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Caesar's Messiah
CHAPTER 8
Until All Is Fulfilled
I have shown that elements of Jesus' ministry, when viewed as a
whole, can be seen as a prophetic outline of Titus' military campaign
through Judea. In fact, the New Testament and War of the Jews create a number of other " prophecies and fulfillments" that can be seen
as part of this comic system. Many of Jesus' eschatological, or
doomsday, prophecies are presented in Matthew 21 through 25.
I will begin the analysis of the relationship between the New
Testament doomsday prophecies and Titus' campaign by first citing
a passage from War of the Jews. The passage contains a number of
parallels with the New Testament that are historically famous, as
well as one of the two lampoons of the New Testament's Jesus that
are arranged like bookends around Josephus' description of the
destruction of the temple. The other of these two "bookend" lampoons is the passage describing the son of Mary whose flesh was
eaten, which I have discussed previously. Because Jesus used the
"temple" as a self-designation, and compared his destruction to the
destruction of a temple, juxtaposing these two lampoons with the
destruction of the temple is audacious.
The two lampoons of Jesus literally "touch" the chapter that
describes the temple's destruction. In the Whiston translation of War
of the Jews, which I cite throughout this work, there are only eleven
pages of text between the "Son of Mary whose flesh was eaten" passage and the passage that contains the character that I refer to below
as the "lunatic Jesus." This lunatic Jesus, who is a clear lampoon of
the New Testament's Jesus, was himself recorded by Josephus as one
of the "signs" that preceded the destruction of the temple.
174
Until All Is Fulfilled 175
The signs recorded by Josephus as having preceded the destruction of Jerusalem caused many early church scholars to believe that
the signs Jesus foresaw in Matthew 23 and 24 had come to pass. The
parallels that exist between Jesus' and Josephus' lists of signs have
been known since the beginning of Christianity. As Hippolytus wrote
(circa 200 C.E.),
What then? Are not these things come to pass? Are not the
things announced by thee fulfilled? Is not their country,
Judea, desolate? Is not the holy place burned with fire? Are
not their walls cast down? Are not their cities destroyed?
Their land, do not strangers devour it? Do not the Romans
rule the country?
The parallels between the two lists of signs do seem too exact to
have occurred by chance. I disagree, however, with Hippolytus' belief
that they were the result of supernatural causes. I would point out
that whenever two documents have similarities too exact to have
been caused by chance, parsimony requires that the first theory to
explore is that the two works have emanated from the same source.
This is the simplest theory and should be maintained until another
explanation is shown to be more plausible. In any event, the following passages from War of the Jews and the New Testament are the
example, par excellence, of the relationship that so many church
scholars have noted between these two works. What Jesus predicts,
Josephus records as having come to pass.
THE GREAT DISTRESS THE JEWS WERE IN UPON THE
CONFLAGRATION OF THE HOLY HOUSE. CONCERNING A
FALSE PROPHET AND THE SIGNS THAT PRECEDED THIS
DESTRUCTION. WHILE the holy house was on fire, every
thing was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand
of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age, or any reverence of gravity, but children, and old men, and profane persons, and priests were
all slain in the same manner; so that this war went round
all sorts of men, and brought them to destruction, and as
well those that made supplication for their lives, as those
176 Caesar's Messiah
that defended themselves by fighting. The flame was also
carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the
groans of those that were slain; and because this hill was
high, and the works at the temple were very great, one
would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can
one imagine any thing either greater or more terrible than
this noise; for there was at once a shout of the Roman
legions, who were marching all together, and a sad clamor
of the seditious, who were now surrounded with fire and
sword. The people also that were left above were beaten
back upon the enemy, and under a great consternation, and
made sad moans at the calamity they were under; the multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with
those that were upon the hill. And besides, many of those
that were worn away by the famine, and their mouths
almost closed, when they saw the fire of the holy house,
they exerted their utmost strength, and brake out into
groans and outcries again: Pera (17) did also return the
echo, as well as the mountains round about [the city,] and
augmented the force of the entire noise. Yet was the misery
itself more terrible than this disorder; for one would have
thought that the hill itself, on which the temple stood, was
seething hot, as full of fire on every part of it, that the blood
was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were
slain more in number than those that slew them; for the
ground did no where appear visible, for the dead bodies that
lay on it; but the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies,
as they ran upon such as fled from them. And now it was
that the multitude of the robbers were thrust out [of the
inner court of the temple by the Romans,] and had much
ado to get into the outward court, and from thence into the
city, while the remainder of the populace fled into the cloister of that outer court. As for the priests, some of them
plucked up from the holy house the spikes (18) that were
upon it, with their bases, which were made of lead, and shot
them at the Romans instead of darts. But then as they
gained nothing by so doing, and as the fire burst out upon
them, they retired to the wall that was eight cubits broad,
and there they tarried; yet did two of these of eminence
Until All Is Fulfilled 177
among them, who might have saved themselves by going
over to the Romans, or have borne up with courage, and
taken their fortune with the others, throw themselves into
the fire, and were burnt together with the holy house; their
names were Meirus the son of Belgas, and Joseph the son
of Daleus.
