"It is, in fact, a sign and notable proof of the coming of
the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands"
These quotes clearly speak to the return of Christ!
Athanasius (A.D.345)
"He was like those sent by the householder to receive
the fruits of the vineyard from the husbandmen; for
he exhorted all men to render a return. But Israel
despised and would not render, for their will was not
right, nay moreover they killed those that were sent,
and not even before the Lord of the vineyard were
they ashamed, but even He was slain by them.
Verily, when He came and found no fruit in them,
He cursed them through the fig-tree, saying, "Let
there be henceforth no fruit from thee" [Matt. 21:19];
and the fig-tree was dead and fruitless, so that even
the disciples wondered when it withered away.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophet:
"I will take away from them the voice of joy and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of
the bride, the scent of myrrh, and the light of a lamp, and
the whole land shall be destroyed" [Jer. 25:10]. For the
whole service of the law has been abolished from them,
and henceforth and forever they remain without a feast."
(St. Athanasius, Letters [vi])
"So the Jews are indulging in fiction, and transferring
present time to future. When did prophet and vision cease
from Israel? Was it not when Christ came, the Holy One
of holies? It is, in fact, a sign and notable proof of the
coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands,
neither is prophet raised up nor vision revealed among
them. And it is natural that it should be so, for when
He that was signified had come, what need was there
any longer of any to signify Him? And when the Truth
had come, what further need was there of the shadow?
On His account only they prophesied continually, until
such time as Essential Righteousness has come, Who
was made the Ransom for the sins of all. For the same
reason Jerusalem stood until the same time, in order
that there men might premeditate the types before the
Truth was known. So, of course, once the Holy One
of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were
sealed. And the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the
same time, because kings were to be anointed among
them only until the Holy of holies had been anointed.
Moses also prophesies that the kingdom of the Jews
shall stand until His time, saying, "A ruler shall not
fail from Judah nor a prince from his loins, until the
things laid up for him shall come and the Expectation
of the nations Himself". And that is why the Savior
Himself was always proclaiming "The law and the
prophets prophesied until John." So if there is still king
or prophet or vision among the Jews, they do well to
deny that Christ is come; but if there is neither king
nor vision, and since that time all prophecy has been
sealed and city and temple taken, how can they be so
irreligious, how can they so flaunt the facts, as to deny
Christ Who has brought it all about?.. What more is
there for their Expected One to do when he comes?
To call the heathen? But they are called already. To
put an end to prophet and king and vision? But this
too has already happened. To expose the Goddenyingness
of idols? It is already exposed and condemned. Or to
destroy death? It is already destroyed. What then has
not come to pass that the Christ must do? What is there
left out or unfulfilled that the Jews should disbelieve so
light-heartedly? The plain fact is, as I say, that there is
no longer any king or prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice
nor vision among them; yet the whole earth is filled with
the knowledge of God, and the Gentiles, forsaking atheism,
are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through
the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. (Incarnation, Ch. VI )
Chrysostom
"For I will ask them, Did He send the prophets and wise men?
Did they slay them in their synagogue? Was their house left
desolate? Did all the vengeance come upon that generation?
It is quite plain that it was so, and no man gainsays it."
(Homily LXXIV)
"But of wars in Jerusalem is He speaking; for it is not
surely of those without, and everywhere in the world;
for what did they care for these? And besides, He would
thus say nothing new, if He were speaking of the calamities
of the world at large, which are happening always. For
before this, were wars, and tumults, and fightings; but
He speaks of the Jewish wars coming upon them at no
great distance, for henceforth the Roman arms were
a matter of anxiety. Since then these things also were
sufficient to confound them, He foretells them all.
Therefore He saith, they shall come not by themselves
or at once, but with signs. For that the Jews may not say,
that they who then believed were the authors of these evils,
therefore hath He told them also of the cause of their
coming upon them. "For verily I say unto you," He said
before, "all these things shall come upon this generation",
having made mention of the stain of blood on them".
(Homilies)
Cyprian (approx. AD 250)
6. That the Jews should lose Jerusalem, and should leave
the land which they had received.
In Isaiah: "Your country is desolate, your cities are burned
with fire: your land, strangers shall devour it in your
sight; and the daughter of Zion shall be left deserted, and
overthrown by foreign peoples, as a cottage in a vineyard,
and as a keeper's lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city
which is besieged. And unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left
us a seed, we should have been as Sodoma, and we should
have been like unto Gomorrah.". Also in the Gospel the
Lord says: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killest the prophets,
and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would
I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and thou wouldst not! Behold, your house
shall be left unto you desolate". (THREE BOOKS OF
TESTIMONIES AGAINST THE JEWS)
Eusebius (A.D.314)
"And all this prophecy of what would result from their
insolence against the Christ has been clearly proved
to have taken place after their plot against our Saviour.
