• Dissertation XVIII - Part I
• Dissertation XVIII - Part II
• Dissertation XVIII - Part III
• Dissertation XVIII - Part IV

Our Saviour's Prophecies Relating to the Destruction of Jerusalem

Which Have Remarkably Been Fulfilled

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By Thomas Newton D.D.

Late Lord Bishop of Bristol (London 1700)

Dissertation XXI - Part IV

WHEN we first entered on an explanation of our Saviour’s prophecies, relating to the destruction of Jerusalem, comprised chiefly in this 24th chapter of St. Matthew, it was observed, that the disciples in their question propose two things to our Saviour; first, when should be the ’time’ of his coming, or the destruction of Jerusalem; and secondly, what should be the ’signs’ of it, ver. 3,— ’ Tell us when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the conclusion of the age.’ The latter part of the question our Saviour answereth first, and treateth at large of the ’signs’ of the destruction of Jerusalem from the 4th verse of the chapter to the 31st inclusive. He toucheth upon the most material passages and incidents, not only of those which were to forerun this great event, but likewise of those which were to attend, and immediately to follow upon it : and having thus answered the latter part of the question, he proceeds now in verse 32nd to answer the former part of the question, as to the ’time’ of his coming, and the destruction of Jerusalem.

He begins with observing that the signs which he had given, would be as certain an indication of the time of his coming, as the fig-tree’s putting forth its leaves is of the approach of summer; ver. 32, 33, — ’ Now learn a parable of the fig-tree : when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near,’ or he is near, ’even at the doors.’ He proceeds to declare that the time of his coming was at no very great distance, and to show that he hath been speaking all this while of the destruction of Jerusalem, he affirms with his usual affirmation, ver 34, ’Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.’ It is to me a wonder how any man can refer part of the foregoing discourse to the destruction of Jerusalem, and part to the end of the world, or any other distant event, when it is said so positively here in the conclusion, ’All these things shall be fulfilled in this generation.’ It seemeth as if our ’Saviour had been aware of some such misapplication of his words, by adding yet greater force and emphasis to his affirmation, ver. 35, — ’Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ It is a common figure of speech in the oriental languages, to say of two things that the one shall be and the other shall not be, when the meaning is only that the one shall happen sooner or more easily than the other. As in this instance of our Saviour,’Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,’ the meaning is, Heaven and earth shall sooner or more easily pass away than my words shall pass away; the frame of the universe shall sooner or more easily be dissolved than my words shall not be fulfilled : And thus it is expressed by St. Luke upon a like occasion, 16:17, — ’ It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fall.’ In another place he says, Matt. 16:28,- - ’There are some standing here, who shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom:’ intimating that it would not succeed immediately, and yet not at such a distance of time, but that some then living should be spectators of the calamities coming upon the nation. In like manner he says to the women, who bewailed and lamented him as be was going to be crucified, Luke 23:28, — Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children:’ which sufficiently implied, that the days of distress and misery were coming, and would fall on them and their children. But at that time there was not any appearance of such immediate ruin. The wisest politician could not have inferred it from the then present state of affairs. Nothing less than divine prescience could have certainly foreseen and foretold it.

But still the exact time of this judgment was unknown to all creatures, ver. 36, — ’But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.’ The word wra is of larger signification than ’hour ;’ ¹ and besides it seemeth somewhat improper to say, ’ Of that day and hour knoweth no man;’ for if the ’day’ was not known, certainly the ’hour’ was not, and it was superfluous to make such an addition. I conceive therefore that the passage should be rendered, not ’Of that day and hour knoweth no man,’ but ’Of that day and season knoweth no man,’ as the word is frequently used in the best authors both sacred and profane. It is true our Saviour declares, ’All these things shall be fulfilled in this generation;’ it is true the prophet Daniel hath given some intimation of the time in his famous prophecy of the seventy weeks : but though this great revolution was to happen in that generation; though it was to happen towards the conclusion of seventy weeks or 490 years, to be computed from a certain date that is not easy to be fixed ; yet the particular ’day,’ the particular ’season’ in which it was to happen, might still remain a secret to men and angels: and our Saviour had before, ver. 20, advised his disciples to pray, that their ’flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath-day;’ the ’day’ not being known, they might pray that their flight be not on the ’sabbath-day;’ the’ season’ not being known, they might pray that their flight be not in the ’winter.’ As it was in the days of Noah, saith our Saviour, ver. 37, 38, 39. so shall it be now. As then, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, till they were surprised by the flood, notwithstanding the frequent warnings and admonitions of that preacher of righteousness : so now they shall he engaged in the business and pleasures of be world, little expecting little thinking of this universal ruin, till it come upon them, notwithstanding the express predictions and declarations of Christ and his apostles. ’Then shalt two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left: Two women shall be grinding at the mill.’ Dr. Shaw, in his travels, making some observations upon the kingdoms of Algiers and Tunis, says in p. 297, that “women alone are employed to grind their corn, and that when the uppermost mill-stone is large, or expedition is required, then only, a second woman is called in to assist.” This observation I owe to Bishop Pearce.- “Two women shall be grinding at the mill, the one shall be taken and the other left.’— ver. 40, 41. That is, Providence will then make a distinction between such as are not at all distinguished now. Some shall be rescued from the destruction of Jerusalem, like Lot out of the burning of Sodom; while others, no ways’ perhaps different in outward circumstances, shall be left to perish in it.

