70 C.E.

The Siege Of Jerusalem

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD/CE was a decisive event in the Israelite-Roman War. It was followed by the fall of Masada in 73 CE. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Israelite defenders in 66 CE. The city and its famous Second Temple were destroyed in 70 CE.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, the Zealots fought amongst themselves, lacking proper leadership. The Zealots were a sect of Israelites that sought to incite the people to rise up against the Roman Empire.

This very siege of the Romans was talked about in the book of  Daniel  the prophet in chapter 9:26,27 , the book of Luke 21:20-24 and the book of Matthew 24:15-21

_________________________________________________________________________________________________Daniel 9:26,27  And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Luke 21:20-24  "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! 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.

Matthew 24:15-21 "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel--let the reader understand. Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yahoshua warned the people of the plans of the Roman empire years before  they would besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem.  Luke 19:43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. Luke 21:20-22   "When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

This was the very thing Titus did when they besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem. All those who listened and took head to the Messiah and prophet Yahoshua were saved from destruction. For those that did not listen to the warning fell into destruction by famine and by the sword. Luke 21:24 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.

For all the sins of the children of Israel (the breaking of the laws and commands) Yah sent a mighty destruction to them by way of the Roman Empire. Isaiah 5:5 Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple in the year 70 CE

________________________________________
Emperor Nero & The Great Fire of Rome

The first recorded official persecution of Israelites on behalf of the Roman Empire  was that of the year 64 AD/CE, when, as reported by the Roman historian Tacitus, the Emperor Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome. This incited the Roman people to  attack the Israelites although the Great Fire of Rome was a false flag attack by some Romans themselves to gain the people's approval in sacking Jerusalem.  According to Church tradition, it was during the reign of Nero that Peter and Paul were each martyred in Rome. At that time Paul and Peter were condemned to capital punishment, of whom the one was beheaded with a sword, while Peter suffered crucifixion.

The Great Fire of Rome was an urban fire that occurred beginning July 19, AD 64. According to Tacitus, it spread quickly and burned for five and a half days. Only four of the fourteen districts of Rome escaped the fire; three districts were completely destroyed and the other seven suffered serious damage. The only other contemporaneous historian to mention the fire was Pliny the Elder, who wrote about it in passing.  The only other account on the size of fire is an interpolation in a forged Christian letter from Seneca to Paul: "A hundred and thirty-two houses and four blocks have been burnt in six days; the seventh brought a pause". This account implies less than a tenth of the city was burnt. Rome contained about 1,700 private houses and 47,000 tenement blocks. It was said by Cassius Dio that Nero, the emperor at the time, sang the "Sack of Ilium" in stage costume as the city burned.

After the fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors. In the wake of the fire, he made a new urban development plan. Houses after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads.

It is uncertain who or what actually caused the fire. According to Tacitus, some in the population held Nero responsible. To diffuse blame, Nero targeted the Israelites. There were Israelites who confessed to the crime, but it became known that Israelites were forced to confess by means of torture, and the passage is unclear as to what the Israelites confessed to — being arsonists or followers of Yahoshua. Suetonius and Cassius Dio favor Nero as the arsonist with an insane desire to destroy the city of Jerusalem as his motive, or to rebuild Rome in a new style more to his liking.

According to Tacitus, Nero ordered Israelites to be thrown to dogs, while others were crucified or burned to serve as lights.

He describes the event as follows:

As a consequence, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians [or Chrestians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but, even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. In accordance, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not as much of the crime of firing the city as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

Titus is reported, after a council was summoned, to have deliberated beforehand whether he should destroy the temple, it being of such workmanship. For it seemed to some that a sacred edifice, illustrious beyond all mortal things, ought not to be brought down, because, if preserved, it would be a testimony to Roman moderation, but, if destroyed, would offer a perennial notice of [Roman] cruelty. But, on the other hand, Titus himself, along with others, decided that first of all the temple should be destroyed so that the religion of the Israelites and of the followers of Yahoshua might be removed all the more, since these religions, although contrary to one another, came forth from the same authors. The followers of Yahoshua rose up from the Israelites; if the root were taken away, the stem would easily perish.