with vain jealousy, and having cursed142 Christianity and renounced his life he became a proselyte143 and was circumcised as a Jew. And, being painfully ambitious, he dedicated himself to learning the language of the Hebrews and their writings. After he had first been thoroughly trained for it, he made his translation. He was moved not by the right motive, but (by the desire) so to distort certain of the words occurring in the translation of the seventy-two that he might proclaim the things testified to about Christ in the divine Scriptures |32 to be fulfilled in some other way, on account of a certain shame that he felt (to proffer) a senseless excuse for himself.
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