Jerusalem took place thirty-seven years after our Lord spoke these words (A. D. 70), and the circumstances of it were exactly those foretold by Him. A Jewish priest, by name Josephus, who was an eye-witness of the sad events, has in his seven books of "The Jewish War" described the siege, conquest and destruction of the holy city, as well as the signs which preceded them; and all the world can know by his description that our Lord’s prophecy was exactly fulfilled.
Among the signs which preceded the destruction of Jerusalem, the following are quoted. According to the Acts of the Apostles several false prophets appeared in Jerusalem; first Theudas, and after him an Egyptian. In the year 64, when Nero was emperor, a great persecution of the Christians broke out, in which, among many others, SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom. Throughout the Roman empire princes were murdered; and there raged civil wars, plagues, pestilences, and earthquakes which swallowed up whole towns. For an entire year a comet, in the form of a swrord, was to be seen over Jerusalem. The great iron door of the Temple, which it took twenty men to move on its hinges, opened one night of itself. On the Feast of Pentecost the priests heard mysterious voices in the night, saying: “Let us depart”.
In the year 65, the Jews in Jerusalem rose up in open rebellion against the Roman government, and put to the sword the Roman garrison. The emperor Nero then sent his able general, Vespasian, to subdue the Jew's. In the course of three years Vespasian conquered all the strong places of Judaea, and was on the point of marching on Jerusalem itself, when he was chosen emperor, and returned home, resigning the command of the army to his son Titus. Meanw'hile the Christians in Jerusalem, mindful betimes of our Lord’s warnings, fled to Pella in Peraea (see Map).
In the interval civil war broke out in Jerusalem, and three powerful parties were fighting against each other. The principal citizens were executed or assassinated. Bloodshed took place in the streets, and even in the outer courts of the Temple. A part of the city was reduced to ruins, and thousands lost their lives. Each party destroyed the supplies of the others, and thus provisions which might have sustained the inhabitants for several years were lost. In the spring of the year 70 Titus appeared with his army, and pitched his camp before the city. Earth-works were thrown up, and a breach was made in the third or outer wall by the battering-rams of the Romans. After this outer wall had been destroyed, Titus succeeded, notwithstanding the gallant resistance of the Jews, in overthrowing the second wall, and then, after a hard fight of four days, he made his way into the city, and took possession of Fort Antonia, in spite of the heroic defence made by its garrison. By this time the famine in the city was very great. The siege had begun at the time of the Pasch, when Jerusalem was crowded with pilgrims, so that at the time that the enemy surrounded the city, there were more than a million people within its walls. Some of them
