PREFACE
One of the most stirring episodes in the history of the world is
furnished by the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus,
its capture, and its destruction. Not only does it command our
attention from the valour displayed by the besiegers, and the
desperate resolution of the besieged; from the numerous pathetic
incidents which marked the course of the great struggle, and
which have been recorded with so much eloquence by Josephus;
but we are impressed by the fact that the downfall of the
Holy City was the fulfilment of a distinct prophecy, and the last
unmistakable sign that the old order had changed, giving place
to the new—that the Old Dispensation had passed away, to be
succeeded by the religion of Christ.
A story so striking in itself, and so suggestive, cannot fail
to interest the reader, however plainly told. In the following
pages (please see link at bottom to see the rest of the story)
an attempt has been made to condense it within moderate
limits, while, it is hoped, preserving its most salient points.
It is here preceded, moreover, by a rapid summary of the events
which culminated in this one supreme event, and followed by a
brief narrative of the final subjugation of Judaea. In the main
it is founded upon Josephus; but some illustrative particulars
have been gathered from other sources, and recourse has also
been had to the modern works of Merivale and Milman.
The writer therefore hopes that in its present form the
"old, old story " will continue to interest the youthful reader;
and that in many a "Sunday Library " his unpretending volume
will be allowed to occupy a " place of honour."
THE CITY
Let the reader carry back his imagination to a time immediately
preceding our Saviour's death; to the day when, seated on the
green slope of the Mount of Olives, with his apostles gathered
around him, the Author of our Faith looked down upon the great
Jewish metropolis—" the Holy City "—glowing in the gold and
purple of the sunset.
It was evening, says Dean Milman, and the whole irregular
line of the famous capital, as it soared from the deep valleys
encircling it on three of its sides, might be clearly traced.
Behind the western hills "slow sank the setting sun"—
the "significant emblem of the great Fountain of moral light,
to which Jesus and his faith have been perpetually compared"
-his last gleams of glory resting on the castled height of
Mount Zion—on the magnificent palace of Herod the King—
on the square tower, the "Antonia," at the corner of the Temple
—and on that Temple itself, the centre of the Jewish faith,
the home of the Old Revelation, blazing all over with spikes
of gold, which glittered in the sun like shafts of fire. Below,
its colonnades and its massive gates flung their broad, heavy
shadows over the courts, and so produced that magical contrast
of light and shade, which is not only important in an artistic
point of view, but in its singular influence on the spectator's
imagination. Further around mounted roof after roof in long
succession, partly enveloped in the long volumes of smoke which
rose from the evening sacrifice; and against the distant horizon
towered the blue masses of the mountains, as if to fence in from
the outer world a scene so glorious, so sacred, and so fair.
In truth, a glorious scene; for Jerusalem at that epoch surpassed
all the other cities of the known world in grandeur. A Latin
writer, some few years later, spoke of it as " longe clarissima
urbium Orientis, non Judasse modo,"—as by far the most splendid,
not simply of the cities of Judsea, but of the Bast. Herod
the Great had enriched it with stately structures, whose
magnificence could not be equalled even in Imperial Rome itself.
Its gymnasiums and its theatres, its pillared porticoes and its
forums, were of the most precious materials and of the noblest
proportions. All the shrines and sanctuaries of Rome could have
been enclosed within the precincts of the Temple, which had been
rebuilt on the holiest site in the Holy City, and enlarged with
an outer court of much greater dimensions. For fifty years, says
Merivale, marble had been piled upon marble in constructing it.
It occupied the whole summit of the hill of Moriah—next to Zion,
the most prominent quarter of the city—and rising upon enormous
substructions from the deep valleys beneath, seemed like one
immense citadel, the Sanctuary of the Jewish nation.
"On the rival summit of Mount Zion," continues the historian",
the highest elevation in Jerusalem, was planted the royal
residence; no modest mansion for the most eminent of Roman
senators, but a Palace worthy of the name; an abode befitting
an Oriental potentate, erected not by the contributions of the
populace, but by confiscation of the estates of the great and
powerful of the land. Surrounded with lofty walls and towers,
springing, like the Temple, from the depths of the gorges
beneath, containing vast halls and ample corridors, its courts
filled with trees and grass-plots, with reservoirs, fountains,
and running streams, it was a palace, a villa, and a fortress
all in one. Zion and Moriah faced each other across the deep
and narrow trench of the Tyropceon, and the Temple and
the Palace were connected by a bridge or causeway, across
which the sovereign marched above the heads of his subjects,
as the sun passes in the heavens from cloud to cloud."
It was while gazing on this magnificent city that out Lord
delivered his solemn prophecy of its approaching downfall.
His disciples, their hearts burning with patriotic fervour,
not unnaturally began to praise its exceeding beauty, and
especially to dwell with fond affection on the superb character
of its Temple,—" how it was adorned with goodly stones
and gifts". They saw it as it was; they had no thought of
its future, or what thought they had was probably connected
with its greater glory as, at some later time, the head-quarters
of the New Revelation preached to them by their Divine Master.
But he, piercing the clouds which obscured the human view,
dispelled in a moment all their visions, and overwhelmed with
sorrow their boastful minds". As for these things which ye
behold," he exclaimed, " the days will come in the which there
shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down". We can imagine the consternation with which
the disciples listened to this terrible prediction, and the panic
fear which led them to inquire, "Master, but when shall these
things be? Will no sign be vouchsafed to us before so awful
a destruction falls upon Jerusalem"?
The reader may perhaps wonder why this doom was preordained
for the Holy City; why the capital of Judaea —the city of David
and Solomon, of the kings and the prophets, the common centre
of God's chosen people— should have been marked out for so
signal a calamity. But it was stained with the blood of the just
and the true— its streets had witnessed the sufferings of saints:
its inhabitants, rejoicing in their wealth and prosperity, had
turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the Most High . . .
http://www.preteristarchive.com/Bookstore/1885_conquest-of-judea.html
--
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass,
till all these things be fulfilled." - Matthew 24:34
O
/
/
<><[]()X()[]><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>
\
\
O
"For the word of God is sharper than any two edged sword."
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that
genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
.
|
