Such, briefly, is the account that history gives of the several events and signs, which our Lord had foretold would precede the destruction of the Holy City. No sooner were his predictions accomplished, than a most unaccountable infatuation seized upon the whole Jewish nation; so that they not only provoked, but seemed even to rush into the midst of those unparalleled calamities, which at length totally overwhelmed them. In an essay of this sort it is impossible to enter into a minute detail of the origin and progress of these evils; but such particulars as illustrate the fulfilment of the remaining part of the prophecy, and justify the strong language in which it is couched, shall be presented to the reader.
From the conquest of their country by Pompey, about 60 years B.C. the Jews had, on several occasions, manifested a refractory spirit; but after Judas the Gaulonite and Sadduc the Pharisee had taught them, that submission to the Roman assessments would pave the way to a state of abject slavery, this temper displayed itself with increasing malignity and violence. Rebellious tumults and insurrections became more and more frequent and alarming; and to these the mercenary exactions of Florus, the Roman governor, not a little contributed. At length Eleazer, son of the high priest, persuaded those who officiated in the temple to reject the sacrifices of foreigners, and no longer to offer up prayers for them. Thus an insult was thrown upon Cæsar, his sacrifice rejected, and the foundation of the Roman war laid.
The disturbances among the Jews still continuing, Cestius Gallus, president of Syria, marched an army into Judea, in order to quell them, and his career was every where marked with blood and desolation. As he proceeded, he plundered and burnt the beautiful city of Zabulon, Joppa, and all the villages which lay in his way. At Joppa, he slew of the inhabitants eight thousand four hundred. He laid waste the district of Narbatene; and, sending an army into Galilee, slew there two thousand of the seditious Jews. He then burnt the city of Lydda; and after having repulsed the Jews, who made a desperate sally upon him, encamped at length at the distance of about one mile from Jerusalem. On the fourth day he entered its gates, and burnt three divisions of the city, and might now, by its capture, have put a period to the war; but through the treacherous persuasions of his officers, instead of pursuing his advantages, he most unaccountably raised the siege, and fled from the city with the utmost precipitation.
The Jews, however, pursued him as far as Antipatris, and, with little loss to themselves, slew of his army nearly six thousand men. After this disaster had befallen Cestius, the more opulent of the Jews, says Josephus, forsook Jerusalem as men do a sinking ship. And it is with reason supposed, that on this occasion many of the Christians, or converted Jews, who dwelt there, recollecting the warnings of their divine Master, retired to Pella, a place beyond Jordan, situated in a mountainous country,[1] whither (according to Eusebius, who resided near the spot) they came from Jerusalem, and settled, before the war under Vespasian began. Other providential opportunities for escaping afterwards occurred, of which, it is probable, those who were now left behind availed themselves; for it is a striking fact, and as such cannot be contemplated by the pious mind without sentiments of devout admiration, that history does not record that even one christian perished in the siege of Jerusalem. Enduring to the end faithful to their blessed Master, they gave full credit to his predictions, and escaped the calamity. Thus were fulfilled the words of our Lord, “He that shall endure unto the end (i. e. of the scene of this prophecy) shall be saved,[2]“ i. e. from the calamities which will involve all those who shall continue obstinate in unbelief.
Nero, having been informed of the defeat of Cestius, immediately appointed Vespasian, a man of tried valour, to prosecute the war against the Jews, who, assisted by his son Titus, soon collected at Ptolemais an army of sixty thousand men. From hence, in the spring of 67 A.D. he marched into Judea, every where spreading the most cruel havoc and devastation: the Roman soldiers, on various occasions, sparing neither infants nor the aged. For fifteen months Vespasian proceeded in this sanguinary career, during which period he reduced all the strong towns of Galilee, and the chief of those in Judea, destroying at least one hundred and fifty thousand of the inhabitants.
