War with Rome and the Fall of the TemplePage 1

Christian Churches of God

No. 298

War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple

(Edition 1.0 20060902-20060902)

The prophet Daniel was given a vision of the Seventy Weeks of Years. The events of the last week of years were a disaster for Judah and the Edomites. The prophecy can only be understood in relation to the Temple. Christians have generally mistranslated Daniel 9:25-27 for their own ends. The war with Rome and the behaviour of Judah over this time resulted in the dispersion of Judah until the time of the end.

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(Copyright ©2006 Wade Cox)

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War with Rome and the Fall of the Temple

War with Rome and the Fall of the TemplePage 1

Introduction

The prophet Daniel deals with the Seventy Weeks of Years that cover the period from the command to build the Temple at Jerusalem to its destruction in 70 CE. The history is covered in the paper The Sign of Jonah and the History of the Reconstruction of the Temple (No. 13).

Daniel 9:25-27 Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. 26: And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing; and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. 27: And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." (RSV)

We know that the first anointed one was Nehemiah, governor of Judah, who constructed the walls and furbished the Temple with Ezra the scribe. That was in the reign of Artaxerxes II. Ezra died in 323 BCE, the same year as Alexander the Great, and the canon was compiled and closed by 321.

The end of the next sixty-two weeks of years saw another anointed one cut off and that was James, Bishop of Jerusalem and the brother of Jesus Christ. After the martyrdom of James in Jerusalem, the Church was placed in the charge of Simon (Simon Jose) the cousin of Jesus Christ and son of Mary and Clophas. Mary was the sister of Maryam (Mariam), the mother of Christ. Clophas became bishop of Jerusalem seemingly between the reign of James the brother of Christ (d ca 64 CE) and the assumption of Simon, son of Clophas and cousin of Christ (see HippolytusAppendix to Origin of the Christian Church in Britain (No. 266)).

Simon took charge of the Church (after the death of Clophas) and they fled to Pella, being warned by the text of the prophet Daniel. The Church was in dire straits and was generally supported from the churches in Asia Minor.

The text in Daniel says that the prince who is to come shall make a strong covenant with many for the one week; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease. He goes on to say that upon the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator. The last sentence covers a great deal of time and is not related to the Seventy Weeks of Years, but rather until the system referred to is destroyed.

The week of years referred to is from 62 to 69 CE and the final year is 70 CE.

The culmination was at the end of the 490 years or Seventy Weeks of Years. Before the Passover in 70 CE, reportedly on 1 Abib, the Roman Army surrounded Jerusalem. This was the New Year. It was also at the exact end of the "Forty Years for Repentance" given to Judah from the Passover of 30 CE.

The last week of years was the seven years leading up to this day. In that time the Church fled to Pella at the beginning of the week, after the death of James (and probably that of Clophas). In the middle of that week (or sabbatical period), a whole series of problems occurred for Judea. The two factions of the Jews seized the City of David and the Temple Mount, and began to wage war on each other from those strongholds. Josephus records the disasters. He says the Romans did no worse to them than they did to themselves.

Emile Schürer (History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, Vols. 1–3, T &T Clark, Rev. ed. 1987) gives a detailed history and this paper is based on the accounts of Schürer and Josephus.

The procurator of Judea at the time was Gessius Florus (64-66 CE). He was the most base of the Roman procurators, and Josephus is at a loss for words to describe the baseness of his administration. Albinus was classed a “righteous man” compared to him. Albinus had conducted his infamous deeds in secret but Florus paraded them in public, and not content with the robbery of individuals, “he plundered whole cities and ruined whole communities. As long as the bandits were content to share the spoil with him they could carry on without hindrance” (Schürer, Vol. 1, p. 470, quoting Josephus, Wars of the Jews (B. J.). ii. 14, 2; and Antiq, xx 11, 1). Schürer considers the situation was beyond endurance and it only needed one spark and the explosion that followed was with elemental force.

Florus had until then contented himself with robbing the people, but in the middle of the week of years Florus robbed the Temple treasury in Jerusalem of seventeen talents. This provoked an uproar. Some wits got the idea of passing around baskets for donations to poor Florus, and Florus decided to punish them for their mockery. A great number of citizens, including Roman knights of Jewish birth, were seized at random, scourged and crucified. Queen Berenice happened to be in Jerusalem at the time and even she could not stop the procurator and his soldiers. This act took place on 16 Artemesius, or Iyyar of 66 CE.

