Fall of Jerusalem
Necropolis
Josephus, Jewish War 6:1-8/i.I
For twenty-one hot summer days, the legions perspired under their armor as they labored to raise new siege works against the Fortress Antonia. They had to carry in lumber from a distance of more than twelve miles because they had already denuded the entire vicinity surrounding Jerusalem. The Roman assault left the beautiful city and its surrounding hills unrecognizable. Those places previously adorned with orchards, groves, and pleasant gardens were barren and burnt. All the trees were gone. In their place stood an ugly, encircling grove of crosses, adorned with the bodies of Jewish captives.
No one who had seen the city before the siege could have recognized it; the war had decimated all its beauty. The encampment of the tenth legion occupied the barren hillside that had once been the olive grove of Gethsemane. Those who saw the city shook their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: "Is this the city of which they said, 'The perfection of beauty, a joy to all the earth'?" (Lamentations 2:15). As the hottest month of the summer commenced, the bodies of the dead that filled Jerusalem's streets became a hindrance to the movements of the soldiers defending the city. The rush of battle often compelled them to trample overtop the corpses of the dead that littered the avenues. A constant, sickening stench rose from the city. Hitherto, the famine preyed upon the citizens of the city, but now even the fighting men began to feel the grip of hunger. Rations were scarce, and men conserved their energy.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Fast of Tammuz (Tammuz 17, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:93-95/ii.I-3
The new siege equipment paid off. After fierce battles during the hottest weeks of summer, the Roman army took control of Fortress Antonia, the fortress perched atop the Temple Mount adjacent to the Temple. From the safety of the fortress, the soldiers prepared for a larger assault into the Temple and Upper City. They dismantled one of the towers of the fortress, transforming it into an enormous siege ramp leading up to the Temple, sufficiently wide to bring up a full column of troops. Meanwhile in the Temple, the priesthood reported that they had sacrificed the last of the available lambs. On the seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz, the continual burnt offering ceased for the first time in several centuries.
The seventeenth of Tammuz is a dark day on the Jewish calendar. The Bible calls it the fast of the fourth month (Zechariah 8:19). Judaism commemorates it as a national fast day and a day of intense grief-the beginning of a three-week period of mourning.
Titus summoned Josephus to address the defenders of the Temple with another propaganda speech. Josephus took up a position on the remains of the Fortress Antonia from which he could address the Jews in the outer courts of the Temple. Paul of Tarsus once stood at the same spot and delivered the discourse of Acts 22. Like Paul before him, he spoke to the people "in the Hebrew language," that is, most likely, in Aramaic. He said that, if John of Gischala and his men would surrender the Temple Mount, Titus promised not to destroy or defile the Temple. He would allow the priesthood to continue their worship, and he even offered to provide the necessary sacrifices. He beseeched them to take the generous offer and thereby spare the Temple. The men in the Temple listened in silence.
John of Gischala himself stepped forward to reply. He reproached Josephus, called down curses on him, and shouted, "I have no fear of the capture of this city, for this is God's own city! He will defend it."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Burning the Portico
Josephus, Jewish War 6:121-168/ii.3-9
Titus prepared his men for a midnight assault on the Temple. He chose his best troops for the sneak attack. He went up to the high towers of the Fortress Antonia so he could watch the battle unfold. He was disappointed. As the soldiers made their assault, they did not find the guards sleeping as they had hoped. The Jewish defenders met them with swords and a loud shout that raised the rest from sleep. A fierce battle ensued at the entrance of the fortress. In the darkness, no one could see clearly, and the Jews struck blindly at their opponents, too often striking their own comrades. The fight lasted all night. As dawn brightened the sky, the officers and commanding men of the Roman legions crowded the turrets and towers of the Fortress Antonia to watch the battle being waged below them. They shouted and cheered for their men as if they were watching a gladiatorial show.
The Romans could not make any progress on account of the narrowness of the passage from the Antonia. Their troops remained bottlenecked behind the front line. The battle lasted until the fifth hour of the morning (II AM), after which Titus called a retreat back into the fortress.
In the meantime, the rest of the Roman army continued dismantling one of the towers of the Fortress Antonia to construct a broad siege ramp onto the Temple Mount platform. They raised siege towers against the Temple Mount walls at various points on the north and west face of the Temple Mount.