And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to
spare what was round about the holy house, burnt all those
places, as also the remains of the cloisters and the gates,
two excepted; the one on the east side, and the other on the
south; both which, however, they burnt afterward. They also
burnt down the treasury chambers, in which was an
immense quantity of money, and an immense number of
garments, and other precious goods there reposited; and,
to speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire
riches of the Jews were heaped up together, while the rich
people had there built themselves chambers [to contain
such furniture]. The soldiers also came to the rest of the
cloisters that were in the outer [court of the] temple,
whither the women and children, and a great mixed multitude of the people, fled, in number about six thousand. But
before Caesar had determined any thing about these peo-
ple, or given the commanders any orders relating to them,
the soldiers were in such a rage, that they set that cloister
on fire; by which means it came to pass that some of these
were destroyed by throwing themselves down headlong,
and some were burnt in the cloisters themselves. Nor did
any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet (19]
was the occasion of these people's destruction, who had
made a public proclamation in the city that very day, that
God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that
there they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance. Now there was then a great number of false prophets
suborned by the tyrants to impose on the people, who
denounced this to them, that they should wait for deliverence from God; and this was in order to keep them from
deserting, and that they might be buoyed up above fear and
care by such hopes. Now a man that is in adversity does
easily comply with such promises; forwhen such a seducer
178 Caesar's Messiah
makes him believe that he shall be delivered from those
miseries which oppress him, then it is that the patient is full
of hopes of such his deliverance.
Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these
deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did
not attend nor give credit to the signs that were so evident,
and did so plainly foretell their future desolation, but, like
men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider, did not regard the denunciations that God made to
them. Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which
stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole
year. Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those
commotions which preceded the war, when the people
were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened
bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus [Nisan],
and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone
round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be
bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light
seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events
that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also,
a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed,
brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover,
the eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which
was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty
shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with
iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor,
which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be
opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night.
Now those that kept watch in the temple came hereupon
running to the captain of the temple, and told him of it; who
then came up thither, and not without great difficulty was
able to shut the gate again. This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open
them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved
of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the
advantage of their enemies. So these publicly declared that
the signal foreshowed the desolation that was coming upon
Until All Is Fulfilled 179
them. Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one
and twentieth day of the month Artemisius [lyar], a certain
prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not
related by those that saw it, and were not the events that
followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such
signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armor were seen running about among the
clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast
which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night
into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to
perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the
first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and
after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, "Let us remove hence."
At this point in the passage Josephus begins his description of
the character I refer to as the lunatic Jesus.
But, what is still more terrible, there was one Jesus, the
son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who, four
years before the war began, and at a time when the city was
in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast
whereon it is our custom for every one to make tabernacles
to God in the temple, began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A
voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the
four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a
voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice
against this whole people!" This was his cry, as he went
about by day and by night, in all the lanes of the city. However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had
great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the
man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did
not he either say any thing for himself, or any thing peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the
same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers,
supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of
divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet
he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any
Caesar's Messiah
tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone
possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, "Woe,
woe to Jerusalem!" And when Albinus (for he was then our
procurator] asked him, Who he was? and whence he came?
and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of
reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and dis-
missed him. Now, during all the time that passed before
the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens,
nor was seen by them while he said so; but he every day
uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" Nor did he give ill
words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good
words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply to
all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of
what was to come. This cry of his was loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years and five
months, without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith,
until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was going
round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force,
"Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the
holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to
myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines,
and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was
uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.