For it was not before it, but afterwards from that day to
this that God turned their feasts into mourning, despoiled
them of their famous mother-city, and destroyed the holy
Temple therein when Titus and Vespasian were Emperors
of Rome, so that they could no longer go up to keep their
feasts and sacred meetings. I need not say that a famine
of hearing the Word of the Lord has overtaken them all,
in return for their rejection of the Word of God; since
with one voice they refused Him, so He refuses them."
(Eusebius, Demonstratio Evangelica, X)
"When, then, we see what was of old foretold for the nations
fulfilled in our own day, and when the lamentation and
wailing that was predicted for the Jews, and the burning
of the Temple and its utter desolation, can also be seen
even now to have occurred according to the prediction,
surely we must also agree that the King who was prophesied,
the Christ of God, has come, since the signs of His coming
have been shewn in each instance I have treated to have
been clearly fulfilled." (Demonstratio Evangelica
(Proof of the Gospel) ; BOOK VIII)
"If any one compares the words of our Saviour with the
other accounts of the historian (Josephus) concerning
the whole war, how can one fail to wonder, and to admit
that the foreknowledge and the prophecy of our Saviour
were truly divine and marvelously strange."
(Book III, Ch. VII)
"It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction
of our Saviour in which he foretold these very events.
His words are as follows: "Woe unto them that are with
child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray
ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the
Sabbath day; For there shall be great tribulation, such
as was not since the beginning of the world to this time,
no, nor ever shall be". The historian, reckoning the whole
number of the slain, says that eleven hundred thousand
persons perished by famine and sword, and that the rest
of the rioters and robbers, being betrayed by each other
after the taking of the city, were slain. But the tallest
of the youths and those that were distinguished for
beauty were preserved for the triumph. Of the rest of
the multitude, those that were over seventeen years of
age were sent as prisoners to labor in the works of Egypt,
while still more were scattered through the provinces to
meet their death in the theaters by the sword and by beasts.
Those under seventeen years of age were carried away to
be sold as slaves, and of these alone the number reached
ninety thousand. These things took place in this manner
in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, in accordance
with the prophecies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who by divine power saw them beforehand as if they were
already present, and wept and mourned according to the
statement of the holy evangelists, who give the very words
which be uttered, when, as if addressing Jerusalem herself,
he said: "If thou hadst known, even thou, in this day, the
things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hid
from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that
thine enemies shall cast a rampart about thee, and compass
thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay
thee and thy children even with the ground." And then,
as if speaking concerning the people, he says, "For there
shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this
people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and
shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem
shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of
the Gentiles be fulfilled." And again: "When ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh." (Book III, Ch. VII)
"And the people of the governor that cometh will destroy
the city and the holy place." Meaning that the city and the
Holy Place arc not only to be ruined by the leader to come,
whom I have identified in my interpretation, but also by
his people. And you would not be far wrong in saying,
too, that the Roman general and his army arc meant by
the words before us, where I think the camps of the Roman
rulers are meant, who governed the nation from that time,
and who destroyed the city of Jerusalem itself, and its
ancient venerable Temple. For they were cut off by them
as by a flood, and were at once involved in destruction
until the war was concluded, so that the prophecy was
fulfilled and they suffered utter desolation (400) after
their plot against our Saviour, which was followed by
their extreme sufferings during the siege. You will find
an accurate account of it in the history of Josephus."
(Demonstratio Evangelica (Proof of the Gospel);
BOOK VIII)
Hippolytus of Rome (II/III Centuries)
30. Come, then, O blessed Isaiah; arise, tell us clearly
what thou didst prophesy with respect to the mighty Babylon.
For thou didst speak also of Jerusalem, and thy word is
accomplished. For thou didst speak boldly and openly:
"Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire;
your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is
desolate as overthrown by many strangers. The daughter
of Sion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard, and as
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city."
What then? Are not these things come to pass? Are not
the things announced by thee fulfilled? Is not their
country, Judea, desolate? Is not the holy place burned
with fire? Are not their walls cast down? Are not their
cities destroyed? Their land, do not strangers devour it?
