PART 1: Rome The False Prophet – As Revealed by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself

Gospel of John (John 19:1-16)

1. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged him.

2. And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,

3. And said, Hail king of the Jews: and they smote him with their hands.

4. Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.

5. Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe: and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!

6. When the chief Priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.

7. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

8. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;

9. And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? but Jesus gave him no answer.

10. Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?

11. Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

12. And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

13. When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.

14. And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

15. But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief Priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

16. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led him away.

Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)

 Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC). For other sieges upon the city of Jerusalem, see Siege of Jerusalem.

The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Judaea. Following a five-month siege, the Romans destroyed the city, including the Second Jewish Temple.

In April 70 CE, just three days before Passover, the Roman army began its siege of Jerusalem. The city had been taken over by various rebel groups after a period of unrest and the collapse of a provisional government. Within three weeks, the Romans had breached the first two walls, but the rebels held strong behind the third and thickest wall.

According to Josephus, a Jewish historian who witnessed the war, the city suffered terribly during the siege, with widespread murder, famine, and even cannibalism. On Tisha B’Av (August 30), the Romans finally broke through, overwhelmed the defenders, and set fire to the Temple. Although resistance continued for another month, the entire city was eventually captured and burned down. Titus spared only three towers of the Herodian citadel as a symbol of the city’s former strength.

The siege caused massive loss of life and destruction, with many killed or enslaved. The Roman victory helped legitimize the Flavian dynasty, who celebrated with a triumph in Rome, building monuments like the Arch of Titus. The treasures taken from the Temple were displayed as trophies.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was a turning point for Jewish history. Without the Temple, sacrificial worship ended, and Jewish religious life shifted towards prayer, Torah study, and synagogue gatherings. According to tradition, Yohanan ben Zakkai escaped Jerusalem and secured permission from the Romans to create a study center in Yavneh, laying the foundation for Rabbinic Judaism. Meanwhile, sects like the Sadducees and Essenes disappeared, and followers of Jesus continued spreading his teachings, leading to the rise of Christianity as a distinct religion.

After the war, the Roman Tenth Legion set up camp on Jerusalem’s ruins, and the city was later rebuilt as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina. Foreign cults were introduced, and Jews were banned from entering, which helped spark the later Bar Kokhba revolt.

Background:

During the Second Temple Period, Jerusalem was the religious and national center for Jews worldwide. It was especially busy during the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, with perhaps hundreds of thousands visiting. The city was about two square kilometers and had a population estimated at 200,000. Pliny the Elder called it “the most famous of the cities of the East.”

Jerusalem was divided into two parts: the inner city within the first wall (including the City of David and the Upper City), which was heavily built up, and a northern suburb (Bethesda) within the second wall but enclosed by the third wall. King Agrippa I began building this third wall to be very thick and strong, but he only completed the foundations, fearing the emperor Claudius might suspect a political rebellion. When the war broke out, the third wall was finished quickly but less solidly, with nine towers.

The Rebellion:

The First Jewish–Roman War, also called the Great Jewish Revolt, started after the Roman prefect Gessius Florus demanded Temple funds. Emperor Nero put Vespasian in charge of crushing the rebellion. Vespasian arrived in 68 CE, starting his campaign in Galilee. By mid-69 CE, the Romans had pacified all of Judea except Jerusalem, which became a rebel stronghold.

The city might have held out longer if not for a civil war among the rebels, mainly between moderates and Zealots. In the summer of 69 CE, Vespasian left for Rome and became emperor in December. His son Titus took command of the Roman forces besieging Jerusalem.

The Siege

Josephus places the siege in the second year of Vespasian’s campaign, which matches 70 CE. Titus began the siege a few days before Passover, surrounding Jerusalem with three legions on the western side and a fourth on the Mount of Olives to the east. According to Josephus, the city was crowded with people who had come for Passover, which made the siege even more intense.

The main Roman attack started at the Third Wall, near the Jaffa Gate, in the west. By May, this wall was breached, and soon after the Second Wall fell, leaving the rebels holding only the Temple and the upper and lower parts of the city.

Inside Jerusalem, the defenders were divided. Zealot leaders Simon Bar Giora and John of Giscala blamed moderate leaders for the revolt’s failure. John’s faction even murdered another leader, Eleazar ben Simon, whose men were defending the Temple’s forecourts. The Zealots were ruthless, killing opponents and anyone who opposed them, determined to keep the city out of Roman hands at any cost.

