I think that one of the most fascinating chapters
in all of church history is, of course, the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. And we don't have a biblical record of that
very, very important moment that took place in AD 70. But what we do have is a fascinating blow-by-blow
eyewitness account of the siege of Jerusalem and all of the things that transpired in its
destruction written for us by the famous Jewish historian Josephus. Now, one of the things that surprises me,
is how few Christians have ever taken the time to read the history of these events that
was compiled by Josephus. And every person that I've known who has taken
the time to read his Jewish wars has remarked that they were absolutely enwrapped by the
reading of this history, because it was so fascinating. So what I want to do in our session today,
is look briefly at some of the main points of the report that comes down to us from history,
from the pen of Flavius Josephus. Josephus was born in AD 37 during the reign
of the emperor Caligula, and we don't know the exact year of his death, but we know it
was after the year AD 100. We also know that Josephus was born into a
priestly family of the Jews, but, when he grew up he became not a priest, but a member
of the party of the Pharisees. And he distinguished himself in his earlier
years as a governor, a territorial governor of Galilee. He also was known as a military strategist,
and was -- served as a general in the Jewish army. We know of course that he also was a historian,
and he functioned during the siege of Jerusalem as a go-between between the Roman armies and
the officials that were holding out in Jerusalem. And how that came to pass we'll look at in
just a moment. But in the nineteenth century the historical
reliability of Josephus came under strong attack by critical scholars of the liberal
school. Traditionally Josephus has been one of the
most respected historians of antiquity, but the nineteenth century critics accused him
of exaggeration of details and of being engaged in a kind of self-aggrandizement in his own
writings in which he was said to be tooting his own horn. However, part of that is related to the general
spirit of criticism towards ancient writers, and though we're not sure of the exact detailed
accuracy of all things that Josephus reports to us, at least we have the benefit of an
eyewitness who was a well-known writer of his day and who was in a unique position to
report on both sides of the conflict. And so that the writings that he has provided
for us are of extreme importance to try to understand the significance of what took place
in the year AD 70. Now Josephus was very conversant with the
writings of the Old Testament prophets, and he himself saw the destruction of Jerusalem
in terms of fulfilling Old Testament prophecy. In fact, there are some of the aspects of
Josephus' own writings where one might say that he fancied himself something of a prophet. But if one were not even interested in the
religious significance of what happened in Jerusalem in those days just to get an insight
into Roman military strength, weaponry, tactics, and strategy, the writings of Josephus are
a treasury in that regard. He gives these detailed descriptions, for
example, of the battering ram and how it was used, the catapult and other forms of weaponry
that the Romans perfected in the ancient world and used to be quite successful in their military
conquests. Now, the destruction of Jerusalem did not
happen overnight. It began earlier with the invasion of Palestine
by the Romans in the late 60's under the leadership of one of their greatest generals whose name
was Vespatian. Now, in the year AD 68 was the year in which
the emperor Nero died, and upon the death of Nero there was a tremendous period of internal
conflict, indeed civil war that went on in Rome, and there was a rapid succession of
emperors to ascend to the throne after the death of Nero. Immediately succeeding Nero was a man by the
name of Galba who only lasted a few months until he was murdered, and then Galba was
replaced by Otho, and again Otho lasted just a short time; in the year 69 he was murdered. And then he was succeeded by Vitellius. And Vitellius was selected by the senate of
Rome to be the emperor in the line of succession. But the military at this time rejected Vitellius
and they called Vespatian, their favorite general, to come home from his invasion of
Palestine in order to become the emperor. And so Vespatian did. He left the battlefield, went back and was
acclaimed the emperor of Rome, and he brought some stability now once again to the Roman
empire, and he reigned as emperor from the year AD 69 to the year AD 79, after which
he was succeeded by his son Titus. Now, when he left the battlefield after the
initial stages of the invasion of Palestine and was recalled to Rome, Vespatian then turned
the authority of the invasion over to his son, Titus. So it was Titus who presided over the conquest
of Jerusalem. But what happened was when the Romans invaded
they came into Palestine and systematically besieged and conquered town after town after
town and village after village as they made their way to the chief citadel of Jewish strength,
which was, of course, in Jerusalem. Now, one of the key earlier conflicts in the
invasion while Vespatian was still in command was the conquest of the city of Jotapata,
which was in the northern part of the country, and it was governed by the general Josephus. And according to Josephus' records, over 40,000
of his compatriots were slaughtered in the wholesale destruction of Jotapata, and part
of this was due to the fierce resistance that his soldiers and people put up against the
Roman invasion, and this is an aspect of the history that's extremely fascinating. Reads like a novel, because obviously the
Jews in this small city were no match whatsoever for the invading Roman army, but that he used