Do not the Romans rule the country? And indeed these
impious people hated thee, and did saw thee asunder,
and they crucified Christ. Thou art dead in the world,
but thou livest in Christ." (Fragments of Dogmatic
and Historical Works)
Irenaeus (Approx. AD 174)
CHAP. IV.--ANSWER TO ANOTHER OBJECTION, SHOWING
THAT THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM, WHICH WAS
THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING, DIMINISHED NOTHING
FROM THE SUPREME MAJESTY' AND POWER OF GOD,
FOR THAT THIS DESTRUCTION WAS PUT IN EXECUTION
BY THE MOST WISE COUNSEL OF THE SAME GOD.
1. Further, also, concerning Jerusalem and the Lord,
they venture to assert that, if it had been "the city of
the great King,"(12) it would not have been deserted.
(13) This is just as if any one should say, that if straw
were a creation of God, it would never part company with
the wheat; and that the vine twigs, if made by God, never
would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters. But
as these [vine twigs] have not been originally made for
their own sake, but for that of the fruit growing upon them,
which being come to maturity and taken away, they are left
behind, and those which do not conduce to fructification
are lopped off altogether; so also [was it with] Jerusalem,
which had in herself borne the yoke of bondage (under
which man was reduced, who in former times was not
subject to God when death was reigning, and being subdued,
became a fit subject for liberty), when the fruit of liberty
had come, and reached maturity, and been reaped and stored
in the barn, and when those which had the power to produce
fruit had been carried away from her [i.e., from Jerusalem],
and scattered throughout all the world. Even as Esaias
saith, "The children of Jacob shall strike root, and Israel
shall flourish, and the whole world shall be filled with his
fruit."(1) The fruit, therefore, having been sown throughout
all the world, she (Jerusalem) was deservedly forsaken,
and those things which had formerly brought forth fruit
abundantly were taken away; for from these, according
to the flesh, were Christ and the apostles enabled to bring
forth fruit. But now these are no longer useful for
bringing forth fruit. For all things which have a beginning
in time must of course have an end in time also.
2. Since, then, the law originated with Moses, it terminated
with John as a necessary consequence. Christ had come
to fulfil it: wherefore "the law and the prophets were"
with them "until John."(2) And therefore Jerusalem,
taking its commencement from David,(3) and fulfilling
its own times, must have an end of legislation(4) when
the new covenant was revealed."
Justin Martyr (Approx. AD 150)
CHAP. XLVII.--DESOLATION OF JUDAEA FORETOLD.
That the land of the Jews, then, was to be laid waste, hear
what was said by the Spirit of prophecy. And the words
were spoken as if from the person of the people wondering
at what had happened. They are these: "Sion is a
wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our
sanctuary has become a curse, and the glory which our
fathers blessed is burned up with fire, and all its glorious
things are laid waste: and Thou refrainest Thyself at these
things, and hast held Thy peace, and hast humbled us very
sore."(6) And ye are convinced that Jerusalem has been
laid waste, as was predicted. And concerning its desolation,
and that no one should be permitted to inhabit it, there was
the following prophecy by Isaiah: "Their land is desolate,
their enemies consume it before them, and none of them
shall dwell therein."(7) And that it is guarded by you lest
any one dwell in it, and that death is decreed against a Jew
apprehended entering it, you know very well.(First Apology,
Ch. 47.)
Lactantius (3rd Century)
"But He also opened to them all things which were about
to happen, which Peter and Paul preached at Rome; and
also said that it was about to come to pass, that after a
short time God would send against them a king who would
subdue the Jews, and level their cities to the ground, and
besiege the people themselves, worn out with hunger and
thirst. Then it should come to pass that they should feed
on the bodies of their own children, and consume one
another. Lastly, that they should be taken captive, and
come into the hands of their enemies, and should see
their wives most cruelly harassed before their eyes,
their virgins ravished and polluted, their sons torn in
pieces, their little ones dashed to the ground; and lastly,
everything laid waste with fire and sword, the captives
banished for ever from their own lands, because they had
exulted over the well-beloved and most approved Son of
God. And so, after their decease, when Nero had put them
to death, Vespasian destroyed the name and nation of the
Jews, and did all things which they had foretold as about to
come to pass." (Lactantius: DIVINE INSTITUTES, BOOK IV)
"Also Zechariah says: "And they shall look on me whom
they pierced." Amos thus speaks of the obscuring of the
sun: "In that day, saith the Lord, the sun shall go down at
noon, and the clear day shall be dark; and I will turn your
feasts into mourning, and your songs into lamentation."