Now if any one consider these things, he will find that
God takes care of mankind, and by all ways possible foreshows to our race what is for their preservation; but that
men perish by those miseries which they madly and voluntarily bring upon themselves; for the Jews, by demolishing
the tower of Antonia, had made their temple four-square,
while at the same time they had it written in their sacred
oracles, "That then should their city be taken, as well as
their holy house, when once their temple should become
four-square." But now, what did the most elevate them in
undertaking this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was
also found in their sacred writings, how, "about that time,
Until All Is Fulfilled 181
one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth." The Jews took this prediction to belong to
themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were
thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle
certainly denoted the government of Vespasian, who was
appointed emperor in Judea. However, it is not possible for
men to avoid fate, although they see it beforehand. But
these men interpreted some of these signals according to
their own pleasure, and some of them they utterly despised,
until their madness was demonstrated, both by the taking
of their city and their own destruction. 128
In Matthew 23 and 24 Jesus expresses what has been called his
eschatological, or doomsday, vision. In fact, the entire passage appears
to be nothing other than a "prophecy" of events and details that
have occurred during Titus' destruction of Jerusalem, all of which
can be found in Josephus' passage above, which describes that event.
The related New Testament passages follow with the discussion
points in boldface type. The passage contains, as Jesus himself
describes them, the signs that will indicate that the "Son of Man" has
come to destroy Jerusalem.
Jesus had left the Temple and was going on His way, when
His disciples came and called His attention to the Temple
buildings. "You see all these?" He replied; "in solemn truth I
tell you that there will not be left here one stone upon
another that will not be pulled down."
Afterwards He was on the Mount of Olives and was
seated there when the disciples came to Him, apart from
the others, and said, "Tell us when this will be; and what
will be the sign of your Coming and of the Close of the Age?"
"Take care that no one misleads you," answered Jesus;
"for many will come assuming my name and saying 'I
am the Christ;' and they will mislead many.
"And before long you will hear of wars and rumors of
wars. Do not be alarmed, for such things must be; but the
End is not yet.
"but all these miseries are but like the early pains of
childbirth.
182 Caesar's Messiah
"That time they will deliver you up to punishment and
will put you to death; and you will be objects of hatred to all
the nations because you are called by my name.
"Then and they will betray one another and hate one
another.
"Many false prophets will rise up and lead multitudes
astray;
"and because of the prevalent disregard of God's law
the love of the great majority will grow cold;
"but those who stand firm to the End shall be saved.
"And this Good News of the Kingdom shall be pro-
claimed throughout the whole world to set the evidence
before all the Gentiles; and then the End will come. When
you have seen (to use the language of the Prophet Daniel)
the 'Abomination of Desolation,' standing in the Holy
Place — let the reader observe those words — then let those
who are in Judea escape to the hills;
"let him who is on the roof not go down to fetch what is
in his house;
"nor let him who is outside the city stay to pick up his
outer garment.
"And alas for the women who at that time are with child
or have infants!
"But pray that your flight may not be in winter, nor on
the Sabbath;
"for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not
been since the beginning of the world and assuredly never
will be again.
"And if those days had not been cut short, no one would
escape; but for the sake of God's own People those days
will be cut short. If at that time any one should say to you,
'See, here is the Christ!' or 'Here!' give no credence to it.
"For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets,
displaying wonderful signs and prodigies, so as to deceive,
were it possible, even God's own People.
"Remember, I have forewarned you.
"If therefore they should say to you, 'See, He is in the
Desert!' do not go out there: or 'See, He is indoors in the
room!' do not believe it.
Until All Is Fulfilled 183
"For just as the lightning flashes in the east and is seen
to the very west, so will be the Coming of the Son of Man.
"Wherever the dead body is, there will the eagles flock
together. But immediately after those times of distress
"Then will appear the Sign of the Son of Man in the sky;
"And He will send out His angels and they will gather
together his elect, from the four winds, and from one end of
heaven to the other. Now learn from the fig-tree the lesson
it teaches. As soon as its branches have now become soft
and it is bursting into leaf, you all know that summer is
near.
"So you also, when you see all these signs, may be sure
that He is near — at your very door.
"I tell you in solemn truth that the present generation
wilt certainly not pass away without all these things having
first taken place.