John of Gischala assessed the situation. Siege ramps approached on the north and the west of the Temple Mount. The Fortress Antonia was occupied by his enemies, and they could, at any time, try to push out through its gates again. If the men inside the fortress accessed the portico roofs, they would have the high ground above the Temple's outer courts. John decided to reduce that possibility by destroying the colonnade on the northwest corner where it adjoined to the Fortress Antonia. His men lit the timbers in that section of the roof on fire to ensure that the men inside the fortress did not get on top. While this demolition was underway, construction of ramps and towers continued below.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Champions (Tammuz 24, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:169-176/ii.10
A certain Jewish fighter named Jonathan went to the Romans who stood on the battlements of the Fortress Antonia and, like Goliath before the army of Israel, challenged them to send their best champion down to fight him in single combat. The Romans mocked the man, but no champion stepped forward to fight him. Finally, a cavalry officer accepted the challenge and went down to fight the Jew. Roman soldiers crammed tightly on the walls and battlements of the Fortress Antonia to watch the contest. The Jews watched from the portico roofs and the northern wall of the inner Temple courts. The Jew and the Roman faced off in the area in front of the Antonia.
The Romans on the battlements excitedly cheered for their hero as if they were at the circus or the arena. Likewise, the Jews cheered for Jonathan.
The heavily armed Roman moved too slowly and clumsily. Jonathan vanquished him quickly. The cheering Roman soldiers groaned and fell silent while a mighty cheer rose from the Jews. Jonathan brandished his sword at the Roman spectators. He shook his shield at them and mocked them with shouts and acclamations. He leapt about and did a victory dance.
A poor loser on the battlements of the Antonia took careful aim and shot Jonathan through with a single arrow. A mighty cheer went up from the Romans. Jonathan fell dead on top of the body of the cavalry officer.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Fire Trap (Tammuz 27, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:177-192/iii.I-2
On the west side, the siege towers reached the height of the Temple Mount, but the facing wall of the western portico prevented the Romans from accessing the outer courts. For a day or two, the Jewish defenders manned the roof of the western portico and fought off the Romans who ascended the siege tower. John of Gischala and his men knew that, if the Romans managed to get up on top of the porticos, they would have access to the whole circumference of the Temple Mount and high ground above the defenders in the Court of the Gentiles. They decided to completely eliminate that possibility by destroying the roofs of the northern and western porticos.
John and his men rigged an enormous trap by filling the space between the cross beams and the ceiling of the western portico with dry, flammable materials, bitumen, and pitch. When the trap was ready, the defenders on the portico pretended to let the Romans beat them back and they abandoned the position. The Romans quickly threw up ladders and occupied the rooftop. Titus was informed that his men had taken the western portico, so he went out to watch from the battlement of the Antonia. When the soldiers occupied the roof of the entire western portico, flames suddenly burst up everywhere along the whole length with an explosive force. The Romans watching from the siege tower and from the battlements of the Antonia were aghast. The men trapped on the roof of the burning portico cried out for help as the flames came up around them. Some leapt to their deaths, throwing themselves over the side of the Temple Mount. Some threw themselves over the other side and landed in the midst of their enemies in the Court of the Gentiles where they quickly met their deaths. Some tried to leap down to their own men on the siege tower, breaking bones and snapping limbs as they did. Titus shouted orders to bring up more ladders, but they did not have sufficient time. Every man died except for one persuasive soldier who convinced his comrade below to catch him. The weight of his body crushed his comrade, but he survived the fall.
The next day the defenders burned off the roof of the northern portico as well.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Miryam of Beit-Eizov
Josephus, Jewish War 6:193-219/iii.3-5
While these battles for the Temple Mount raged on, the famine continued to wage war against the people of the city. Friends and family members turned against one another in madness, fighting to the death for small scraps of food. Simon son of Giora's men began to feel the hunger, too, and they went about the city with their mouths hanging open, looking for anything edible. They ate their leather belts and sandals and even the leather on their shields. In the marketplace, one vendor offered a handful of hay for four drachmas.
There was at that time a certain woman named Mary daughter of Eleazar from the Perean village of Bethezub. She came from a prominent and wealthy family. They had all fled together to the safety of Jerusalem when Vespasian's tribune Placidus was conducting his massacres in Perea. She and her family had brought their own supplies and provisions with them, but the hungry revolutionary soldiers had already robbed her home several times until there was nothing left at all. The madness of starvation overtook her, and she slaughtered her own nursing baby and cooked him. The rebels smelled the cooking meat and burst into her home, demanding their portion. They threatened to cut her throat if she did not reveal the food at once. She uncovered the dish and what was left of her child, replying, "This is my own son, and I did this myself! Come, help yourself to this food; for I have already had my portion. But if you are more squeamish than a woman or more compassionate than a mother, leave the other half for me as well."
