The Great Tribulation
Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Jesus is addressing the "great tribulation" calling it as never before and never again in the future, will there be one such as this.
The phrase "for then" means that this will follow immediately after what was written in the preceding verses. What were the events that preceded this "great tribulation"? It is found in Mat 24:1-20. Some of these have been addressed in previous posts. As an example, they are:
v5 ..false christs will come..
v6 ..wars and rumors of wars..
v7 ..nations and kingdoms against each other..
v7 ..famines, pestilence, earthquakes will happen..
v9 ..they will be afflicted, killed, and hated..
v10 ..they will be offended, betrayed and hated by each other..
v11 ..false prophets will come..
v12 ..wickedness will increase and love grow cold..
v13 ..salvation to those who endured to the end..
v14 ..gospel of kingdom to all..
v15 ..abomination of desolation in the holy place..
v16 ..flee to the mountains..
Because of these things happening, for then, there shall be "great tribulation". This is how we can calculate the timing of the "great tribulation" by noticing the signs preceding this verse.
Historians tell us about the sequence of events that happen as they approach the "great tribulation"
1. The Jewish zealots raised up a Jewish military by recruiting the Jews to rebel against the Roman Empire both in Jerusalem and Judea.
2. These zealots do not accept Jesus Christ as their Messiah as promised by the prophets in their writings but they believed that their Messiah will be a military savior that will lead them and make Israel into a great nation again.
3. Because they were expecting a militant Messiah, many false Messiahs arose to claim leadership to lead the rebellion against the Romans.
4. These anti-Rome Jews refuse to pay taxes to Rome. In Jerusalem they tear down the Roman dwellings that houses the army barracks outside the Temple because they did not want the Romans to attach themselves to their holy Temple. They were damaging Roman properties and abusing the Romans who dwell in Jerusalem.
5. These led to the Roman emperor to invade and squash the Jewish rebellion.
According to Josephus writings in his book: "The Works of Josephus, Vol.1: The War of the Jews", he wrote about King Agrippa. If you remember King Agrippa appears in Acts 26. He was the first Century Roman appointed proxy King of Judea to rule over Judea on behalf of Rome and he was the king that confronted Paul in Acts 26:1. King Agrippa called together the multitudes of zealots and rebellious Jews to gather in his large gallery and warned them against fighting Rome. Here is what he said in page 185:
[ Agrippa said to the crowd, "but certainly none can imagine that you can enter into a war as by an agreement or that when the Romans have got you under their power, they will use you with moderation, or will not rather for an example to other nations, burn your holy city and utterly destroy your whole nation. For those of you who shall survive the war, will not be able to find a place wherein to flee since all men have the Romans for their Lords already or are afraid they shall have hereafter. Nay, indeed the danger concerns not just those Jews that dwell here only but those of them who dwell in other cities also. But there is no people upon the habitable earth which have not some portion of you among them. When your enemies will slay in case you go to war. And on that account also and so every city which has Jews in it will be filled with slaughter for the sake of only a few men. ]
This is king Agrippa talking to the zealot Jews in Jerusalem, warning them that it will be futile if they revolt against Rome. But the revolt did happen and began around AD65 and by Oct AD66, Rome was sending troops under Caius Cestius to begin the initial attack. However, the Jews military managed to hold back against the Roman army and later pursued Caius until he left Jerusalem in late AD66.
This caused Emperor Nero to send his general Vespasian (who later also became a Roman emperor). Vespasian came to crush the rebellion in February AD67. By August AD70, about 3 years later, the Roman army was standing in the Temple in Jerusalem and by September AD70, the whole city felled to Rome.
These are amazing detailed and specific accounts of these events because of the written and oral testimonies of the eye-witnesses who experienced them.
It was roughly 42 months, from the start of the attack on Judea and the holy city, until the fall and destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.
Remarkably a similar account in Rev 11:1-2
Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
In the vision given to John on the island of Patmos he saw the Temple standing and he was asked to measure it. Also the Gentiles will tread upon the holy city under their feet for 42 months!!
This tells us that Revelations was written before Jerusalem was destroyed in AD70, because after AD70, there was no way that Jesus would have told John to measure the Temple if the Temple was no longer standing.
V2 says Jerusalem will be trampled for 42 months, and if you calculate from February AD67 to August AD70, it is exactly 42 months as confirmed by historians. This is NOT a coincidence.!
See a write up on this war:
Josephus also wrote on the death toll of this Jewish rebellion in his book on pages 291-292:
[ by AD67, Vespasian shows up in Jerusalem with 60,000 Roman troops. As he go through the villages, he starts in Ghidorah to kill all the youths. The Romans had no mercy on any age whatsoever. They moved on to the village of Jotapata and siege it for 47 days. 40,000 were slained or committed suicide and 1,200 women and infants were taken into slavery. And at Gepaha they killed 15,000. They took 2,130 prisoners. They go to Mount Gerizim and killed 11,600. They go to Terikai and killed 6,500. They go to Germala and killed 4,000 and 5,000 committed suicide by throwing themselves over the walls to avoid the Roman troops. Then they go to Getscalah and killed 6,000 women and children while most of the men flee to Jerusalem.