Some wanted to negotiate peace. Yohanan ben Zakkai, a prominent moderate, was smuggled out of the city in a coffin to meet Vespasian. But by then, the Zealots had taken full control and unleashed terror on the city’s population. Josephus describes how the rebels set fire to Jerusalem’s food supplies, a desperate move possibly meant to force the defenders to fight harder or to invoke divine help.

The internal conflict between John of Giscala and Simon Bar Giora eased only when the Romans started building ramparts around the city to starve the defenders. Despite some successful defenses, the Zealots lacked proper leadership, discipline, and preparation, which hurt their efforts.

At the Fortress of Antonia, the Romans initially failed to break the walls, but after a secret attack and some undermining of the foundations, a section of the wall collapsed during the night. From this position, the Romans launched further assaults on the Temple.

The defenders fought fiercely, setting fire to colonnades and trapping Roman soldiers on walls by burning wood underneath them. Titus even sent Josephus to negotiate, but the talks failed when the Jews shot Josephus with an arrow.

Destruction of the Temple

The Temple was the focal point. Although Titus did not originally want to destroy the Temple—he planned to convert it into a temple for the Roman emperor—the fighting set it on fire. A Roman soldier threw a burning stick onto the walls, and the fire quickly spread beyond control.

The Temple was destroyed on Tisha B’Av, August 9-10, 70 CE. Josephus’s account paints a grim picture of chaos, with many Jews killed in the fighting, including peaceful civilians. He tries to clear Titus of responsibility, blaming the troops’ uncontrolled passion for the fire.

However, other sources, including Tacitus and later Christian writings, say Titus ordered the destruction. Modern scholars generally support this version, though there is still debate.

Aftermath of the Siege

The Romans crushed the remaining defenders quickly. Some Jews escaped through tunnels, while others made a last stand in the Upper City. The Romans had to build siege towers to finally take Herod’s Palace on September 7, and by September 8, Jerusalem was fully under Roman control. The Romans then hunted down those who had fled.

Josephus describes Titus as wanting to spare the Temple and only responding to Jewish aggression. Still, the destruction of the Temple and much of Jerusalem was total.

Josephus on the Destruction of Jerusalem

Josephus, who acted as a mediator during the siege and later chronicled the events, described the aftermath vividly. Once the Romans had killed or captured all resistance, Titus ordered the city and Temple to be demolished—except for three major towers (Phasaelus, Hippicus, and Mariamne) and part of the western wall. These were left standing as a testimony to the city’s former strength and as a Roman symbol of victory.

Josephus wrote that the city was utterly destroyed—walls were leveled to the ground, gardens cut down, and the entire area transformed from a thriving urban center into a desolate wasteland. He said that even a foreigner who had once known Jerusalem would hardly recognize it.

Archaeological Evidence

Archaeological findings support Josephus’s account. Excavations, especially in the 1970s and 1980s under Nahman Avigad, uncovered extensive evidence of massive fires that destroyed buildings in the Upper City and other areas.

• Houses showed signs of intense burning; ceilings collapsed, burying everything underneath.

• Limestone vessels turned to lime or were scorched, glass objects warped from heat, while pottery and basalt survived.

• A thick layer of ash and charred debris was found, consistent with widespread destruction.

• Large stone blocks from the Temple Mount walls were found collapsed onto streets, including the “Trumpeting Place” inscription thrown down by Roman soldiers.

• Drainage systems and pools, like the Pool of Siloam, were blocked and ruined.

All of this matches Josephus’s descriptions of the city’s devastation.

Deaths, Enslavement, and Displacement

Josephus claimed that about 1.1 million people were killed during the siege, mostly Jews, linking the high toll to the large crowds gathered for Passover. He also recorded that after killing the armed and elderly, the Romans enslaved 97,000 people. According to him, 40,000 survivors were released to go where they pleased.

Tacitus, another Roman historian, estimated the besieged population at around 600,000, noting that men and women alike fought fiercely and preferred death over captivity.

Modern scholars like Seth Schwartz question Josephus’s death toll as unrealistic, given population estimates at the time. Schwartz suggests around a million people lived in all of Israel, about half Jewish, and that significant Jewish communities remained in the region post-war. However, he considers the figure of 97,000 enslaved to be more credible.

It’s also worth noting that many pilgrims visiting Jerusalem at the time were trapped inside and died during the siege. Additionally, people from surrounding areas were likely displaced or enslaved as well.