"Earth and sky will pass away, but it is certain that my
words will not pass away. But as to that day and the exact
time no one knows — not even the angels of heaven, nor the
Son, but the Father alone.
"For as it was in the time of Noah, so it will be at the
Coming of the Son of Man.
"At that time, before the Deluge, men were busy eating
and drinking, taking wives or giving them, up to the very day
when Noah entered the Ark,
"nor did they realize any danger till the Deluge came
and swept them all away; so will it be at the Coming of the
Son of Man.
"Then will two men be in the open country: one will be
taken away, and one left behind.
"Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be
taken away, and one left behind.
"Be on the alert therefore, for you do not know the day
on which your Lord is coming.
"But of this be assured, that if the master of the house
had known the hour at which the robber was coming, he
would have kept awake, and not have allowed his house to
be broken into.
184 Caesar's Messiah
"Therefore, you also must be ready; for it is at a time
when you do not expect Him that the Son of Man will
m „ 11129
come.
I have divided my analysis of the passages above into several
parts. I shall first focus upon the parallels between Josephus' lunatic
Jesus and the New Testament's Jesus. There are numerous parallels
between the eschatological Jesus of Matthew 23 and 24 and the
tragicomic Jesus described in the passage from Josephus, whom I refer
to as the lunatic Jesus. I believe that Josephus intentionally creates a
lampoon of the New Testament's Jesus by having the lunatic Jesus
share his words, phrases, ideas, and experiences — and, obviously, by
means of their shared name. They are parallel in one other important
way. Each gives a list of "signs" that foretell Jerusalem's impending
doom. These lists include a number of identical phrases and concepts.
For example, the Jesus of the New Testament states:
For just as the lightning flashes in the east and is seen to
the very west, so will be the Coming of the Son of Man.
And He will send out His angels and they will gather
together his elect, from the four winds, and from one end of
heaven to the other. Then will the Kingdom of the Heavens
be found to be like ten bridesmaids who took their torches
and went out to meet the bridegroom.
The lunatic Jesus also speaks of "east" and "west," "the four
winds," and "bridesmaids," and "bridegrooms." Notice that the language is used in the same sequence in both works:
. . . began on a sudden to cry aloud, "A voice from the east,
a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice
against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the
bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole
people!"
The lunatic Jesus clearly predicts the destruction of the temple
when he says "a voice against the holy house." The New Testament
Jesus makes the same prediction.
Until All Is Fulfilled 185
His disciples came and called His attention to the Temple
buildings.
"You see all these?" He replied; "in solemn truth I tell
you that there will not be left here one stone upon another
that will not be pulled down."
The New Testament Jesus uses the word "woe" seven times during his speech in Matthew 23. The Jesus in Josephus' passage, above,
who seemingly lampoons the New Testament Jesus, also constantly
repeats the word "woe."
Woe to you, blind guides . . .
Matthew 23:16
And from the passage in Josephus:
Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy
house!
Both Jesuses are using the word "woe" to describe the disasters
that will come to the inhabitants of Jerusalem when the "Son" returns.
The New Testament Jesus foresees this disaster occurring with the
return of a "Son of God," while Josephus' lunatic Jesus also foresees
this occurring with coming of a "son of god," this one being Titus.
It needs it be pointed out that Matthew 23 and 24 simply divide
one speech, so that the parallels between these chapters and Josephus' description of the signs that preceded the destruction of the
temple should be taken as unified.
The lampoon is made even clearer when Josephus records that
the lunatic Jesus has a passion experience very similar to that of the
Jesus in the the New Testament. Like the New Testament Jesus, the
lunatic Jesus is taken by "eminent Jews" to the Roman procurator,
where he is whipped until his bones are laid bare. Like the New Testament Jesus he is described as a man with "divine" fury.
Josephus links his lunatic Jesus to the Jesus in the New Testament in yet another way, by the date of his death. Josephus enables
the reader to calculate this date by stating that the time when the
lunatic Jesus began his wailing was "four years before the war
186 Caesar's Messiah
began" and that he continues "without growing hoarse" for "seven
years and five months."
As noted by Eisenman, these dates indicate that the lunatic
Jesus died on Passover in 70 C.E. 130 This is a precise 40-year "generation" from the beginning of the ministry of the the New Testament's Jesus — who predicted that his prophecies would be fulfilled
within 40 years. Jesus ben Ananias is another comic fulfillment of
the the New Testament Jesus' prophecy.