Vespasian and Titus took other cities and there were disorders and civil wars in every city ]
On page: 314, Josephus records "that it looks as if God doomed Jerusalem to destruction as a polluted city and was resolved to purge his sanctuary by fire."
See write up on siege of Jotapata:
Josephus was not a Christian but a Jewish writer with Roman citizenship given by Vespasian. He saw the destruction was so overwhelming that it appears to be God forsaken. Titus started the campaign against Jerusalem in April AD70 and his siege lasted from April AD70 till August AD70, when he finally went in and stood in the Temple. The city was completely leveled by September AD70.
If you were one of the disciples of Jesus and you were present there in AD67 - AD70, you would remember the warnings of Jesus when you witnessed such atrocities happening in front of you.
You will have no doubt at all that the prophecy of Jesus came to pass in their generation and not in a future generation.
When Josephus saw Titus coming to the city in April AD70, he urgently and continuously urged the inhabitants of Jerusalem to surrender but they refused. Maybe they thought that God will save them so they overlook the warnings of Jesus about the "days of vengeance" and the "wrath of God".
Josephus added on page 404, that:
[ Neither did any other cities suffered such miseries not did any age ever bred a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was from the beginning of he world. ]
On page 405 he added:
[ They were first whipped then tormented with all sorts of torches before they died and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them while they caught 500 Jews everyday. Some days they caught more. So the soldiers out of the wrath and hatred within, they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught one after one way and another after another to the crosses by way of jest. When their multitude was so great that room was wanting for the crosses and crosses was wanting for the bodies. ]
During the siege of Jerusalem, 500 per day were crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem. This was the "great tribulation" unlike anything the world had ever seen.
This confirms what Jesus said in Luke 19:43-44
Luk 19:44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
The "time of their visitation" was when Jesus visited arrived on their scene and look for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat 15:24).
On the 17th July AD70, the high priest offered the last daily sacrifices on the altar at the Temple and will never again after that. The Roman army ransacked everything and took all the precious utensils back to Rome. One month after that, general Titus stood in the midst of the Temple and 2 months after that Jerusalem was completely destroyed.
Let's look at another prophecy written much earlier in the Torah (The scriptures to the Jews were the Torah, Psalms, writings of the major and minor prophets):
Deu 28:52 “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the LORD your God has given you.
Deu 28:53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.
This curse of the military siege on Jerusalem was prophesied long ago. During the siege cannibalism was rampant. Suicide was rampant. As regard to the relationship between God and Israel in the history of their religion, this was the "greatest tribulation" that had ever took place.
They lost their Temple, priesthood, genealogical records, religious records, and sacrificial system that they had practiced for centuries. They lost everything that is related to Judaism. From then on they were scattered to other regions and some still continued their religious practices like circumcision, but around smaller synagogues.
See a write up on Judaism:
Adam Clark wrote in his commentary and said 1.3 million Jews were killed by the invading Roman armies between AD67 to AD70. Josephus said 1.1 million non-combatants were killed in Jerusalem, 100,000 in Galilee and 97,00 enslaved. This was an enormous number of those killed if you consider that the total population of the planet at that time was not very big.
Jesus said in Matthew:
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.
The term "such as has not been from the beginning until now, and never will be" is a Jewish hyperbole that is used rampantly in the bible. It is a Jewish way of saying that the "great tribulation" is a very very big tribulation.
In John L Bray's book "Matthew 24 fulfilled", he wrote about Hebrew hyperbole.
For example, Jesus said "not one stone will be left unturned". This expression was meant to mean that the leveling of Jerusalem was very very great, because the Western Wall (today called the Wailing Wall) of Jerusalem was left standing by the Roman armies to be used as a protection for the back of their barracks.
He said the term "such as there shall be none like before or after" is also found in:
- Exodus 10:14 - talks about the great great swarm of locusts over the land.
- Exodus 11:6 - first born of every life died and the cries of the Egyptian was very very great.
- 1 Kings 3:12 - God tells Solomon that his wisdom will be very very great.
- 2 kings 18:5 - God said that King Hezekiah was a very very good king.
- 2 Kings 23:25 - God said that King Josiah was a very very good king.
- Ezekiel 5:9 - Ezekiel prophesied that Jerusalem destruction will be very very great. This was the same as what was prophesied by Jesus in Mat 24:21.
All the above verses and many more throughout the bible uses the phrase "such as has not been before and will never after". They are the Jewish expression that means the event of entity that is referred to is going to be enormously great.
This was the "great tribulation" that Jesus prophesied will come upon the existing generation of His listeners about the great destruction of Jerusalem.
