Rejected Prophets: Jesus and His Witnesses in Luke-Acts

The Doom of Jerusalem

6 The Doom of Jerusalem In the summer of 66 ce, the Roman governor of Judea appropriated a large sum from the temple treasury. This move sparked a rebellion that quickly spread from Jerusalem to Galilee. By the spring of 67, Vespasian was in Galilee with four Roman legions. It took him about a year to secure the region. In June of 68, he was advancing to Jerusalem when he received news of Nero’s suicide. The ensuing chaos in Rome caused Vespasian to suspend operations in Judea. At the end of 69, Vespasian became emperor. Then, in the spring of 70, his son Titus pressed the siege of Jerusalem. The rebels held out for most of the summer, but by early September Titus ruled the city. There was not much left. More than one hundred thousand people had died during the siege; thousands more had been slaughtered once the city walls were breached.1 Much of the destruction centered on the revolutionary headquarters: the temple and its adjoining fortress. The fortress was dismantled, and the temple, recently renovated by Herod the Great, was burned. The loss of the temple struck a devastating blow to Jews everywhere. With it went a major economic center and source of national pride. With it went the daily sacrifice, the solemn festival observances, and the performance of personal rites. With it went the visible symbol of God’s presence. And with it went firstcentury hopes for redemption by a messiah who would defeat the Romans and restore Jerusalem to its former glory. The revolution, fueled by such hopes, had ended in bitter disappointment.2 The loss of the temple was devastating not only for Jews but also for Christians. Some Christians may have been tempted to believe that one of 1. Josephus puts the total at 1.1 million dead with 97,000 captured over the course of the conflict (J.W . 6.420). 2. That the Jewish War was fueled by messianic hopes is supported by coinage that features grapevines, a motif derived from prophecies that associate the advent of the messiah with an abundance of wine (Amos 9:11, 13-14; 2 Bar. 29:3, 5-6). See Ya’akov Meshorer, Jewish Coins of the Second Temple Period (Tel Aviv: Am Hassefer, 1967), 164–69, plates 19–28. Messianic hopes would be revived in the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136. 75 the revolutionary leaders was the Messiah.3 At least two of those leaders seem to have made royal claims.4 Surely the revolt presented the best opportunity for God’s anointed king to fulfill prophecies of victory over the Gentiles and restoration for Jerusalem and the temple. Now, with Jerusalem laid waste and the temple in ruins, all bets were off. Restoration had become much more difficult to imagine.5 Luke deals with the loss of the temple in much the same way that he addresses concerns about a crucified messiah, Gentile inclusion, and Jewish rejection. He assures his audience that this, too, was part of God’s plan. Accordingly, Luke’s Jesus foresees the doom of Jerusalem and prophesies it numerous times. In his woes, parables, and judgment oracles, he accuses the temple authorities of abusing God’s trust and opposing God’s Messiah. The sentence: God will destroy them together with the temple.6 Since it might seem strange—especially in the messianic age—that God should move against God’s own sanctuary, Luke reminds his audience of the precedent set by Israel’s prophets. Luke’s Jesus uses their language to condemn Jerusalem and describe its doom. Jeremiah, who prophesied the destruction of the first temple, is the most obvious source for such language. Luke therefore cites Jeremiah along with other prophets who speak of siege and slaughter, captivity and destruction. For Luke, the Jesus who utters woes, parables, and judgment oracles against Jerusalem is a prophet like Hosea, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. In their day, God sent Gentile armies against his people. Now, after the first coming of the Messiah, God will send them again, for many of the same reasons.7 “As a Fulfillment of All That Is Written” As Luke and his associates tried to process the significance of the war and its aftermath, they turned to the Scriptures. Descriptions of cities under attack now resonated with grim undertones. The hordes of armed invaders; their siege towers and battering rams; the dreaded moment when the wall was breached and the slaughter...