However, this hastily formed, unpracticed Jewish army was unable to withstand the seasoned Roman legions. Consequently, all cities in Galilee, and subsequently in Samaria and many in Judea, fell one after another, suffering immense devastation, and Josephus Flavius was captured. Gadara was the first to succumb, and the inhabitants—including men, women, and children—were mercilessly slain. At the siege of Jotapata, 40,000 Jews perished, with 1,200 taken captive. In Ascalon, the toll reached 10,000; in Japhia, 27,000 were killed, and all women and children were sold into slavery. In Samaria, at Mount Garizim, 11,000 lost their lives. In Joppa, 8,400 were killed while 4,200 drowned. At Tarichea, 2,200 were slain, and 6,000 were taken prisoner. In Gamala, 4,000 were killed, and 5,000 chose to leap from a high precipice to their deaths. Of those captured, 30,400 were sold into slavery. With Galilee, Samaria, and nearly all of Judea subdued, Vespasian intended to proceed to Jerusalem. However, upon learning of Emperor Nero's death, he temporarily halted military actions; proclaimed emperor by his troops, he returned to Rome, delegating the war to his son, Titus, who approached Jerusalem just before the Jewish Passover in 70 A.D. The Christians, remembering Christ's covenant, fled the city prior to the siege, seeking refuge across the Jordan in secure wilderness locations. Josephus Flavius noted ominous signs preceding the siege: a year-long star resembling a sword hung over the city. During the feast of unleavened bread, the nights around the altar and sanctuary shone as bright as day. The bronze gates of the temple, which required twenty men to lock, mysteriously opened at night; and during the Pentecost festival, priests entering the temple heard strange voices urging, “Let us exit!”
However, in Jerusalem, discord erupted among factions vying for power from the onset of the conflict. The city swarmed with brigands, who, calling themselves the Zealots of Jewish independence, soon dominated the populace, ruthlessly controlling the citizens' lives and property. Refugees from the cities besieged by Roman legions began to gather there. John of Gischala, among these fugitives, swiftly amassed a following, waging a civil war against the Zealots and the peaceful inhabitants of Jerusalem, led initially by high priest Ananus. Streets and temple courtyards became battlegrounds, stained with blood and littered with bodies, transforming the holy place into an abomination of desolation (Matthew 24:15). The warring factions enlisted the Idumeans to bolster their strength, escalating the chaos. Acts of robbery, violence, and murder were rampant in the daylight; the wealthy were particularly targeted. Jerusalem descended into utter lawlessness as Titus’ forces closed in.
Titus encircled the city with trenches, severing the supply of food and intending to force a surrender through starvation. A devastating famine ensued. Those desperate to escape starvation found themselves captured by Roman soldiers and crucified; the sheer number of fugitives overwhelmed the besiegers' capacity for execution. Systematic strife and enmity consumed the city; as famine grew severe, many died in excruciating conditions, including a mother who, driven by hunger, resorted to roasting and consuming her own child. Initially, the deceased were interred in caves and abandoned homes, but as burial space dwindled, bodies were discarded beyond the city gates or piled against its walls. One informant reported to Titus that 150,880 corpses had been removed through the designated gate, while others estimated up to 600,000. When Titus surveyed the city's walls and found the ditches overflowing with decaying bodies, he raised his hands in despair to heaven, calling upon God to witness that he bore no blame for the calamity. He was somewhat justified, having offered the besieged a chance to surrender, which they rejected. Titus sent Josephus Flavius to the city's walls to persuade the defenders, recounting the entire history of the Jewish nation's victories through divine intervention, and arguing against their reliance solely on their own strength and weapons. He implored them, given that they had made the holy temple a haven for all that was vile, to consider whether they could still expect God's assistance. By arming themselves, were they not waging war against God Himself? Yet, even these appeals bore no fruit.
The destruction of Jerusalem would have been far worse had the Lord not shortened those days for the sake of the elect (Mark 13:20), who had not found time to escape. As the Roman forces breached the city wall, entering through the tower of Antony, despair peaked among the besieged. They gathered in the temple courts, locking the gates to defend themselves at all costs. However, the Romans also invaded the temple, flooding it with blood. Titus aimed to preserve the temple, but he could not restrain his frenzied soldiers, who set fire to it and massacred all present. A horrific multitude of corpses lay around the sanctuary, with blood pooling upon the altar steps, saturating the ground. The Romans pursued fleeing Jews relentlessly, trampling them underfoot. Survivors fled to the temple gates, but could not withstand the Roman assault. Once inside the city, the troops indiscriminately murdered all they encountered, blocking streets with bodies, drowning Jerusalem in blood. The temple was incinerated, and the entire city lay in ruins. The soldiers, weary from slaughter, did not kill every last person; only those armed and resistant were killed, while the rest were taken captive. Ultimately, around 97,000 were imprisoned, and 1,100,000 were killed during the siege. The treasures of the temple and city were plundered, leaving both completely destroyed. Thus, the prophetic words of Jesus Christ regarding the fate of the wicked, who mercilessly murdered their prophets and ultimately crucified their Messiah, came to pass. The blood of the righteous, innocently shed, was equivalent to that of Christ Himself, which they audaciously called down upon themselves, shouting to Pilate, "His blood be upon us and on our children!"
Let us consider the later fates of the temple and Jerusalem. Jesus proclaimed that the temple would be razed, leaving no stone unturned, and that Jerusalem would be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. Truly, the temple was obliterated without a trace; all efforts to rebuild it met failure. One Roman Caesar, Julian the Apostate, vowed to restore the temple in Jerusalem, aspiring to refute Jesus’ prediction of its destruction. He summoned Jews from around the world, who diligently started clearing the site where the temple once stood. However, each time their work commenced, fireballs erupted from the ground, disrupting their efforts. Despite repeated attempts, the builders eventually acknowledged that their efforts were futile and abandoned their plans, resigning to the reality of the temple’s destruction by divine will.
THEOSIS