Finally, the completely unbelievable yet very comic end of the
woe-saying Jesus in Josephus is related to the comic New Testament
theme regarding "stones."
This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months, without
growing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time
that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege,
when it ceased; for as he was going round upon the wall, he
cried out with his utmost force, "Woe, woe to the city again,
and to the people, and to the holy house!" And just as he
added at the last, "Woe, woe to myself also!" there came a
stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed
him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same
presages he gave up the ghost.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus states that the temple of Jerusalem will be destroyed. He then is asked what signs will foretell its
destruction. Jesus responds with a list of signs that will occur before
the coming of the "Son of Man," the individual whose visitation will
bring about the destruction.
Josephus also gives a list of signs that, as he relates it, actually
did precede the destruction of the temple. When these two lists of
signs are compared, a number of parallels emerge.
The first parallel is almost too obvious to be noticed — the location and subject of both passages. They both describe activity in and
around the temple of Jerusalem and both have to do with its destruction. Further, both Jesus and Josephus flatly declare that they are
going to reveal the signs that will precede the coming destruction of
the temple.
Until All Is Fulfilled 187
Thus, the title of the chapter in War of the Jews reads:
THE GREAT DISTRESS THE JEWS WERE IN UPON THE
CONFLAGRATION OF THE HOLY HOUSE. CONCERNING A
FALSE PROPHET AND THE SIGNS THAT PRECEDED THIS
DESTRUCTION.
At the beginning of Matthew 24 Jesus is asked the following
question:
Afterwards He was on the Mount of Olives and was seated
there when the disciples came to Him, apart from the others, and said, "Tell us when this will be; and what will be the
sign of your Coming and of the Close of the Age?'
Jesus' doomsday visions are thus parallel to Josephus' chapter
heading,
. . . SIGNS THAT PRECEDED THIS DESTRUCTION.
Both sets of signs are, thus, in relation to the coming destruction of the temple. Jesus states that these signs will also herald the
coming of the "Son of Man" and the beginning of the "tribulation"
during which the temple will be destroyed. Josephus records that
very similar signs, in fact, did occur just before just the destruction
of the temple.
For clarification, I will go through the list of signs that Jesus
envisioned and then present the parallel signs that Josephus recorded
as having come to pass.
The New Testament Jesus sees false prophets rising and leading
the people astray.
"Take care that no one misleads you," answered Jesus;
"for many will come assuming my name and saying 'I
am the Christ;' and they will mislead many.
Many false prophets will rise up and lead multitudes
astray ..."
This "comes to pass" in this passage from Josephus:
188 Caesar's Messiah
A false prophet was the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made a public proclamation in the city that
very day, that God commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there they should receive miraculous signs of
their deliverance. Now there was then a great number of
false prophets suborned by the tyrants to impose on the
people, who denounced this to them, that they should wait
for deliverance from God . . .
Jesus described the route the Son of Man would take.
For just as the lightning flashes in the east and is seen to
the very west, so will be the Coming of the Son of Man.
This was the direction of the march of the Roman army as they
entered Judea on the east and carried their conquest westward.
Like Daniel [Daniel 7,13] the New Testament Jesus sees a sign
of the Son of Man in the sky foreshadowing that the destruction is
imminent: "One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of
heaven!"
In Josephus, we read of an actual sign in the clouds foretelling
the imminent destruction of Jerusalem.
. . . before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in
their armor were seen running about among the clouds . . .
The parallel between the sign of "chariots and troops . . . among
the clouds" given by Josephus and the "sign of the Son of Man in the
sky" given by Jesus is problematic for Christianity. If one accepts, as
the early Christian scholars did, that the signs Jesus gives in
Matthew came to pass with the signs Josephus records, then it is difficult to gainsay that Jesus was referring to Titus as the "Son of
Man," chariots and troops being more synonymous with leaders of
Roman armies than with religious sages. This parallel is as clear as
any of the other parallels between the signs that Jesus foresees in
Matthew 23 and 24 and the signs that Josephus gives in War of the
Jews, and to attempt to exclude it would constitute special pleading.