Jeremiah also speaks of the city of Jerusalem, in which
He suffered: "Her sun is gone down while it was yet day;
she hath been confounded and reviled, and the residue
of them will I deliver to the sword." Nor were these
things spoken in vain. For after a short time the Emperor
Vespasian subdued the Jews, and laid waste their lands with
the sword and fire, besieged and reduced them by famine,
overthrew Jerusalem, led the captives in triumph, and
prohibited the others who were left from ever returning
to their native land. And these things were done by God
on account of that crucifixion of Christ, as He before
declared this to Solomon in their Scriptures, saying,
"And Israel shall be for perdition and a reproach to the
people, and this house shall be desolate; and every one
that shall pass by shall be astonished, and shall say, Why
hath God done these evils to this land, and to this house?
And they shall say, Because they forsook the Lord their God,
and persecuted their. King, who was dearly beloved by God,
and crucified Him with great degradation, therefore hath
God brought upon them these evils." For what would they
not deserve who put to death their Lord, who had come
for their salvation? (Lactantius: EPITOME OF THE DIVINE
INSTITUTES, Ch. 46)
Origen (2nd Century)
"I challenge anyone to prove my statement untrue if I say
that the entire Jewish nation was destroyed less than one
whole generation later on account of these sufferings which
they inflicted on Jesus. For it was, I believe, forty-two
years from the time when they crucified Jesus to the
destruction of Jerusalem." (Contra Celsum, 198-199)
"Therefore he, also, having separated from her, married,
so to speak, another, having given into the hands of the
former the bill of divorcement; wherefore they can no
longer do the things enjoined on them by the law, because
of the bill of divorcement. And a sign that she has
received the bill of divorcement is this, that Jerusalem
was destroyed along with what they called the sanctuary
of the things in it which were believed to be holy, and
with the altar of burnt offerings, and all the worship
associated with it... And what was more unseemly than
the fact, that they all said in His case, "Crucify Him,
crucify Him," and "Away with such a fellow from the earth"?
And can this be freed from the charge of unseemliness,
"His blood be upon us, and upon our children"? Wherefore,
when He was avenged, Jerusalem was compassed with armies,
and its desolation was near, and their house was taken away
from it, and "the daughter of Zion was left as a booth in a
vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as
a besieged city." And, about the same time, I think, the
husband wrote out a bill of divorcement to his former wife,
and gave it into her hands, and sent her away from his own
house, and the bond of her who came from the Gentiles has
been cancelled about which the Apostle Says, "Having blotted
out the bond written in ordinances, which was contrary
to us, and He hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to
the cross;" for Paul also and others became proselytes of
Israel for her who came from the Gentiles." (COMMENTARY
ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, Book 2.,
sec. 19.)
Tertullian (Approx. AD 200)
CHAP. VIII.-- OF JERUSALEM'S DESTRUCTION.
"Accordingly the times must be inquired into of the
predicted and future nativity of the Christ, and of His
passion, and of the extermination of the city of Jerusalem,
that is, its devastation. For Daniel says, that "both the
holy city and the holy place are exterminated together
with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is destroyed
unto ruin."(7) And so the times of the coming Christ,
the Leader,(8) must be inquired into, which we shall trace
in Daniel; and, after computing them, shall prove Him
to be come, even on the ground of the times prescribed,
and of competent signs and operations of His. Which
matters we prove, again, on the ground of the consequences
which were ever announced as to follow His advent; in order
that we may believe all to have been as well fulfilled as
foreseen.
"Therefore, when these times also were completed, and
the Jews subdued, there afterwards ceased in that place
"libations and sacrifices," which thenceforward have not
been able to be in that place celebrated; for "the unction",
too,(6) was "exterminated" in that place after the passion
of Christ. For it had been predicted that the unction
should be exterminated in that place; as in the Psalms it
is prophesied, "They exterminated my hands and feet."(7)
And the suffering of this "extermination" was perfected
within the times of the lxx hebdomads, under Tiberius
Caesar, in the consulate of Rubellius Geminus and Fufius
Geminus, in the month of March, at the times of the
passover, on the eighth day before the calends of April,(8)
on the first day of unleavened bread, on which they slew
the lamb at even, just as had been enjoined by Moses.(9)
Accordingly, all the synagogue of Israel did slay Him,
saying to Pilate, when he was desirous to dismiss Him,
"His blood be upon us, and upon our children;"(10) and,
"If thou dismiss him, thou art not a friend of Caesar;"(11)
in order that all things might be fulfilled which had been
written of Him. (An Answer to the Jews 8.)
--
One good thing about Alzheimers is that you meet new people
every day.
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