Page 90 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

The burning of the central temple was a declaration of unconditional victory. Often it was the location
of the last stand of resistance. Only if the gods of the city had abandoned that city to its fate would they
allow their own home to be destroyed. When Sennacherib destroyed Babylon and the temple of
Marduk in 689 B.C., he claimed to have done so on behalf of Marduk, who wished to punish his people
for their evil behavior.

The captors were understood to have free rein with the city and its populace. The defeated city had no
gods to whom they might appeal for mercy and no hope for a change in their fate. Their gods were
believed to have moved to the capital of the victors, where they became patrons of the kings of that
city.

The Book of Lamentations says the same thing about Nebuchadnezzar II burning Jerusalem and it’s
temple in 586 B.C. (2 Kings 25:9). Yahweh Himself had become Judah’s enemy (Lam. 2:5) and destroyed
His own temple – His “tabernacle” and “place of assembly” (2:6). With Yahweh’s permission, Judah’s
enemy now “made a noise in the house of the Lord.” (2:7).

nd
Later in history, we will see Titus attack Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and destroy the 2 temple located in the
City of David. Jesus predicted this destruction in Matthew 24:2, claiming that “not one stone will be left
on another; everyone will be thrown down.”

rd
According to Eusebius, a 3 century historian, said, “The hill called Zion and Jerusalem, the building
there, that is to say, the temple, has been utterly removed or shaken.” This means completely destroyed
or utterly gone. As Christ prophesized, “Not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be
thrown down.”

Josephus (who was alive at the time of the destruction of the temple) said, “It was so thoroughly laid
even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make
those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited.” Eleazer Ben Jair, the commander at
Masada, wrote “It (Jerusalem) is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing left but that
monument of it preserved, I mean the camps of those Romans that hath destroyed it, which still dwells
upon its ruins.”

nd
Josephus described the destruction of the 2 Temple. He described how the Roman soldiers tore up the
foundation stones after the temple was burned to obtain the melted gold that had seeped between the
cracks on the floor. After the Romans burned the city and destroyed the temple, Jesus Christ’s
prediction of utter destruction was confirmed by Josephus. Not one stone was left on another.

Today you can go to the “temple mount” in Jerusalem. The Jews worship at the western wall where
they claim that it was the only wall left of the original temple. The large foundation stones have been
dated back to the time of the original temple. Perhaps, those stone are not really the ancient temple.
Either Jesus Christ’s prediction and all the witnesses of the events are incorrect, or the western wall is
NOT the site of the ancient temple in Jerusalem.

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