all kinds of ingenious and creative tactics to repel the invaders, and at the end there
were only one or two survivors from the whole city, one of whom was Josephus who was hiding
like in a well or in a pit, and he was betrayed to the enemies and it was assumed that he
would be summarily executed, but according at least to Josephus' own testimony he was
spared by Vespatian because Vespatian had such high regard and respect for the valor
that Josephus had shown in the defense of Jotapata. So what happened now was that Josephus in
a sense was taken hostage. He was taken captive by Vespatian, and he
was more or less in house arrest in the quarters of Vespatian himself. Now, this raised all kinds of questions to
future generations because now that Josephus was spared many considered him something of
a traitor or collaborator with the Romans because he was interrogated constantly by
Vespatian and his lieutenants. But the thing that comes through the writings
of Josephus is Josephus had an unbridled passion and love and affection for Jerusalem. He was the consummate Jew. He loved the Holy City. And the last thing that he wanted to see happen
was its destruction, and not to mention the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. And so Vespatian first, until he was called
back to Rome and then later Titus, used Josephus as a negotiator, as a mediator, that under
a flag of truce he would send Josephus into the city to talk to the elders who were holding
out when Jerusalem was under siege, and this siege lasted for a long, long time. And Josephus tried everything he knew how
to persuade the leaders in the city to surrender, because he was convinced that there was no
way that the garrison there in Jerusalem would be able to withstand the ongoing siege of
the Romans. And he would rather see the town being surrendered
and at the same time he's pleading with Titus to spare the temple and spare the city if
the soldiers that were garrisoned there in Jerusalem would surrender. So Josephus devoted himself to that task of
trying to negotiate a surrender, and for that reason some of the Jews believed that he was
being a traitor, because he, as a Jew, was calling for the surrender of the Holy City,
but his motivation, obviously, was to preserve the temple and the city from the destruction
that did, of course, ensue. Now, again also in his writings and describing
the events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem Josephus saw the hand of providence
in this whole catastrophe. And he was warning his own people that they
were about to come under the judgment of God. Now, that's fascinating in light of the way
we've been approaching these questions about the timeframe references of the Olivet Discourse,
because I have argued the point that the end of the age of which Jesus speaks in the Olivet
Discourse refers not to the end of the world but to the end of the Jewish age, and He was
warning the people of His generation of the impending certain coming judgment of God against
Jerusalem and against the temple. And from a Jewish perspective Josephus was
making the same kind of warning to his people looking to Old Testament passages and from
the prophets of the Old Testament to warn the people that this was the promised judgment
of -- against the ungodliness of that generation. And it's also significant as you read this
and look at some of the details that when Jesus spoke about that particular generation
of Israelites He spoke of them as being wicked to an unprecedented degree. And Josephus makes the same evaluation against
his contemporaries saying that they were the most wicked of all. Now, I would like to take some time to look
at some of the specific prophecies or statements and descriptions that came out of Josephus'
writings, and not only those of Josephus but also from the Roman historian Tacitus, and
Tacitus in many cases confirms from the Roman perspective the accounts that are preserved
for us by Josephus. Now, one of the strange reports in this account
is found in Book V of Josephus 'Jewish Wars,' and it has to do with the attack on the walls
of Jerusalem that took place through the use of stones, great big huge white stones that
were pushed out of the catapult and the engines, that were then hurled into the walls and the
walls were so thick that they were able to withstand this assault of huge boulders being
thrown against it as well as the battering rams for a long, long time. Now again, as a footnote to this we remember
that the walls of the temple were made of what is now called by historians 'Herodian
stone.' This was the Herodian temple and the stones,
the individual stones, that made up that temple were absolutely huge. They were massive in size. If you would take a look at your living room
and look at your whole wall in terms of its width and height and imagine that as one stone
in a wall about four to six feet deep and thick, then you get an idea of these massive
stones that were used for the construction of the walls of Jerusalem and of the temple. And so it's not surprising that these walls
stood so firm against the attacks of the Romans. Now, of course, these stones that were hurled
by the engines were not only hurled against the walls but they were also hurled over the
walls and there they did inflict considerable damage on the structures within the city and
even many casualties of people who were wounded or killed by these stones. Now, in the fascinating barrage of stones
that came as the description of Josephus as hail stones, they were white rocks Josephus
gives this record. He said that the Jews at first watched the
coming of the stones, for they were of a white color, and could therefore could not only
be perceived by the great noises they made, but they could be seen before they landed
by their brightness. Accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the
