Were the words of Jesus fulfilled as these early Christians believed??
Again, this is taken from Eusebius's History of the Church written appro. 300 A.D. Eusebius received the information about the destruction of Jerusalem from the Jewish historian Josephus's eyewitness account of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.
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Chapter VII. The Predictions of Christ.
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:82 "Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in
those days! But pray ye 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,83 and that the rest of the rioters and robbers, being
betrayed by each other after the taking of the city, were slain.84 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,85 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.86
4 These things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian,87 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 be uttered, when, as if
addressing Jerusalem herself, he said:88
5 "If thou hadst known, even thou, in this day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now
they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a
rampart about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee
and thy children even with the ground."
6 And then, as if speaking concerning the people, he says,89 "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:90 "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed
with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh."
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.91
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,92 it is not necessary to add anything to the 9 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,93 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.
Chapter VIII. 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:94 "Thus were the miserable people won over at this time by the
impostors and false prophets;95 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,96 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,97 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.'98
7 But what follows is still more7 terrible; for a certain Jesus, the son of Ananias, a common
countryman, four years before the war,99 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,100 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 8 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.101 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 says102 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 11 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 thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for
thy possession."103 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."104 |