The matter is carried somewhat farther in the parallel place of St. Mark ; and it is said not only that the angels were excluded from, the knowledge of the particular time, but that the Son himself was also ignorant of it. The 13th chapter of that evangelist answers to the 24th of St. Matthew. Our Saviour treateth there of the signs and circumstances of his coming, and the destruction of Jerusalem, from the 5th to the 27th verse inclusive; and then at verse the 28th he proceeds to treat of the time of his coming and the destruction of Jerusalem. The text in St. Matthew is, ’of that day and season knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. The text in St. Mark is, ’Of that day and season knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son but the Father.’ It is true the words ’jde o ouoj,’ neither the ’Son,’ were omitted in some copies of St. Mark, as they are inserted in some copies of St. Matthew: but there is no sufficient authority for the omission in St. Mark, any more than for the insertion in St. Matthew. Erasmus and some of the moderns are of opinion, that the words were omitted in the text of St. Matthew lest they should afford a handle to the Arians for proving the Son to be inferior to the Father:” ² but it was to little purpose to erase them out of St. Matthew, and to leave them standing in St. Mark. On the contrary, St. Ambrose and Rome of the ancients assert, ³ that they were inserted in the text of St. Mark by the Arians; but there is as little foundation or pretence for this assertion, as there is for the other. It is much more probable, that they were omitted in some copies of St. Mark by some indiscreet orthodox, who thought them to bear too hard upon our Saviour’s divinity. For all the most ancient copies and translations extant retain them; the most ancient fathers quote them, and comment upon them; and certainly it is easier for words to be omitted in a copy, so as that the omission should not generally prevail afterwards, than it is for words to be inserted in a copy, so as that the insertion should generally prevail afterwards. Admit the words therefore as the genuine words of St. Mark we must, and we may without any prejudice to our Saviour’s divinity. For Christ may be considered in two respects, in his human and his divine nature; and what is said with regard only to the former, doth not at all affect the latter. As he was the great teacher and revealer of his Father’s will, he might know more than the angels, and yet be might not know all things. It is said in St. Luke 2:52, that ’Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.’ He ’increased in wisdom,’ and consequently in his human nature he was not omniscient. In his human nature he was the ’son’ of David; in his divine nature he was the .Lord’ of David. In his human nature he was upon earth; in his divine nature he was in heaven, John 3:13, even while upon earth. In like manner it may be said, that though as God he might know all things, yet he might be ignorant of some things, as man. And of this particular the Messiah might be ignorant, because it was no part of his office or commission to reveal it. ’It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,’ as our Saviour said, Acts 1:7, when a like question was proposed to him. It might be proper for the disciples, and for the Jews too by their means, to know the signs and circumstances of our Saviour’s coming, and the destruction of Jerusalem; but upon many accounts it might be unfit for them both, to know the precise time.

Hitherto we have explained this 24th chapter of St. Matthew, as relating to the destruction of Jerusalem; and, without doubt, as relating to the destruction of Jerusalem it is primarily to be understood. But though it is to be understood of this primarily, yet it is not to be understood of this only; for there is no question that our Saviour had a farther view and meaning in. it. It is usual with the prophets to frame and express their prophecies so, as that they shall comprehend more than one event, and have their several periods of completion. This every one must have observed, who hath been ever so little conversant in the writings of the ancient prophets: and this I conceive to be the case here ; and the destruction of Jerusalem to be typical of the end of the world. The destruction of a great city is a lively type and image of the end of the world; and we may observe, that our Saviour no sooner begins to speak of the destruction of Jerusalem, than his figures are raised, his language is swelled, and he expresseth himself in such terms, as in a lower sense indeed, are applicable to the destruction of Jerusalem, but describe something higher in their proper and genuine signification. ’The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, the Son of Man shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.’ These passages, in a figurative sense, as we have seen, May be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem; but in their literal sense can be meant only of the end of the world. In like manner, that text, ’Of that day and season knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only; ’ the consistence and connection of the discourse oblige us to understand it as spoken of the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, but in a higher sense it may be true also of the time of the end of the world, and the general judgment. All the subsequent discourse too, we may observe, doth not relate so properly to the destruction of Jerusalem, as to the end of the world and the general judgment. Our Saviour loseth sight, as it were, of his former subject, and adapts his discourse more to the latter. And the end of the Jewish state was, in a manner, the end of the world to many of the Jews.