towers gave them notice when the engine was let go and a stone came from it and cried
out aloud as a warning to those who were there, "The stone cometh." It's a simple warning -- the stone cometh. "So those that were in its way stood up and
threw themselves down upon the ground by which means and by thus guarding themselves, the
stone fell and did them no harm." Now, one scholar uncovered that there is a
variant in the translation of this record and that certain manuscripts read instead
of the words "The stone cometh," that the words that were used were "The Son cometh." Not S-U-N, but S-O-N. And there were those who believed that this
related to a tradition that had developed from earlier times according to one historian
that the apostle James who was Christ's brother publicly testified in the temple, quote, "That
the Son of Man was about to come in clouds of heaven. And he sealed this testimony with his own
blood." "It seems highly probable" one historian writes,
"that the Jews in their defiant and desperate blasphemy when they saw this white mass hurtling
through the air raised the cry, 'The Son is coming' in mockery of the Christians who had
predicted the return of Jesus." So, you can take that for what it's worth,
there's certainly controversy about it. But, in addition to these details Josephus
tells us of a severe famine that befell the inhabitants in which many people died in Jerusalem
by starvation because of the protracted siege. If you've ever been to Palestine perhaps you've
visited the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives was called the Mount of Olives where
the Garden of Gethsemane was, which is the Garden of the olive press where Jesus went
for His agony of prayer the night in which He was betrayed. That that whole slope across the valley from
Jerusalem just on the other side of Bethany was a huge dense forest of these huge and
massive olive trees that would go to be three or four hundred years old. If you go over there today you won't see a
single olive tree on the Mount of Olives, and that's because during the siege that lasted
so long the Romans systematically cut down every single tree on that hillside and used
the wood for firewood to keep warm. And so that's another one of the details that
we learn from Josephus' account. But of course when the famine became so severe
people actually resorted to cannibalism, and Josephus tells the story of one woman who
was nursing her baby and she at the point of great starvation she roasted her own baby
and ate it, and it was that kind of thing that he recorded as part of the atrocities
that took place. But again perhaps the most difficult problem
we have faced already with the Olivet Discourse and its application to the destruction of
Jerusalem were the predictions of Jesus with respect to signs in the sky, astronomical
perturbations. And one of the fascinating parts of the historical
record of what took place are found both in the writings of Josephus as well as the writings
of Tacitus. Tacitus tells us, for example, that there
were signs that occurred in the sky with respect to a comet that had occurred earlier. In around the year AD 60 during the reign
of Nero a comet was observed for some period of time in the sky, and to the public at that
time they saw this as an omen, as an omen of a radical change that would soon take place
in the political scene. Tacitus says, quote, "As if Nero were already
dethroned men began to ask who might be his successor." And Nero took the comet's threat seriously. He took no chances as Suetonius also related. "All children of condemned men were banished
from Rome and starved to death or poisoned under Nero, and Nero survived the comet by
several years." And then Halley's Comet appeared in AD 66
after which Nero committed suicide. And many historians have linked that appearance
of Halley's Comet to the suicide of Nero. Now, perhaps the strangest record of all that
comes to us from the pen of Josephus is in a paragraph that I'll conclude this series
-- or this section with, by reading it to you, because it is so extraordinary. Josephus writes these words: "Besides these
things [referring to the comets and so on] a few days after that feast on the first and
twentieth day of the month of Artemisius, a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon
appeared. I suppose the account of it would seem to
be a fable were it not related by those who saw it and were not the events that followed
it of so considerable in nature as to deserve such signals. For before the setting of the sun chariots
and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the clouds and surrounding
the cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost
as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple as their custom
was to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that in the first place they felt
a quaking, and they heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound of a great multitude
saying, quote, 'Let us remove hence.'" Now, what Josephus reports there follows almost
an identical pattern of what the prophet Elisha experienced at Dothan when his servant's eyes
were opened and saw all the myriads of angels and the chariots of fire round about Elisha. And the judgments in Ezekiel and so on of
the departure of the Holy Spirit from the city of Jerusalem and the judgment words of
God, 'Ichabod,' of leaving. "We are departing." And what I find fascinating about this brief
report of Josephus is his own obvious reticence to report it, because he senses that it is
so extraordinary that people will think he's nuts for telling this story. But as he says, he was compelled to tell it
for two reasons. One, because so many people bore witness to
it, and two, because it was consistent with the seriousness of this historical moment. And so he sees in the fall of Jerusalem and
in the destruction of the temple a divine act of vengeance on His own people.