The rebels backed out of the house in terror and did not return, but they told the story to everyone. The shocking tale spread around the city and even became known in the Roman camp. This happened to fulfill the curse in the Torah:
The refined and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement, shall be hostile toward... her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of anything else, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in your towns. (Deuteronomy 28:56-57)
You will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. (Leviticus 26:29)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Blood, Fire, and Columns of Smoke (Av 9-10, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:236-287/iv.2-8
Judaism observes the ninth of Av as a fast day commemorating several calamities that came upon the nation on that day. The Bible calls it the fast of the fifth month (Zechariah 8:19). The Talmud indicates that the Israelites in the wilderness believed the evil report of the spies on the ninth of Av. Nebuchadnezzar and his army set fire to the Temple built by King Solomon on the ninth of Av.
In the year 70 CE, Titus observed the ninth of Av by ordering his soldiers to break open the northern portico to a width sufficient to provide easy access for the columns of the legions. His men prepared for the final assault.
In the city down below the Temple Mount, the people could see the smoke rising from the burning of the gates. At that time, a false prophet spoke up among the people. The false prophet went through the city and proclaimed, "This is the day of salvation! Thus says the Almighty, 'Go up to the Temple, and there you will see the sign of your deliverance!'" (cf. Matthew 24:24-26). The false prophet promised the people that, if they demonstrated their faith in God by ascending to the holy place now, at the critical hour, they would surely see the Messiah come from the Mount of Olives and drive out their enemies. It was a reasonable assumption for people of faith. A great multitude of men, women, and children heeded the prophecy and made their way up to the Temple Mount, which, at that time, was still a war zone. Some made their way to the Temple, others took refuge from the battlefield on the roof of the Royal Stoa (the southern portico) and on the roof of the eastern colonnade (Solomon's Portico). They looked toward the east, waiting for the deliverer to appear-waiting to see his feet standing upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14). Josephus says that about six thousand men, women, and children crowded onto those rooftops.
Meanwhile, the war continued in the Temple's outer courts. The Romans took control of the Court of the Gentiles. The book of Revelation alludes back to this when it says, "The court which is outside the temple ... has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city" (Revelation II:2).
As the people of Jerusalem ascended the Temple Mount to await the messianic deliverance, the Zealots still in the Temple burst out through the Nikanor Gates and attacked the Romans in the Court of the Women and the Court of the Gentiles. The Roman guards locked their shields together and tried to hold their ground, but the desperate attackers overran them. Titus saw the assault from where he watched on the tower of the Fortress Antonia and ordered a cavalry detachment to enter the fray. Mounted horsemen charged into the holy courts of God's house; their hooves clattered on the polished stone. The cavalry men briefly scattered the Zealots and fighters, but they quickly recovered themselves and continued the fight for the outer courts. The fight lasted through the morning until about the fifth hour of the day when the defenders finally retreated back into the Temple and closed the Nikanor Gates.
Later in the afternoon, Roman soldiers took up positions in the Court of the Women. The defenders launched out from the Nikanor Gates, but this time the Romans put them immediately to flight and pursued them into the Temple's inner courts. The fight moved around the altar, and around the Temple sanctuary. The Jews retreated into the safety of the Temple and the large buildings that flanked it on the four corners: the House of the Hearth, the House of the Treasury, the House of Stone, and the Chamber of Hewn Stone.
Two soldiers contrived a way to smoke out their quarry. Standing on top of his fellow, a Roman soldier threw a firebrand through a golden window on the second story of the house of the hearth. Soon smoke began to pour from the windows, and, presently, flames could be seen spreading through the outer chambers. Men, women, and children fled from the burning buildings.
Word spread that the Temple was in flames. Roman soldiers came rushing from the Antonia and from the north gate, eager to lay their hands on the wealth. They trampled one another in their mad rush, and some fell into the flames as their comrades pushed from behind.
A fierce fight continued in the Court of the Priests. Josephus says that the Roman soldiers behaved like men possessed, cutting down everything and everyone in a mad fury and ignoring the orders of their superiors. The bodies piled up quickly:
The rebels were slain and defeated everywhere they turned. A great number of them were weak and unarmed. They had their throats cut wherever they were caught. All around the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another. The ramp going up the altar ran with their blood. The dead bodies that were slain above slid down the ramp.