Of interest is the fact that on the Arch of Titus at Rome there is a
relief depicting both Titus' consecratio and his conquest of Jerusalem, which shows him being carried into the clouds on an eagle.
Until All Is Fulfilled 189
Other scholars have noticed the connection between Jesus and
Titus that Josephus' sign regarding chariots and troops creates. The
eighteenth-century theologian Reland wrote concerning this particular sign that
. . . many will here look for a mystery, as though the mean-
ing were, that the Son of God came now to take vengeance
on the sins of the Jewish nation . . .
Reland was simply stating the obvious. Since Jesus' eschatological prophecies were solely regarding the destruction of Judea by the
Romans, they appear to envision him coming "at the head of the
Roman army." Because Titus was the head of the army that destroyed
Jerusalem, the parallel that this sign creates between Jesus and him
seems clear.
Continuing with the lists of signs, in the New Testament Jesus
predicts "woe" for women who are suckling a child.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that
give suck in those days.
Matt. 24:19
Josephus shows that this came to pass.
She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching
up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said,
"O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in
this war, this famine, and this sedition?"... As soon as she
had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and
eat the one half of him , . .
Jesus foresees "famines and earthquakes" as signs of the coming
destruction. In the above passage from Josephus, the priests "felt a
quaking" as they attempted to perform their ministrations. Josephus
describes "many that were worn away by the famine."
In Matthew 24 Jesus states
let him who is on the roof not go down to fetch what is in his
house;
nor let him who is outside the city stay to pick up his
outer garment.
190 Caesar's Messiah
In the following passage, Josephus records that this sign "came
to pass":
And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare
what was round about the holy house, that they set that
cloister on fire; by which means it came to pass that some
of these were destroyed by throwing themselves down headlong, and some were burnt in the cloisters themselves. Nor
did any one of them escape with his life. A false prophet was
the occasion of these people's destruction, who had made
a public proclamation in the city that very day, that God
commanded them to get upon the temple, and that there
they should receive miraculous signs of their deliverance.
They also burnt down the treasury chambers, in which
was an immense quantity of money, and an immense number of garments . . .
Jesus states:
But of this be assured, that if the master of the house had
known the hour at which the robber was coming, he would
have kept awake, and not have allowed his house to be broken into.
Throughout War of the Jews, Josephus uses the word "robber" to
describe the Jewish rebels:
And now it was that the multitude of the robbers were
thrust out [of the inner court of the temple by the Romans,]
and had much ado to get into the outward court, and from
thence into the city, while the remainder of the populace
fled into the cloister of that outer court . . .
Jesus literally dates the "close of the age" that he is prophesying:
I tell you in solemn truth that the present generation will
certainly not pass away without all these things having first
taken place.
Jews in the first century held that a generation lasted 40 years.
Therefore the generation that Jesus is referring to can only be the
Until All Is Fulfilled 191
one that, 40 years later, rebelled from Rome. Thus, all of Jesus'
prophecies were foreseeing events from the coming war.
The following quote underscores this idea.
. . . Wherever the dead body is, there will the eagles flock
together. . .
Since the eagle was the symbol of the Roman army, the idea
behind this passage also seems clear. Numerous scholars have
understood the passage to indicate that Jesus is foreseeing the
Roman army gathering about the corpses amidst the destroyed temple. As Albert Barnes wrote in his Commentary on Matthew in 1832:
This verse is connected with the preceding by the word
"for," implying that this is a reason for what is said there —
that the Son of Man would certainly come to destroy the
city, and that he would come suddenly. The meaning is that
he would come, by means of the Roman armies, as certainly, as suddenly, and as unexpectedly as whole flocks of
vultures and eagles, though unseen before, see their prey
at a great distance and suddenly gather in multitudes
around it... So keen is their vision as aptly to represent the
Roman armies, though at an immense distance, spying, as
it were, Jerusalem, a putrid carcass, and hastening in multitudes to destroy it.
The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus has seen into the
future and is telling the Jews what they must do to avoid "tribulation."
For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, displaying wonderful signs and prodigies, so as to deceive,
were it possible, even God's own People . . .
Remember, I have forewarned you.
Josephus, in a pattern that should be familiar to the reader by
now, states:
Now if any one consider these things, he will find that God
takes care of mankind, and by all ways possible foreshows
to our race what is for their preservation; but that men perish by those miseries which they madly and voluntarily
bring upon themselves . . .
