Page 158 - Quintessential Gospel of Jesus Christ 1

the Valley of Sorek and the important Jerusalem-Bet Guvrin Road. Thousands of
Jewish refugees fled to Bethar during the war. In 135 C.E. Hadrian’s army
besieged Bethar and on the 9th of Av the Jewish fast day commemorating the
destruction of the first and second Holy Temples the walls of Bethar fell. After a
fierce battle every Jew in Bethar was killed. The Jerusalem Talmud relates that
the number of dead in
Bethar was enormous that the Romans went on killing until their horses were
submerged in blood to their nostrils. Six days passed before the Romans allowed
the Jews to bury their dead.

"Jerusalem ... 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." Josephus, War VII.1,1.
"And Jesus answering said unto him, see you these great buildings? There shall
not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." – Mark 13.2.
And the winepress was trodden until the juice which came out reached even to
the horse nostrils and the circumference of the winepress was a thousand and
six hundred furlongs. Revelation 14:20
The Romans plowed Jerusalem with a yoke of oxen. Jews were sold into slavery
and many were transported to Egypt. Judean settlements were not rebuilt.
Jerusalem was turned into a pagan city called Aelia Capitolina and the Jews
were forbidden to live there. Hadrian attempted to root out Judaism which he saw
as the cause of continuous rebellions. He prohibited the Torah law and the
Hebrew calendar and executed Judaic scholars. The sacred scroll was
ceremonially burned on the Temple Mount. At the former Temple sanctuary he
installed two statues one of Jupiter another of himself. In an attempt to erase any
memory of Judea or Ancient Israel he wiped the name off the map and replaced
it with Syria Palaestina and the Jews were forbidden from entering. They were
permitted to enter only on the 9th of Av to mourn their losses in the revolt. In the
years following the revolt Hadrian discriminated against all Judeo sects but the
worst persecution was directed against religious Jews. He made anti-religious
decrees forbidding Torah study, Sabbath observance, circumcision, Jewish
courts, meeting in synagogues and other ritual practices. This age of persecution
lasted throughout the remainder of Hadrian’s reign, until 138 C.E.