According to Josephus, Titus made every effort to order his soldiers to extinguish the fire, but they did not obey him. We will probably never know the truth about Titus' involvement with the burning of the Temple. Josephus spends so much time apologizing for Titus and insisting that he had nothing to do with the burning of the Temple that his credibility wears thin. Josephus and Jewish tradition do agree that Titus entered the Sanctuary. Josephus says that Titus entered the Sanctuary, looked around, and then left, ordering his men to extinguish the flames. The Talmud claims that he entered the Sanctuary, committed indecencies in the holy of holies, defiled the Torah scroll, and finally thrust his sword into the curtain that hung before the holy of holies:
He then took a sword and slashed the curtain. Miraculously, blood spurted out. He thought he had slain [God], as it says [in Psalm 74:4], "Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place; they have set up their own standards for signs." (b.Gittin 56b)
Titus withdrew from the Temple, and his soldiers rushed in, looting and pillaging, even as the flames spread into the Sanctuary. Josephus found significance in the fact that the Temple burned on the anniversary of the day the Babylonians burned it: "One cannot but be amazed at the accuracy of the timing, for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, as the day when the holy house was previously burned by the Babylonians" (Cf. Jeremiah 52:12-13).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Flames, Abominations, and Desolation (Av 10, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:271-322/V.I-V.2
While the Temple burned, the Roman soldiers plundered and looted. They captured and slew men, women, revolutionaries, common people, laymen, Levites, and priests. Ten thousand died. Those who surrendered received the same fate as those who fought on. The surviving fighting men fought hard to escape the Temple's inner courts, and if they escaped to the outer courts, they met more soldiers. They struggled to fight their way to the city below. The remainder of the people fled to the only remaining shelters on the Temple Mount, Solomon's Colonnade and the Royal Stoa.
Some of the priests threw themselves into the flames consuming the Temple. The roar of the flames, the crash of collapsing buildings, the battle cry of the legions, the shouts of the revolutionaries, the clash of steel, the shrieks of women, the cries of children, and the lamentation of the people, all mingled into a terrible din, which echoed off the hills and filled the city. Josephus says, "Perea also returned the echo," reminding us of the believers in Pella who waited for news from the city.
The height of the Temple's buildings gave the billowing flames an immense elevation. One would have thought the whole city was on fire. It seemed as if the Temple Mount had erupted like a volcano. The telltale column of smoke was visible from many places throughout the land, and everyone understood at once.
The people in the city below lamented and wailed. Even those who had been utterly silent and exhausted from starvation found the strength to cry out when they saw the Temple in flames.
The dead lay strewn about, covering both the inner courts and the outer courts with their corpses. The Roman soldiers trampled over top of them, calling to mind the Master's warnings to His generation, lest they fail to repent and become "no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men" (Matthew 5:13).
Several thousand men, women, and children who had ascended to the top of Solomon's Portico and the Royal Stoa to catch sight of the Messiah's arrival still remained, now trapped on those rooftops. The Romans brought torches and pitch and ignited the portico roofs. Tongues of fire rushed upon them. Many leaped from the pinnacle of the Temple into the valley below, the rest died in the flames. None who had taken refuge on the porticos survived.
As the flames in the Holy Place began to subside, the Romans brought all their idolatrous ensigns and the golden eagles of the legions up onto the Temple Mount and set them opposite the eastern gate. Then they sacrificed animals before them in honor of Zeus (Jupiter) and the victorious gods of Rome. In the midst of the field of corpses, the soldiers surrounded their general and, with a mighty shout, declared Titus "imperator."
From then on, the Romans kept a shrine to their gods on the Temple Mount. A generation later, the emperor Hadrian formalized the shrine as a Temple to Zeus, a partial fulfillment of the Master's prediction of "the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (Matthew 24:I5):
The number of calamities which everywhere fell upon the nation at that time; the extreme misfortunes which the inhabitants of Judea suffered, 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, stood in the very temple of God which was so celebrated of old — the temple which [now received] its total and final destruction by fire— all these things any one that wishes may find accurately described in the history written by Josephus. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.5.4, emphasis mine)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Parley Over Wilson’s Arch (Av 15, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:323-353/vi.2-3
John of Gischala and some of his men escaped the slaughter on the Temple Mount and fled to Simon son of Giora who still held the Upper City. The two warlords sent a message to Titus, telling him that they wanted to speak with him.