As with all of Jesus' prophecies, his list of signs operates on two
levels. On their surface they would have demonstrated to early uneducated Christian converts the divinity of Jesus. Potential converts
would have been shown the prophecies of Christ in the New Testa-
ment and then the realization of each prophecy in War of the Jews —
the official prophet corroborated by the official history. This would
have both "proven" the divinity of Christ, because he had been able
to see into future, and simultaneously justified the Romans' destruction of Jerusalem, because it "proved" that it had been foreseen by
God. On their comic level, however, the two lists of signs are obviously clues to the real identity of the Son of Man — Titus Flavius.
I note another parallel between Jesus' eschatological prophecies
and War of the Jews that is related to this theme. Jesus in Matthew 24
states
... for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not
been since the beginning of the world and assuredly never
will be again.
Josephus records that this too came to pass.
... the misfortunes of all men, from the beginning of the
world, if they be compared to these of the Jews, are not so
considerable as they were. 131
There is another parallel between the signs in Matthew 23 and
the signs in Josephus. I will analyze it separately because of its
unique comic nature. This parallel has long puzzled scholars. The
confusion has been due to its not being understood both as a joke
and as another of the parallels between Jesus' ministry and Titus'
campaign, that which were created to give their two stories the same
broad outline.
In the Gospels, Jesus states
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape
being sentenced to hell?
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193
Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and
scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some
you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from
town to town,
that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed
on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of
Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah, whom you murdered
between the sanctuary and the altar.
Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation.
Matt. 23:33-36
In War of the Jews Josephus writes:
And now these zealots and Idumeans were quite weary of
barely killing men, so they had the impudence of setting up
fictitious tribunals and judicatures for that purpose; and as
they intended to have Zacharias the son of Baruch, one of
the most eminent of the citizens, slain, so what provoked
them against him was, that hatred of wickedness and love
of liberty which were so eminent in him . . .
Now the seventy judges brought in their verdict that the
person accused was not guilty, as choosing rather to die
themselves with him, than to have his death laid at their
doors; hereupon there arose a great clamor of the zealots
upon his acquittal, and they all had indignation at the
judges for not understanding that the authority that was
given them was but in jest. So two of the boldest of them
fell upon Zacharias in the middle of the temple, and slew
him; and as he fell down dead, they bantered him, and said,
"Thou hast also our verdict, and this will prove a more sure
acquittal to thee than the other." . . , 132
As I have pointed out, Matthew 24 is a continuation of the same
speech Jesus begins in Matthew 23. Jesus leaves the interior of the
temple, where the dialogue of Matthew 23 occurs, and then continues this speech (Matthew 24) outside the temple. Therefore, the parallel between Zacharias, son of Barachiah, and Zacharias, son of
Baruch, both slain in the temple, should be understood to be in the
194 Caesar's Messiah
same stream of prophecy Jesus gives in Matthew 24, because it is
from the same speech. In light of the numerous parallels in Matthew
24 and War of the Jews, we are on solid footing when we understand
this to be another example of Jesus "seeing" something in the future
that Josephus documents.
There is a problem with accepting that the parallel belongs in
the same set as Jesus' famous eschatological prophecies, however.
The character that Jesus refers to appeared not in his future but in
his past. The prophet "Zachari'ah the son of Barachi'ah" is a character from the Old Testament, so how can Jesus be foreseeing him in
the future? Further, how could Josephus then record that Jesus was
right, that Zacharias' death occurred in 70 C.E., along with the other
prophecies envisioned by Jesus in Matthew 23 and 24?
I include Whiston's fascinating comment regarding the passage
from Josephus. He was aware of the parallel between the Zacharias
in Josephus and the Zachari'ah in the New Testament and was troubled by its implications.
