Josephus and the Prophetic Fall of Jerusalem

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. [00:00:07]

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. [00:01:32]

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. [00:04:14]

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. [00:05:27]

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. [00:10:16]

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. [00:12:01]

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. [00:13:11]

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. [00:14:42]

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. [00:15:29]

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. [00:24:16]

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.'" [00:25:07]

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. [00:26:18]