An enormous, arched stone bridge used to span the distance between the western side of the Temple Mount and the hill of the Upper City. Two arches of the bridge still remain today. The Western Wall Synagogue occupies the space beneath the first arch (Wilson's Arch), and El Wad Street ducks under the second arch. During the civil war between Simon and John, the warring parties removed the center span of the bridge. Simon built a fort over the Upper City end of the bridge to protect that point of access to his territory.
Titus walked out to the western side of the Temple Mount and stood on his half of the partial bridge.
His commanders and advisors stood around him. King Agrippa and Queen Bernice probably flanked him on either side.
On the other side of the bridge, at the edge of the Upper City, stood John of Gischala and Simon son of Giora. Titus sent an interpreter to stand at the edge between them to facilitate communication. He opened the dialogue:
Gentlemen. I hope you are satisfied now with the suffering of your nation. You people had no reasonable notion of Roman power or your own weakness. You have behaved like madmen and brought your people, your city, and your sacred house to destruction. You Jews have never stopped rebelling since Pompey first conquered you, and you have continuously made war with the Romans!
He went on to expound on the folly of the Jews and the greatness of Roman military might. He reminded them of how the Romans had continually defended Jewish rights to practice their ancestral religion, keep their Sanctuary, and collect the Temple tax. With a nod to Agrippa and Bernice, he reminded them that Rome allowed them to have their own royalty. He recounted the many times he had offered them terms of peace and clemency. Then he said, "Yet to this very moment, you still stand in your armor and cannot humble yourselves enough even to pretend to ask for mercy!" Finally, Titus offered them terms of surrender: "If you throw down your arms and surrender yourselves to me, I will let you live ... except for those that must be punished, but the rest of you I will keep alive for my own use."
Simon and John replied, "We cannot accept your offer, for we have sworn a solemn vow never to let ourselves become Roman captives or slaves. But if you will guarantee safe passage for us, our wives, and our children, and let us pass through the wall you have made around our city, we will go away into the wilderness and leave the city to you."
Titus was indignant that men who were already, for all purposes, his captives offered him terms as if they had vanquished him. He replied that he would, henceforth, spare no one, but fight them with his whole army to the death.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
Fall of the Lower City (Av 17, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:363-377/vii.2-viii.I
The Romans drove the last resistance out of the Lower City. They torched everything as far as the Pool of Siloam to drive the rebels and citizens out of hiding. Many were already dead. Josephus called on the people to surrender their arms and come out willingly to the Romans. He was appalled by the number of famine-stricken he saw heaped up throughout the Lower City's streets.
The rebels hid themselves in the Lower City sewers. The Herodian-era sewers consisted of deep, narrow passages covered over by vaulted ceilings. The survivors crammed into the sewers where they hoped to wait until the Romans withdrew from the city. Archaeologists working in Jerusalem's City of David recently discovered one sewer beneath the main street that ascended from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount.
Only the Upper City remained unconquered. Titus surveyed the best places to lay siege. He realized that siege works would be necessary once again. On the twentieth day of Av he commanded the army to start constructing ramps and platforms.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Upper City Falls (Elul 7, 70 CE)
Josephus, Jewish War 6:392-413/viii.4-ix.I
After more than two weeks of work, the Romans breached the walls of the Upper City and forced entry through the breach they had opened in the wall, no one resisted. The soldiers found the towers of Herod's palace unguarded. They stormed their way into the three towers, but no one opposed them. They raised their standards and ensigns over the city walls and shouted for victory. They opened the city gates and admitted the army. They could scarcely believe that they had taken the strongest fortification in the city so easily and without losing a single man.
The army began to move through the streets and lanes of the Upper City with drawn swords. They struck down anyone they encountered; they showed no mercy. If they saw Jews flee into a house, they torched it, barred its door, and burned every soul inside to death. At other times they pursued people into their houses and struck them down in every room. They ran their swords through every living person they encountered. They obstructed the streets and lanes with the bodies of the dead. The gutters in the streets ran with blood.
The soldiers often burst into houses to loot and plunder and found entire families long dead from starvation. The upper rooms were full of corpses. Then they shuddered, backed away, and ignited the house.
The fires of the Upper City burned on unabated all night. They did not spare the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. They did not spare the place of the upper room where Yeshua and his disciples once reclined at the seder. They did not spare the other houses that once hosted the apostles and the community of disciples, but the apostles were not there:
All these things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, in accordance with the prophecies of our Master and Savior, who by divine power saw them beforehand as if they were already present, and wept and mourned according to the statement of the holy gospel writers, who give the very words which he uttered, when, as if addressing Jerusalem herself, he said [in Luke 19:42-44], "If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you." (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.7.3)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.