The remaining part of the chapter is so clear and easy as to need no comment or explanation. It will be more proper to conclude with some useful reflections upon the whole.

It appears next to impossible, that any man should duly consider these prophecies, and the exact completion of them, and if he is a believer, not to be confirmed in the faith; or if he is an infidel, not to be converted. Can any stronger proof be given of a divine revelation than the spirit of prophecy; and can any stronger proof be given of the spirit of prophecy, than the examples now before us, in which so many contingencies, and I might say, improbabilities, which human wisdom or prudence could never foresee, are so particularly foretold, and so punctually accomplished! At the time when Christ pronounced these prophecies, the Roman governor, resided at Jerusalem, and had a force sufficient to keep the people in obedience: and could human prudence foresee that the city, as well as the country, would revolt and rebel against the Romans? Could human prudence foresee ’famines.’ and ’pestilences,’ and ’earthquakes,’ in divers places ? Could human prudence foresee the speedy propagation of the gospel so contrary to all human probability ? Could human prudence foresee such an utter destruction of Jerusalem, with all the circumstances preceding and following it? It was never the custom of the Romans absolutely to ruin any of their provinces. It was improbable, therefore, that such a thing should happen to all, and still more improbable that it should happen under the humane and generous Titus, who was indeed, as he was called, “the love and delight of mankind.” ⁴

What is usually objected to the other predictions of holy writ, cannot, with any pretence, be objected to these prophecies of our Saviour, that they are figurative and obscure ; for nothing can be conveyed in plainer simpler terms, except where he affected some obscurity, as it hath been shown, for particular reasons. It is allowed, indeed, that some of these prophecies are taken from Moses and Daniel. Our Saviour, prophesying of the same events, hath borrowed and applied some of the same images and expressions. Bat this is a commendation rather than any discredit to his predictions. He hath built upon the foundations of the inspired writers before him; but what a superstructure hath lie raised! He hath acted in this case as in every other, like one who came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil them. He hath manifested himself to be a true prophet, by his exact interpretation and application of other prophets. He is also much more particular and circumstantial than either Moses or Daniel. In several instances his prophecies are entirely new, and properly his own : and, besides, he uses greater precision in fixing and confining the time to that very generation.

For the completion of these prophecies. the persons seem to have been wonderfully raised up and preserved by divine Providence. Vespasian was promoted from obscurity; and though feared and hated by Nero, yet was preferred by him, and singled out as the only general among the Romans who was equal to such a war: “God perhaps,” as Josephus intimates, “so disposing and ordering affairs.” ⁵ He had subdued the greatest part of Judea, when he was advanced to the empire; and he was happy in putting an end to the civil wars, and to the other troubles and calamities of the state, or otherwise he would hardly have been at leisure to prosecute the war with the Jews. Titus was wonderfully preserved in the most critical articles of danger. While he was taking a view of the city, he was surrounded by the enemy, and nothing less was expected than that he should be slain, or made prisoner: but he resolutely broke through the midst of them, and though unarmed, yet arrived unhurt at his own camp; upon which Josephus maketh this reflection : that “from hence it is obvious to understand, that the turns of war, and the dangers of princes, are under the peculiar care of God.” ⁶ Josephus himself was also no less wonderfully preserved than Titus; the one to destroy the city, and the other to record its destruction. He marvellously escaped from the snares which were laid for him by John of Gischala, ⁷ and by Jesus, the chief of the robbers: ⁸ and when his companions were determined to kill him and themselves rather than surrender to the Romans, he prevailed with them to draw lots who should be killed, the one after the other; and at last he was left with only one other, whom he persuaded to submit with him to the Romans. ⁹ Thus was he saved from the most imminent destruction ; and he himself esteemed it, as it certainly was, a singular instance of divine providence.