This date is of significance to any Bible student. 16 Iyyar (or Iyar) is the 16th day of the Second month and is the day after which the Second Passover has been taken, and the last opportunity for repentance and Passover protection in that year. The Passover is taken from the Lord’s Supper on 14 Abib – or Iyyar for the Second Passover – out of one’s gates until the morning of the 15th, when after the night of the Passover on 15 Iyyar, the faithful repentant are allowed to return to their tents for the remainder of the Holy Day and Feast of Unleavened Bread. The 16th then commences at evening that day (Deut. 16:5-7). God allowed this period of the Second Passover for repentance and then unleashed the dogs of war.

On the following day, Florus ordered the citizens to greet two cohorts of troops on their way back from Caesarea. The troops were greeted, but they ignored the citizens on Florus’ orders. The citizens began to shout abuse at Florus whereon the soldiers began to massacre the citizens. They got back inside the city but a fierce street battle then ensued, and many were massacred. The people succeeded in gaining the Temple Mount and cut the connection to the Antonia fortress. Florus withdrew to Caesarea leaving a cohort in Jerusalem and left the city leaders responsible for order.

Background to Agrippa and Berenice and the duration of the War

Agrippa II was raised and educated in Rome. Claudius granted him the kingdom of his uncle Herod of Chalcis in the Lebanon ca 50 CE, and the same charge of appointing the Temple High Priests as his uncle had enjoyed. He probably stayed in Rome and did not go to Lebanon until after 52 CE, according to Schürer (ibid. p. 472). In 53 CE, in return for surrendering the small kingdom of Chalcis, he was granted the much larger realm of the tetrarchy of Philip consisting of Batanea, Trachonitis, and Gaulanitis, the tetrarchy of Lysanius (Abila) as well as the territory of Varus. After the death of Claudius (d. 54), Nero enlarged this territory still further by adding to it, important parts of Galilee and Peraea, namely the cities of Tiberias and Tarichea with their surrounding districts, and the city of Julius with its fourteen neighbouring villages (ibid. pp. 472-3).

At the time of the rebellion, Agrippa was in Alexandria and hurried back to Jerusalem. His sister, with whom he lived after the death of her husband (his uncle of Chalcis), was a bigoted and dissolute woman and mother of two. She married King Polemon of Cilicia, requiring him to submit to circumcision, but she soon returned to her brother. She was in Jerusalem at the time of the rebellion, as the result of a Nazirite vow of all things (cf. Schürer, ibid. pp. 474-5).

Agrippa and Berenice were curious to see and hear Paul (Acts 25:22 ff). His comment at Acts 26:28 indicates to Schürer that he was free from fanaticism and any real involvement in religious questions. The significance was that James was killed in Jerusalem and was a witness to the Kingdom. We have it recorded that Agrippa heard Paul in person. James was killed ca 62 CE at the end of the 69 weeks of years. Paul was beheaded in Rome in 66 CE. Thus, after the martyrdom of two of God’s witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in Rome, God then dealt with the system.

Agrippa had gone to Egypt to pay respects to the Prefect of Egypt, Tiberius Iulius Alexander. Agrippa returned quickly and he and his sister did all they could to avert the revolt. They sided with the peace party and from then on they were unswervingly on the Roman side, and lost a number of cities as a result. He and his troops were in the train of Cestius Gallus on the ill-fated expedition against Jerusalem. He was able to recover his territory by 67 CE after the Romans had recovered all of northern Palestine.

Nero died on 9 June 68 CE. (We know that both Paul, and later Peter were martyred in Nero’s reign). Titus and Agrippa then went to pay homage to the new Emperor Galba, but on the way they received news of Galba’s murder on 15 January 69 CE.

Titus returned to his father Vespasian, and Agrippa went on to Rome. After the election of Vespasian as emperor by the Egyptian and Syrian Legions in July 69 CE he returned to pay homage at the behest of Berenice, who was a strong supporter of the Flavian party. From then on Agrippa was in the continual company of Titus to whom Vespasian had entrusted the conduct of the war. After the fall of Jerusalem, Titus sponsored magnificent games at Agrippa’s capital, Caesarea Philippi. Agrippa’s capital was the centre of Roman rejoicing at the downfall of the Jewish people.

After the war, his lands were extended, and Josephus notes that Arcea in Northern Lebanon, which is north east of Tripolis, was in the kingdom of Agrippa (B. J. vii, 5, 1, see fn. 37 to Schürer, Vol. 1, p. 478). Josephus did not mention them in Wars (B.J. iii, 3, 5), presumably because they had not as yet been awarded to him, and Schürer holds this view (ibid., p. 478).

After the war, in 75 CE, Agrippa and Berenice arrived in Rome and there Berenice resumed the affair she had started with Titus in Palestine. The Jewish Queen lived with Titus on the Palatine while Agrippa was favoured with the rank of praetor. It was expected they would be married, but reaction in Rome was so strong that Titus was forced to send her away.

