Matthew 24: Controversial And Misunderstood Prophetical Atrocity
Posted: Thursday, March 20, 2008
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? (Matthew 24:1-3)
First, let's see what prompted the questions posed by the apostles in the verses listed above. The Jewish Temple was an enormous architectural marvel. It was built by Herod the Great beginning in the 18 th year of his reign. His motive for building it was to gain favor with the Jews and thereby keep peace. The entire temple area covered about 35 acres. The outer plaza was the size of 20 football fields. It was 46 years in construction. This, the second, temple was completed in 515 B.C. and destroyed by the Romans in 70.A.D. Some have ventured that, had it not been destroyed, it would now be the eighth wonder of the world.
In order for us to fully understand the situation, we must understand some of the history of Jerusalem, what it meant to the Jews, and to Jesus. It is one of the oldest cities in recorded history, going back into the fourth millennia B.C. It was the national and religious center for the Israelites after King David conquered and took it from the Jebusites in 1048 B.C. David had his own magnificent palace here and reigned over Israel from this place. He desired to build a temple to God here but God refused to allow it because he had shed much blood. (1 Chronicles 22:8). Rather, He directed that David's son, Solomon, would build it during his reign. It was designed by God Himself and meticulously built according to His detailed instructions. Solomon completed the building of the temple in 1004 B.C. and it was destroyed by the Babylonians during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C It is difficult to put into words, the depth of feelings the Jews held for Jerusalem and the temple. They took exceedingly great pride in being children of Abraham, being ruled by David and of the temple of God. For this reason, the Jews held extreme resentment towards those who destroyed their Holy city and temple.
What makes this chapter so important is the prophetic accuracy of it. The words of Jesus were uttered almost forty years prior to their fulfillment and the inspired writer Matthew, was slain in Ethiopia ten years prior to the temple's and city's destruction. Yet, as unlikely as the prophecy was to be exactly fulfilled as foretold, it was so. Note in verse 3 of the above, Jesus made the astounding remark that there would be not one stone left upon another. Keeping in mind in that day, there were no heavy equipment or massive explosions that could have done such terrible destruction as Jesus foretold. According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, the temple was built of green and white hewn marble stones measuring 67 feet X 5 feet X 6 feet! Soldiers intent upon destroying the temple, without some ulterior motive, would have, of a certainty, left some upon the other. But they did not…even the ones for foundation, under ground, were dug up and moved. The quote below explains why.
Thus, the Roman plunder could well have been worth tens of millions of dollars. The pillaging of the temple, its total destruction and the burning of Jerusalem with terrible suffering and loss of life occurred in 70 AD under the Roman General Titus (Josephus, Wars of the Jews). Tradition has it that the intense flames of the temple fire melted the gold and silver of the temple so that it ran between the cracks of the rocks. Roman soldiers then totally dismantled the temple stone by stone to extract the gold, (see Matthew 24:1-2). No one seems to know with certainty if any of the vessels or sacred objects from Herod's temple were hidden in subterranean passageways during the long siege of Titus. Most everything of value was most likely carried off to Rome. (Lambert Dolphin, Treasures Of The House of The Lord. [www.templemount.org]).
So if we resolve nothing more about the chapter, the precisely fulfilled prophecy is enough to strengthen one's faith. But let's examine just what was going on to cause the 3 questions to be asked and what the inferences of them were. Keeping in mind, at this time, full knowledge of the resurrection after death was not fully known. The Pharisees believed there would be, the Sadducees did not.
One fact we should establish before we go further. Of the many prophecies in the Old Testament foretelling the coming of the messiah, none specifically makes it clear that the kingdom that would come into being, was not to be a literal earthly kingdom. Therefore, this is the reason the majority of the Jews rejected Jesus as being the messiah. They were well versed in the Old Testament scriptures yet very few, if any, expected the prophecies to indicate a spiritual kingdom to be established. Even His very apostles, thought that He would establish a physical kingdom until the Holy Spirit came upon them and put understanding in their hearts (Acts 2) But after the entire life of Jesus and the fulfillment of every one of those prophecies, it has become very clear that this was the intent of them.