As Vespasian and Titus seem to have been raised up and preserved for the completion of these prophecies, so might Josephus for the illustration of their completion. For the particular passages and transactions, by which we prove the completion of these prophecies, we derive not so much from Christian writers, who might be suspected of a design to parallel the events with the predictions, as from Heathen authors, and chiefly from Josephus the Jewish historian, who though very exact and minute in other relations, yet avoids as much as, ever he can the mention of Christ and the Christian religion. He doth not so much as once mention the name of false Christs,’ though he hath frequent occasions to speak largely of ’false prophets;’ so cautious was he touching upon any thing, that might lead him to the acknowledgement of the true Christ. His silence here is as remarkable, as his copiousness upon other subjects. It is indeed very providential, that a more particular detail, a more exact history is preserved of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of all the circumstances relating to it, than of any other matter whatsoever transacted so long ago : and it is an additional advantage to our cause, that these accounts are transmitted to us by a Jew, and by a Jew who was himself an eye-witness to most of the things which he relates. As a general in the wars he must have had an exact knowledge of all transactions, and as a Jewish priest he would not relate them with any favour or partiality to the Christian cause. His history was approved by Vespasian and Titus (who ordered it to be published) and by king Agrippa and many others, both Jews and Romans, who were present in those wars. ¹⁰ He had likewise many enemies, who would readily have convicted aim of any justification, if he had been guilty of any. He designed nothing less, and yet as if he had designed nothing more, his history of the Jewish wars may serve as a larger comment on our Saviour’s prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem. “If any one would compare our Saviour’s words with that writer’s history of the whole war,” as Eusebius very well observes, “he could not but admire and acknowledge our Saviour’s prescience and prediction to be wonderful above nature, and truly divine.” ¹¹

The predictions are the clearest as the calamities were the greatest which the world ever saw; and what heinous sin was it, that could bring down such heavy judgments on the Jewish church and nation! Can any other with half so much probability be assigned, as what the scripture assigns, their crucifying the Lord of Glory ? As St. Paul expresseth it, I Thess. 2:15, 16,— ’ They both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and persecuted the apostles,’— and so ’filled up their sins, and wrath came upon them to the uttermost.’ This is always objected as the most capital sin of the nation: and upon reflection, we shall find really some correspondence between their crime and their punishment. They put Jesus to death, when the nation was assembled to celebrate the passover : when the nation was assembled too to celebrate the passover Titus shut them up within the walls of Jerusalem. ¹² The rejection of the true Messiah was their crime; and the following of false Messiahs to their destruction was their punishment. They sold and bought Jesus as a slave; and they themselves were afterwards sold and bought as slaves at the lowest prices. They preferred a robber and murderer to Jesus, whom they crucified between two thieves ; and they themselves were afterwards infested with bands of thieves and robbers. ¹³ They put Jesus to death, lest the Romans should come and take away their place and nation; and the Romans did come and take away their place and nation. They crucified Jesus before the walls of Jerusalem; and before the walls of Jerusalem they themselves were crucified in such numbers, that it is said “room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the bodies.” ¹⁴ I should think it hardly possible for any man to lay these things together, and not conclude the Jews’ own imprecation to be remarkably fulfilled upon them, Matt. 27:25,— ’ His blood be on us and on our children.’

We Christians cannot indeed be guilty of the very same offence in crucifying the lord of glory ; but it behooves us to consider, whether we may not be guilty in the same kind, and by our sins and iniquities, Heb. 6:6,— ’ crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame;’ and therefore whether being like them in their crime, we may not also resemble them in their punishment. They rejected the Messiah, and we indeed have received him: but have our lives been at all agreeable to our holy profession, or rather, as we have had opportunities of knowing Christ more, have we not obeyed him less than other Christians, and, Heb. 10:29,— ’ trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith we are sanctified, an unholy thing, and done despite unto the spirit of grace?’ The flagrant crimes of the Jews, and the principal sources of their calamities, in the opinion of Josephus, were “their trampling upon all human laws, deriding divine things. and making a jest of the oracles of the prophets as so many dreams and fables:” and how hath the same Spirit of licentiousness and infidelity prevailed likewise among us! How have the laws and lawful authority been insulted with equal insolence and impunity! How have the holy scriptures, those treasures of divine wisdom, not only been neglected, but despised, derided, and abused to the worst purposes! How have the principal articles of our faith been denied, the prophecies and miracles of Moses and the prophets, of Christ and his apostles, been ridiculed, and impiety and blasphemy not only been whispered in the ear, but proclaimed from the press ’How hath all public worship and religion, and the administration of the sacraments been slighted and condemned, and the Sabbath profaned by those chiefly who ought to set a better example, to whom much is given, and of whom therefore much will be required’ And if for their sins and provocations, Rom. 11:20, 21,— ’God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not the tree. Because of unbelief they were broken off, end thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.’ God bore long with the Jews: and hath he not borne long with us too? But he cut them off, when the measure of their iniquities was full; and let us beware lest our measure be not also well-nigh full, and we be not growing ripe for excision. What was said to the church of Ephesus, is very applicable to us and our own case, Rev. 2:5,—’ Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.’