The Jubilee was in 77 CE. The destruction was completed in Jerusalem in 70 CE and the Romans had consolidated all power by the Seventh Sabbath in 76 CE, before the Jubilee in 77 CE.

After the death of Vespasian, Berenice returned to Rome on 23 June 79 CE, but Titus, as emperor, ignored her. Schürer thinks she returned to Palestine but little is known of her after that time.

Agrippa’s reign of his extended dominion lasted until 85 or 86 CE, when he was deprived of the Jewish colonies. Josephus notes, when he wrote Antiquities (xvii, 2, 2 (28)), that they were no longer part of his dominion. He seems to have reigned at least until the reign of Domitian. Schürer considers he died ca 92/93 CE and that Photius is unreliable in his date of 100 CE (op. cit. p. 481). With no children, his kingdom was incorporated into the province of Syria on his death.

The War with Rome lasted from 66 CE to about 74 CE, but the prophecies are concerned with the destruction of the Temple and the removal of the physical system, which ended in 70 CE.

The Conduct of the War

Agrippa had also made frequent use of the right to appoint the High Priests, and deposed and appointed High Priests until the outbreak of the rebellion in 66 CE.

On his return from Alexandria for the rebellion in 66 CE, Agrippa assembled the people in the Xystus, which was an open square in front of the Palace of the Hasmonaeans where he lived. He tried to get the people to restore order and submit to the hated Florus, but that was the last straw. The people rejected him with scorn and contempt and he returned to his kingdom.

The rebels also then occupied the Masada, the famous fortress adjacent to the Salt Sea in the south (now the Dead Sea).

The climate of rebellion was intense.

At the instigation of Eleazar the son of Ananias the High Priest, the daily sacrifice to the emperor was suspended and no more sacrifices from Gentiles were accepted. This was a reversal of the prayer made to God at the inauguration of the Temple by Solomon, and in effect, was a breach of the covenant undertaking between Israel and God regarding the Gentiles. This aspect is covered in the paper Rule of the Kings: Part III: Solomon and the Key of David (No. 282C) and was to have far- reaching consequences.

The suspension of the sacrifice to the emperor was tantamount to an open declaration of rebellion against Rome. All the persuasion of the leaders, chief priests and Pharisees failed.

The peace party, which consisted of the Chief Priests, Pharisaic notables and the Hasmonaeans, i.e. those related to the Herodian House, saw they had failed. They resorted to force and appealed to King Agrippa for support. He sent a detachment of 3,000 cavalry under Darius and Philippus, and with their aid they gained control of the Upper City while the Rebels retained control of the Temple Mount and the Lower City. However, the king’s forces were forced to evacuate the Upper City, and in vengeance the rebels set fire to the palaces of Ananias the High Priest, and of Agrippa and Berenice. A few days later in Lous or Ab, i.e. July/August, the rebels captured the Antonia fortress and began to lay siege to the upper palace of Herod where the troops of the peace party had taken refuge.

Resistance was impossible and the forces of Agrippa were given safe conduct. The Roman cohorts escaped to the three fortified towers of Herod’s Palace (Hippicus, Phasael and Mariamne). The rest of the palace was set ablaze on 6 Gorpiaeus (Elul). On the following day, the High Priest Ananias was seized in his hiding place and murdered. The Roman cohort in the three towers was forced to yield. The troops were promised safe conduct. However, when they laid down their arms, they were butchered to the last man (Schürer, pp. 486-487).

Jerusalem was thus victorious. In the other cities of Judea and Galilee bloody battles took place. Where the Jews prevailed they slaughtered the Gentiles, and where the Gentiles prevailed they slaughtered the Jews. Josephus says the effects of the revolt in Palestine extended as far as Alexandria (B.J. ii, 18, 1-8 (457-98); see also Schürer, p. 487).

The Counter Attack

After a long delay reportedly in preparation, Cestius Gallus, governor of Syria, moved in to Judea to put down the revolt.

The force consisted of the 12th Legion and two thousand picked men of other legions, six cohorts and four alae of cavalry together with a large number of auxiliaries supplied under obligation by friendly kings, including Agrippa.

Gallus’ force moved from Alexandria by way of Ptolemais, Caesarea, Antipatris, and Lydda. They arrived at Lydda at the Feast of Tabernacles in Tishri. They marched from there to Jerusalem via Beth Horon, and arrived at Gibeon, fifty stadia from Jerusalem (ibid.).

The Jews attacked the camp at Beth Horon and the Romans were in great danger but eventually repulsed the Jews.