judgment roman

Destruction of Second Temple

70 CE (9th of Av / August-September)

The Roman destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem on the 9th of Av, 70 CE, ending Jewish sacrificial worship and transforming Judaism forever. This catastrophic event, fulfilling Jesus’s prophecy from forty years earlier, marked the end of Second Temple Judaism and the beginning of the Rabbinic period, scattering the Jewish people into nearly two millennia of diaspora.

Historical Background

The Jewish Revolt

Growing Tensions (60s CE):

Roman misrule and insensitivity to Jewish customs
Economic exploitation and heavy taxation
Religious conflicts (Roman standards in Temple, etc.)
Zealot movement gaining strength
Jewish nationalism rising

The Revolt Begins (66 CE):

Protests against Roman procurator Gessius Florus
Riots in Jerusalem
Jewish rebels seized control of Jerusalem
Ceased daily sacrifices for Roman emperor
Declaration of independence

Early Jewish Success:

Defeated Roman garrison in Jerusalem
Victory at Battle of Beth-Horon
Brief period of Jewish self-rule
Minted own coins: “For the Freedom of Zion”
False hope of defeating Rome

The Roman Response

Vespasian’s Campaign (67-68 CE):

Emperor Nero sent General Vespasian
Methodical conquest of Galilee
Josephus (Jewish historian) captured, switched sides
Jerusalem increasingly isolated
Internal Jewish conflicts weakened resistance

Civil War Among Jews:

Multiple factions fighting each other
Zealots, Sicarii, moderates
Burned each other’s food supplies
Weakened defense as Romans approached
Tragic division in face of common enemy

The Siege of Jerusalem

Titus Takes Command (70 CE):

Vespasian became emperor (69 CE)
Son Titus led final assault on Jerusalem
Four Roman legions surrounded city
Siege engines and battering rams
Passover 70 CE: City packed with pilgrims, trapped

The Siege Intensifies:

Starvation inside Jerusalem
Josephus records horrific conditions
Cannibalism reported
Bodies thrown over walls
Roman crucifixions of escapees (500 per day)

Breaching the Walls:

Romans broke through outer walls
Street-by-street fighting
Jewish defenders retreated toward Temple
Final stand at Temple Mount
Desperate resistance

The Destruction

The Temple Burns

The Ninth of Av (August/September 70 CE):

Roman soldiers set Temple on fire
According to Josephus, against Titus’s orders
According to rabbinic tradition, same date as First Temple destruction (586 BCE)
Flames visible for miles
Catastrophic for Jewish people

Total Destruction:

Temple burned completely
Priests threw themselves into flames
Sacred vessels looted
Gold from Temple molten in fire, seeped between stones
Romans pried apart every stone to recover gold
Jesus’s prophecy fulfilled: “Not one stone left on another” (Matthew 24:2)

The Slaughter:

Thousands killed in Temple courts
Blood flowing down Temple steps
No mercy shown
Josephus: Over 1 million Jews died (likely exaggerated, but catastrophic nonetheless)
Survivors enslaved

The Aftermath

Jerusalem Falls:

City thoroughly destroyed
Population killed or enslaved
Jewish captives paraded in Rome
Arch of Titus erected (still stands) showing menorah being carried
Triumph celebrated in Rome

The Jewish Diaspora:

Jewish population scattered
Some fled to Masada (fell 73 CE)
Others to Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia
Temple tax redirected to Roman Jupiter temple
Era of exile begins

Theological Significance in Judaism

The End of Temple Judaism

Sacrificial System Ended:

No more daily sacrifices
No more Passover lamb slaughtered in Temple
No more Day of Atonement ritual
No more pilgrimage festivals to Jerusalem
Entire biblical worship system ceased

Rabbinic Judaism Emerges:

Yohanan ben Zakkai escaped Jerusalem
Established academy at Yavneh
Shifted focus from Temple to Torah study
Synagogue and study replaced sacrifice
Prayer replaced offerings
Pharisaic Judaism became normative