Among the terrible calamities which at this time happened to the Jews, those which befel them at Joppa, which had been rebuilt, deserve particular notice. Their frequent piracies had provoked the vengeance of Vespasian. The Jews fled before his army to their ships; but a tempest immediately arose, and pursued such as stood out to sea, and overset them, while the rest were dashed vessel against vessel, and against the rocks, in the most tremendous manner. In this perplexity some were drowned, some were crushed by the broken ships, others killed themselves, and such as reached the shore were slain by the merciless Romans. The sea for a long space was stained with blood; four thousand two hundred dead bodies were strewed along the coast, and, dreadful to relate, not an individual survived to report this great calamity at Jerusalem. Such events were foretold by our Lord, when he said, “There shall be distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.[3]“
Vespasian, after proceeding as far as Jericho, returned to Cæsarea, in order to make preparations for his grand attempt against Jerusalem. While he was thus employed, he received intelligence of the death of Nero; whereupon, not knowing what the will of the future emperor might be, he prudently resolved to suspend, for the present, the execution of his design. Thus the Almighty gave the Jews a second respite, which continued nearly two years; but they repented not of their crimes, neither were they in the least degree reclaimed, but rather proceeded to acts of still greater enormity. The flame of civil dissention again burst out, and with more dreadful fury. In the heart of Jerusalem two factions, contending for the sovereignty, raged against each other with rancorous and destructive animosity. A division of one of these factions having been excluded from the city (vide page 34), forcibly entered it during the night. Athirst for blood, and inflamed by revenge, they spared neither age, sex, nor infancy; and the morning sun beheld eight thousand five hundred dead bodies lying in the streets of the holy city.
They plundered every house, and having found the chief priests, Ananus and Jesus, not only slew them, but, insulting their bodies, cast them forth unburied. They slaughtered the common people as unfeelingly as if they had been a herd of the vilest beasts. The nobles they first imprisoned, then scourged, and when they could not by these means attach them to their party, they bestowed death upon them as a favour. Of the higher classes twelve thousand perished in this manner; nor did any one dare to shed a tear, or utter a groan, openly, through fear of a similar fate. Death, indeed, was the penalty of the lightest and heaviest accusation, nor did any escape through the meanness of their birth, or their poverty. Such as fled were intercepted and slain: their carcasses lay in heaps on all the public roads: every symptom of pity seemed utterly extinguished, and with it all respect for authority, both human and divine.
While Jerusalem was a prey to these ferocious and devouring factions, every part of Judea was scourged and laid waste by bands of robbers and murderers, who plundered the towns, and, in case of resistance, slew the inhabitants, not sparing either women or children. Simon, son of Gioras, the commander of one of these bands, at the head of forty thousand banditti, having with some difficulty entered Jerusalem, gave birth to a third faction, and the flame of civil discord blazed out again, with still more destructive fury. The three factions, rendered frantic by drunkenness, rage, and desperation, trampling on heaps of slain, fought against each other with brutal savageness and madness. Even such as brought sacrifices to the temple were murdered. The dead bodies of priests and worshippers, both natives and foreigners, were heaped together, and a lake of blood stagnated in the sacred courts.
John of Gischala, who headed one of the factions, burnt store-houses full of provisions; and Simon, his great antagonist, who headed another of them, soon afterwards followed his example.— Thus they cut the very sinews of their own strength. At this critical and alarming conjuncture, intelligence arrived that the Roman army was approaching the city. The Jews were petrified with astonishment and fear; there was no time for counsel, no hope of pacification, no means of flight:—all was wild disorder and perplexity:—nothing was to be heard but “the confused noise of the warrior,” —nothing to be seen but “garments rolled in blood,” —nothing to be expected from the Romans but signal and exemplary vengeance. A ceaseless cry of combatants was heard day and night, and yet the lamentations of mourners were still more dreadful. The consternation and terror which now prevailed, induced many of the inhabitants to desire that a foreign foe might come, and effect their deliverance.
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