The reader would be aided in understanding by reading chapter 23, preceding our subject chapter, which records a brief discourse by Jesus, rebuking those Jews who had not believed His teaching, and describing the coming destruction of Jerusalem to his disciples and the huge crowd gathered in the temple's outer court. So this short sermon had aroused His disciples curiosities, even before the statement he made in chapter 24:2. Now, the apostles here, Peter, Andrew, James and John, (their names given in Mark's 13:3 parallel account) having not yet received the Holy Spirit's guidance, were seeking enlightenment from Jesus as to what He was referring. Their minds still feeling that all this would occur at the time of His return to set up His earthly kingdom. So, the rest of the chapter 24 is Christ's explanation and warning to them of the coming destruction.
There are, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, many occurrences which are referred to as "types" and "antitypes" (examples: Moses/Christ, Noah's Ark/Lord's church). The destruction of Jerusalem and the Judgement day are one of those. In the figurative sense, Jesus returned taking vengeance upon the Jewish nation which had fallen into idolatry, hypocrisy and pride (as chapter 23 shows plainly) which was a type of his literal return;
"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
Verses following verse 3 and through 34 are primarily concerned with the period of time between their conversation, through the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, however, certain of those verses are spoken in language which compare the two events, and in some cases using hyperbole to signify the severity of this period. Verse 34 is definitely referring only to that singular event in about 38 years (A.D.70), and ends His discussion of it. The verses following 34 are speaking only of the second and final coming of Jesus when he shall receive those who have been obedient and shall cast those who have been disobedient into outer darkness.
It was a normal procedure of warfare for an army to encircle a city and put it under "siege". This similar to today's tactics of a naval blockade, and was to cut off supplies to the city and to keep people from leaving. Thereby they were able to "starve" them into submission or to frighten them into it. It is amazing fulfillment of Jesus prophetic warning that the following information was written by the Jewish historian, Josephus:
The abomination of desolation is usually held to mean the encirclement of the Holy City by the Roman armies prior to its destruction. That the Christian might have the opportunity to flee after such a deployment as that might have appeared impossible, due to the encircling armies; but the army of Titus, commanded by Cestius Gallus, for some inexplicable reason, lifted the siege, providing the Christians a chance to escape. In Book II of his Wars, section 24, Josephus said, "For Cestius removed his army, and having received no loss, very unadvisedly departed from the city." (www.searchgodsword.org)
Secular history also reported that no Christians were known to have been killed in this massive slaughter and destruction. Historian Josephus also reported that 1,100,000 Jews were killed in this horrible fight and it is regarded as one of the most vicious and devastating battles of history. He also reported that Titus refused to accept a customary victory wreath, saying, "there is no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God"
Concerning verse 21 in chapter 24, here is a comment by bible scholar Burton Coffman (5-24-1905--6-30-2006) whose commentary on the whole bible is well known and recognized by many theology students.
That such a calamity did befall Jerusalem is a matter of historical record. Josephus gave the tally lists of the thousands slain in various cities and villages and places the number slaughtered at the fantastic total of ELEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND! This was more than four times the loss of life when the nuclear device destroyed Hiroshima! True, some scholars question Josephus' statistical accuracy, but added to his testimony is this word from Jesus; and this writer rejects the view that Josephus, a Jewish historian, would have falsified a record in order to confirm what Christ had prophesied. One may set aside Josephus, but who would dare to set aside the Saviour's prophecy? Particularly pathetic was the wretched plight of 30,000 young Hebrew men crucified upon the walls and in the vicinity of Jerusalem, so many, according to Josephus, that all the green trees in the area were cut down to make crosses, and all the lumber stores exhausted. The cry, "His blood be upon us and our children," received an awful retribution in kind and a terrible fulfillment in such a demonic atrocity. (ibid)
Throughout biblical history, God has tolerated sinfulness only so far, and even that because of some righteous followers. But after near complete abandonment of Him and His word has allowed nations to be overrun and destroyed.
This Article has been viewed 478 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Thanks, Mr Hendon, for sharing. Now I need to go read it all in context. Do you enjoy fiction? If so, I think you would like the the trilogy by Randall Ingermanson starting with Transgression. Randy is a Christian physicist and used to give away his books on his website. Happy Easter!Thanks L.M., for your comments. I used to read fiction ferociously. but since my retirement in 1997, I have probably averaged 50-60 hours per week reading and researching the bible and its history, and all those related branches of information. I have read a number of good books during that time but none fiction, other than those promoting evolution and man-caused global warming. :o). I will check out Ingermanson's site and see.
hi joel, this was a very well written article. it shows you put a lot of time and effort into it. thanks for sharing with us, best regards, sue thomThank you Susan, I appreciate your encouragement very much. Joel
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.