Theological Questions:

Why did God allow Temple destruction?
Rabbinic answer: Because of sinat chinam (baseless hatred among Jews)
Internal division led to external destruction
Call to repentance and unity

Tisha B’Av: The Ninth of Av

Day of Mourning:

Annual fast day commemorating both Temple destructions
One of most solemn days in Jewish calendar
Reading of Lamentations
Sitting on floor
No leather shoes
Mourning customs observed

Multiple Tragedies:

First Temple destroyed 586 BCE (9th of Av)
Second Temple destroyed 70 CE (9th of Av)
Bar Kokhba revolt crushed 135 CE (9th of Av)
Expulsion from England 1290 (9th of Av)
Expulsion from Spain 1492 (9th of Av)
“Day that darkness loves”

Modern Observance:

Jews worldwide fast and mourn
Torah study forbidden (except sad passages)
“Eicha” (Lamentations) chanted mournfully
Remembering loss of Temple
Longing for redemption

Christian Perspective

Fulfillment of Prophecy

Jesus Predicted (c. 30 CE):

Matthew 24:1-2: “Not one stone here will be left on another”
Luke 19:41-44: Jesus wept over Jerusalem, predicted siege
Warned of “abomination of desolation”
Told disciples to flee when they saw armies surrounding Jerusalem
Warned of terrible suffering

Christian Interpretation:

Vindication of Jesus’s prophetic authority
Judgment on generation that rejected Messiah
End of old covenant sacrificial system
Christ’s sacrifice replaced Temple sacrifices
New covenant supersedes old

Early Christian Response:

Christians fled Jerusalem before final siege (tradition: to Pella)
Remembered Jesus’s warning
Saw as divine judgment
Confirmed Christian claims
Separation of Christianity from Judaism accelerated

Theological Implications

End of Sacrifices:

No more need for animal sacrifices
Christ’s sacrifice once-for-all (Hebrews 10:10)
Temple veil torn at crucifixion (Mark 15:38)
Access to God through Christ, not Temple
New Testament fulfillment

Supersessionism Debates:

Traditional Christian view: Church replaced Israel
Modern revisions: God’s covenant with Israel still valid
Complex theological questions
Ecumenical dialogue ongoing

Historical Evidence

Josephus’s Account

Wars of the Jews:

Eyewitness account (Josephus was there)
Detailed description of siege
Numbers likely exaggerated
But core events confirmed
Invaluable historical source

Key Details:

Titus wanted to spare Temple
Soldier threw torch, fire spread
Looting and slaughter
Starvation during siege
Internal Jewish conflicts

Archaeological Evidence

Physical Remains:

Western Wall (Wailing Wall) stands - retaining wall, not Temple itself
Burnt layer from 70 CE destruction
Roman arrowheads and siege weapons
Stones from Temple Mount thrown down
“Trumpeting Place” stone inscription

The Arch of Titus (Rome):

Victory monument showing Temple treasures
Menorah, Table of Showbread depicted
Jewish captives in chains
Triumphal procession
Still stands today

Roman Sources

Tacitus, Suetonius, Dio Cassius:

Roman historians mention Jewish War
Confirm basic events
From Roman perspective
Celebrate Roman victory

Long-Term Impact

On Judaism

Transformation Complete:

From Temple to Torah
From sacrifice to study
From priest to rabbi
From Jerusalem to worldwide diaspora
Judaism survived, but forever changed

Messianic Longing:

Hope for restoration
Prayers for rebuilding Temple
“Next year in Jerusalem”
Zionism partly rooted in this longing
Modern State of Israel partial fulfillment for some

On Christianity

Gentile Church Dominates:

Jewish Christians marginalized after 70 CE
Gentile Christianity became normative
Separation from Judaism complete
Different Sabbath, festivals, identity
Tragic parting of ways

Anti-Judaism:

Church saw destruction as God’s judgment on Jews
Supersessionist theology developed
Contributed to centuries of antisemitism
Modern churches wrestling with this legacy

Modern Significance

Continued Mourning**:

Tisha B’Av observed by religious Jews
Western Wall as place of prayer and mourning
“If I forget you, O Jerusalem…” (Psalm 137)
Longing for restoration
Memory kept alive 2,000 years later

Temple Mount Today**:

Holiest site in Judaism (site of Temple)
Third holiest site in Islam (Dome of the Rock, Al-Aqsa Mosque)
Contested, politically explosive
No Jewish prayer allowed on Mount (by Israeli law)
Symbol of unresolved conflict

Theological Questions**:

Will Temple be rebuilt?
Religious Zionists: Yes, in messianic age
Ultra-Orthodox: Only Messiah can rebuild
Secular Jews: Metaphorical only
Christians divided: Dispensationalists expect third Temple, others see it as obsolete

Significance

On the ninth of Av in the year 70 CE, the flames that consumed the Second Temple in Jerusalem ended an era and transformed a religion forever. The sacrifices ceased. The priesthood ended. The pilgrims stopped coming. And Judaism, facing its greatest catastrophe, somehow survived and even flourished—but it would never be the same.

For the Jewish people, the destruction was more than a military defeat. It was theological crisis. How could God’s house burn? How could the holy city fall? Where was the promised protection? The answer the rabbis gave was profound: God allowed it because of sinat chinam—baseless hatred among Jews themselves. They had fought each other while Rome besieged them. They had burned each other’s food while starving. Division brought destruction.

From the ashes of the Temple, rabbinic Judaism arose. Yohanan ben Zakkai, escaping Jerusalem in a coffin, asked the Romans for one thing: permission to establish a school at Yavneh. From that school came the Judaism that has lasted two millennia—a Judaism of book not building, of study not sacrifice, of Torah not Temple. The eternal flame that once burned in the Temple now burns in the lamp of learning.

For Christians, the destruction confirmed what Jesus had prophesied forty years earlier: “Not one stone will be left on another.” The Temple veil had torn at his crucifixion, symbolizing the end of the old system. His sacrifice replaced the sacrifices. His body became the temple. The church saw fulfillment where Judaism saw catastrophe.

Josephus, watching from the Roman camp, recorded it all—the starvation, the slaughter, the flames consuming God’s house. Titus allegedly tried to save the Temple, but a soldier’s torch found the sanctuary, and the fire could not be stopped. The gold melted and ran between the stones, and Roman soldiers pried apart every stone to recover it, unwittingly fulfilling Jesus’s prophecy precisely.

Today, the Western Wall stands—not the Temple itself, but the retaining wall of the platform. Jews pray there, touching stones that witnessed the glory and the catastrophe. They slip prayers into crevices, asking God to remember. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.”

Every year on Tisha B’Av, religious Jews sit on the floor and chant Lamentations. “How lonely sits the city that was full of people…she weeps bitterly in the night.” They mourn both Temples, destroyed on the same date six centuries apart. They remember that when Jews fight each other, the Temple burns.

The destruction of 70 CE scattered the Jewish people across the Roman Empire and beyond. It would be 1,878 years before Jewish sovereignty returned to Jerusalem. In that span came unspeakable suffering—expulsions, pogroms, the Holocaust. Yet Judaism survived every empire that tried to destroy it. Rome fell. The Temple did not rise. But the people endured.

In Rome, the Arch of Titus still stands, showing the menorah being carried in triumph. For centuries, Jews refused to walk under it—a silent protest against ancient defeat. But the menorah Titus looted is gone. The empire that destroyed the Temple is dust. And the Jewish people still pray, still study, still remember, still hope: “Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the rebuilt Temple.”

From catastrophe came transformation. From destruction came survival. The Temple burned, but the light did not go out. It merely moved—from the altar to the page, from sacrifice to prayer, from one place to every place where Torah is studied and God is sought. The Temple fell. Judaism stood.