In “The first installment”, we covered some background information and events leading to the Olivet Discourse found in Matthew 24 (and Mark 13 and Luke 21). I concluded that post writing:
Thus begins the Olivet Discourse. The first question His disciples ask is “when will the Temple be destroyed?” They then ask, “what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?”
Christ begins to answer these questions by pointing to the things that will have to happen first, before the Temple and the city (Jerusalem) are destroyed:
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 9 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 24:4-14 (NKJV)
Remember: Christ is answering specific questions about the destruction of the Temple IN THEIR GENERATION and the signs that precede it: He is not talking about either our generation or some generation yet to exist in our future.
So let’s look at how some of these signs were fulfilled in Christ’s generation. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus recorded events that led to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans under Titus Flavius. Let’s take Christ’s signs one at a time:
1. “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many… Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.”
Here’s what Josephus writes regarding deceivers among the Jews who led them to war with the Romans:
There was also another body of wicked men gotten together, not so impure in their actions, but more wicked in their intentions, which laid waste the happy state of the city [Jerusalem] no less than did these murderers [the Sicarii – Jewish Assassins]. These were such men as deceived and deluded the people under pretense of Divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of the government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God would there show them the signals of liberty.
But there was an Egyptian false prophet that did the Jews more mischief than the former; for he was a cheat, and pretended to be a prophet also, and got together thirty thousand men that were deluded by him; these he led round about from the wilderness to the mount which was called the Mount of Olives, and was ready to break into Jerusalem by force from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people, he intended to domineer over them by the assistance of those guards of his that were to break into the city with him.
Now when these were quieted, it happened, as it does in a diseased body, that another part was subject to an inflammation; for a company of deceivers and robbers got together, and persuaded the Jews to revolt, and exhorted them to assert their liberty, inflicting death on those that continued in obedience to the Roman government, and saying, that such as willingly chose slavery ought to be forced from such their desired inclinations; for they parted themselves into different bodies, and lay in wait up and down the country, and plundered the houses of the great men, and slew the men themselves, and set the villages on fire; and this till all Judea was filled with the effects of their madness. And thus the flame was every day more and more blown up, till it came to a direct war.
Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 13
Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas, persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them; who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem. This was what befell the Jews in the time of Cuspius Fadus’s government.
Josephus, Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 5
Certainly, as Christ warned, there were many deceivers in the land during that generation.
2. “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
Some of the wars which happened between Christ’s death (circa 30AD) and the destruction of Jerusalem included:
- Herod goes to war against Arabia, loses army and territories in battle – 36 AD
- The Roman conquest of Britain – 43 AD
- Rome annexes territories in Thrace (Southeastern Bulgarian/Northwestern Turkey) – 45 AD
- The Roman conquest of Armenia – 58 AD
These Roman wars of conquest helped set the stage for the fulfillment of this prediction:
3. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
This passage has been misquoted so often to mean the “end” in our future, that it is often mistakenly asserted as proof that Christ was talking about our time! However, that’s not what the Greek word for “world” meant in His time or to His disciples!
Here is how the Literal Bible interprets the Greek:
14. And will be proclaimed this Good News of the kingdom in all the inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then will come the end.
The Greek word for “inhabited earth” is “oikoumene”, and it is where we get our English word “ecumenical.” Webster’s Online defines ecumenical as follows:
Main Entry: ec·u·men·i·cal
Pronunciation: \ˌe-kyə-ˈme-ni-kəl, -kyü-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin oecumenicus, from Late Greek oikoumenikos, from Greek oikoumenē the inhabited world, from feminine of oikoumenos, present passive participle of oikein to inhabit, from oikos house — more at vicinity
Date: circa 15871 : worldwide or general in extent, influence, or application
2 a : of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches b : promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation
Wikipedia defines what the word meant in Jesus’ day:
The word is derived from Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene), which means “the inhabited world”, and was historically used with specific reference to the Roman Empire.
In other words, what we consider to be the entire world now only really referred to nations in and around the Roman Empire during the first century. This is the perspective from which Jesus would have been speaking to them. Although Jesus certainly would have foreseen places like the U.S., Russia, and Brazil, He was communicating to them in the context of their time: the generation in which all these things would come to pass!
4. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
The book of Acts recounts one such famine in the land of Judea:
25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
27 And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. 29 Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. 30 This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 11:25-30 (NKJV)
Josephus also recounts events surrounding this famine:
Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem; for whereas a famine did oppress them at that time, and many people died for want of what was necessary to procure food withal, queen Helena sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus, to bring a cargo of dried figs. And as soon as they were come back, and had brought those provisions, which was done very quickly, she distributed food to those that were in want of it, and left a most excellent memorial behind her of this benefaction, which she bestowed on our whole nation. And when her son Izates was informed of this famine, he sent great sums of money to the principal men in Jerusalem. However, what favors this queen and king conferred upon our city Jerusalem shall be further related hereafter.
Josephus, Antiquities, Book 20, Chapter 2
This famine and the relief that came both from Paul and the Christian community in Antioch, and from Queen Helena and her son, occurred around 43 AD, This famine would have been accompanied by disease (pestilence) in the city of Jerusalem from malnutrition and death.
Josephus also records an earthquake outside Jerusalem around 65 AD, about a year before the siege of Jerusalem had begun by the Romans. During this time, the Zealots – Jewish insurrectionists that were fomenting revolution against Rome – had invited Idumean (Edomite) mercenaries to come to Jerusalem and help them in their fight against the Romans. Upon arriving at Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders who wanted nothing to do with war against the Romans – or the Zealots – would not let them into the city! Josephus recounts what happens next:
Nor indeed were the minds of the Idumeans at rest; for they were in a rage at the injury that had been offered them by their exclusion out of the city; and when they thought the zealots had been strong, but saw nothing of theirs to support them, they were in doubt about the matter, and many of them repented that they had come thither. But the shame that would attend them in case they returned without doing any thing at all, so far overcame that their repentance, that they lay all night before the wall, though in a very bad encampment; for there broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest showers of rain, with continued lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that was in an earthquake. These things were a manifest indication that some destruction was coming upon men, when the system of the world was put into this disorder; and any one would guess that these wonders foreshowed some grand calamities that were coming.
Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book 4
Luke also writes of an earthquake in Acts:
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.
Acts 16:25-26 (NKJV)
Finally, we come to the most well-documented evidence that Christ was speaking of events that would happen to that generation:
5. “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.”
There is no greater compelling evidence to support this fulfillment of Christ’s words, above, than the deaths of Christ’s disciples recounted in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.
The very first martyr after Christ was Stephen, stoned to death by the Jews while Saul (who would later become the apostle Paul) looked on in approval.
The following is a list of those apostles and disciples martyred for Christ before the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple.
- James the Greater: beheaded in 44 AD in Judea;
- Philip: crucified in 54 AD in Heliopolis;
- Matthew: death by halberd in 60 AD in Ethipoia;
- James the Less: beaten to death at age of 94 in Jerusalem;
- Mathias: date unknown, beheaded in Jerusalem;
- Andrew; date unknown, crucified in Edessa;
- Mark; date unknown, dragged to death in Alexandria, Egypt;
- Peter: crucified upside down during Nero’s reign in Rome;
- Paul: beheaded during Nero’s reign in Rome.
Most of the remaining apostles were martyred shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. During this time, however, the gospel had been preached from Britain to Ethipoia and from Spain to India, as the early church father Eusebius recounts in his work:
Tiberius, therefore, under whom the name of Christ was spread throughout the world, when this doctrine was announced to him from Palestine, where it first began, communicated with the senate, being obviously pleased with the doctrine; but the senate, as they had not proposed the measure, rejected it. But he continued in his opinion, threatening death to the accusers of the Christians; a divine providence infusing this into his mind, that the gospel having freer scope in its commencement, might spread every where over the world.”
Thus, then, under a celestial influence and co-operation, the doctrine of the Saviour, like the rays of the sun, quickly irradiated the whole world. Presently, in accordance with divine prophecy, the sound of his inspired evangelists and apostles had gone throughout all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
Eusebius Pamphilus, The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus
All of these things Christ said would happen came to pass before the Temple was destroyed in that generation.
In the next installment, I’ll break down what Christ meant by the “abomination of desolation.” It’s not what we’ve been led to believe it is!
Rightly dividing the Word: Matthew 24 