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Predictions of Christ
about the destruction of Jerusalem
By
Eusebius of Caesarea: Ecclesiastical History. Kindle
Edition.
1. It is
fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction of our
Saviour in which he foretold these very events.
2. His
words are as follows: "Woe unto them that are with child,
and to them that give suck in those days! But pray that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For
there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
3. The historian, reckoning the
whole number of the slain, says that eleven hundred thousand
persons perished by famine and sword, and that the rest of
the rioters and robbers, being betrayed by each other after
the taking of the city, were slain. But the tallest of the
youths and those that were distinguished for beauty were
preserved for the triumph. Of the rest of the multitude,
those that were over seventeen years of age were sent as
prisoners to labour in the works of Egypt, while still more
were scattered through the provinces to meet their death in
the theatres by the sword and by beasts. Those under
seventeen years of age were carried away to be sold as
slaves, and of these alone the number reached ninety
thousand.
4. These
things took place in this manner in the second year of the
reign of Vespasian, in accordance with the prophecies of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power saw them
beforehand as if they were already present, and wept and
mourned according to the statement of the holy evangelists,
who give the very words which he uttered, when, as if
addressing Jerusalem herself, he said:
5. "If you had known, even you, in
this day, the things which belong unto your peace! But now
they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon
you, that your enemies shall cast a rampart about you, and
compass you round, and keep you in on every side, and shall
lay you and your children even with the ground."
6. And then, as if speaking
concerning the people, he says, "For there shall be great
distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they
shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away
captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be
fulfilled." And again: "When you shall see Jerusalem
compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof
is nigh."
7. If
anyone compares the words of our Saviour with the other
accounts of the historian concerning the whole war, how can
one fail to wonder, and to admit that the foreknowledge and
the prophecy of our Saviour were truly divine and
marvellously strange.
8.
Concerning those calamities, then, that befell the whole
Jewish nation after the Saviour's passion and after the
words which the multitude of the Jews uttered, when they
begged the release of the robber and murderer but besought
that the Prince of Life should be taken from their midst, it
is not necessary to add anything to the account of the
historian.
9. But it
may be proper to mention also those events which exhibited
the graciousness of that all-good Providence which held back
their destruction full forty years after their crime against
Christ,--during which time many of the apostles and
disciples, and James himself the first bishop there, the one
who is called the brother of the Lord, were still alive, and
dwelling in Jerusalem itself, remained the surest bulwark of
the place. Divine Providence thus still proved itself
long-suffering toward them in order to see whether by
repentance for what they had done they might obtain pardon
and salvation; and in addition to such longsuffering,
Providence also furnished wonderful signs of the things
which were about to happen to them if they did not repent.
10. Since these matters have been
thought worthy of mention by the historian already cited, we
cannot do better than to recount them for the benefit of the
readers of this work.
Eleven signs which preceded the war
1. Taking,
then, the work of this author, read what he records in the
sixth book of his History. His words are as follows: "Thus
were the miserable people won over at this time by the
impostors and false prophets; but they did not heed nor give
credit to the visions and signs that foretold the
approaching desolation. On the contrary, as if struck by
lightning, and as if possessing neither eyes nor
understanding, they slighted the proclamations of God.
2. At one
time a star, in form like a sword, stood over the city, and
a comet, which lasted for a whole year; and again before the
revolt and before the disturbances that led to the war, when
the people were gathered for the feast of unleavened bread,
on the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of
the night, so great a light shone about the altar and the
temple that it seemed to be bright day; and this continued
for half an hour. This seemed to the unskilful a good sign
but was interpreted by the sacred scribes as portending
those events which very soon took place.
3. And at the same feast a cow,
led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a
lamb in the midst of the temple.
4. And the eastern gate of the
inner temple, which was of bronze and very massive, and
which at evening was closed with difficulty by twenty men,
and rested upon iron-bound beams, and had bars sunk deep in
the ground, was seen at the sixth hour of the night to open
of itself.
5. And not
many days after the feast, on the twenty-first of the month
Artemisium, a certain marvellous vision was seen which
passes belief. The prodigy might seem fabulous were it not
related by those who saw it, and were not the calamities
which followed deserving of such signs. For before the
setting of the sun chariots and armed troops were seen
throughout the whole region in mid-air, wheeling through the
clouds and encircling the cities.
6. And at the feast which is
called Pentecost, when the priests entered the temple at
night, as was their custom, to perform the services, they
said that at first, they perceived a movement and a noise,
and afterward a voice as of a great multitude, saying, 'Let
us go hence.'
7. But what follows is still more
terrible; for a certain Jesus, the son of Ananias, a common
countryman, four years before the war, when the city was
particularly prosperous and peaceful, came to the feast, at
which it was customary for all to make tents at the temple
to the honour of God, and suddenly began to cry out: 'A
voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the
four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a
voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all
the people.' Day and night he went through all the alleys
crying thus.
8. But
certain of the more distinguished citizens, vexed at the
ominous cry, seized the man and beat him with many stripes.
But without uttering a word in his own behalf or saying
anything in particular to those that were present, he
continued to cry out in the same words as before.
9. And the rulers, thinking, as
was true, that the man was moved by a higher power, brought
him before the Roman governor. And then, though he was
scourged to the bone, he neither made supplication nor shed
tears, but, changing his voice to the most lamentable tone
possible, he answered each stroke with the words, 'Woe, woe
unto Jerusalem.'"
10. The
same historian records another fact still more wonderful
than this. He says that a certain oracle was found in their
sacred writings which declared that at that time a certain
person should go forth from their country to rule the world.
He himself understood that this was fulfilled in Vespasian.
11. But Vespasian did not rule the
whole world, but only that part of it which was subject to
the Romans. With better right could it be applied to Christ;
to whom it was said by the Father, "Ask of me, and I will
give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the ends of
the earth for your possession." At that very time, indeed,
the voice of his holy apostles "went throughout all the
earth, and their words to the end of the world."
Eusebius of Caesarea:
Ecclesiastical History (Kindle Locations 1142-1155).
Kindle
Edition. |
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