Some commentators are ready to suppose that this
"Zacharias, the son of Baruch," here most unjustly slain by
the Jews in the temple, was the very same person with
"Zacharias, the son of Barachias," whom our Savior says
the Jews "slew between the temple and the altar," Matthew
23:35. This is a somewhat strange exposition; since
Zechariah the prophet was really "the son of Barachiah,"
and "grandson of Iddo," Zechariah 1:1; and how he died, we
have no other account than that before us in St. Matthew:
while this "Zacharias" was "the son of Baruch." Since the
slaughter was past when our Savior spake these words, the
Jews had then already slain him; whereas this slaughter of
"Zacharias, the son of Baruch," in Josephus, was then
about thirty-four years future. And since the slaughter was
"between the temple and the altar," in the court of the
priests, one of the most sacred and remote parts of the
whole temple; while this was, in Josephus' own words, in
the middle of the temple, and much the most probably in
the court of Israel only (for we have had no intimation that
the zealots had at this time profaned the court of the
priests. See B. V. ch. 1 . sect. 2). Nor do I believe that our
Until All Is Fulfilled 195
Josephus, who always insists on the peculiar sacredness of
the inmost court, and of the holy house that was in it, would
have omitted so material an aggravation of this barbarous
murder, as perpetrated in a place so very holy, had that
been the true place of it. 133
Thus, Whiston attempts to explain away the troubling parallel
by arguing that the slaying of Zacharias in Josephus could not be the
incident that Jesus prophesied because
1) Zacharias the prophet died before Jesus' birth.
2) Barachiah and Baruch are different words.
3) The "middle of the temple" is not "between the temple and
the altar"
Whiston's first point is irrelevant. His second ignores the many
slight changes in spelling between the same words in Josephus and
the New Testament. For example, a type of fish from the Sea of
Galilee is spelled "Coracin" in Josephus and "Chora'zin" in the New
Testament. His third point, regarding the possible differences in the
location of the slayings, is contradictory of his acceptance of the
other parallels between the same passages in the New Testament and
Josephus as evidence of Christ's divinity.
Further, it is obvious that Jesus' prophecy regarding, "Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar," 134 would have been understood by an uneducated
first-century convert to Christianity as having come to pass by the
passage in Josephus that states, "so two of the boldest of them fell
upon Zacharias (the son of Baruch) in the middle of the temple, and
slew him."
Josephus and the New Testament consistently avoid verbatim
parallels by one degree. In the chapter ahead on the Book of Daniel,
Jesus speaks of the "abomination of desolation," while Josephus
refers to the "end of the daily sacrifice." In fact, both expressions
refer the same thing. Someone to whom the two works would be
read would then make the connection between the "different" terms
and thereby come to the conclusion that Jesus had been able to see
into the future. By means of this name-switching technique, the
authors of the New Testament and Josephus playfully hide the fact
196 Caesar's Messiah
from the uneducated masses for which Christianity was invented
that the same source created both works. As I have shown above,
Simon becomes Peter, John becomes "the disciple Jesus loved," etc.
The two passages above regarding Zacharias use this technique.
Jesus uses the expression "between the sanctuary and the altar,"
while Josephus uses the expression "middle of the temple." Jesus
speaks of "Zechari'ah the son of Barachi'ah." Josephus refers to
"Zacharias the son of Baruch." Different words again express the
same concept.
Since Jesus' eschatological prophecies all came to pass in the
same chapter from War of the Jews, is it not more logical to presume
that the Zacharias stories are another example of this set of fulfilled
prophecies?
However, pursuing this line of thought was impossible for
Whiston. 135 To do so, he would have had to accept that both Jesus
and Josephus were in error because they each "saw" something that
could not have happened in 70 C.E. To Whiston, Jesus could not err,
by definition, because he was God. Likewise, to Whiston, as to so
many Christian scholars, Josephus could not be mistaken because
his history records God's handiwork.
This is a demonstration of the power of the combination of the
two works. The belief that they came from two distinct sources creates the effect that they demonstrate the supernatural, which is to
say, Jesus' power of prophecy. The New Testament reveals the true
"Son of God" because Christ's predictions come true. A "historian"
records them. Josephus' histories must be accurate because they
record the works of God. Jesus predicts the events that Josephus sees.
Whiston's intellect is powerless to analyze what is right in front
of him because of the divinity that the two works "demonstrate." If
someone had suggested to Whiston that the Zacharias story in Josephus and Christ's prediction regarding Zacharias in the New Testament combine to form a joke, he would not and could not have
understood such humor.
Of course, the passages would have been wickedly funny to an
intellectual at the Flavian court — one who was familiar with the Old
Testament and therefore understood the humor in the passages.
Jesus, in the midst of a series of predictions, describes something
Until All Is Fulfilled 197
that has already occurred. Josephus then "records" it coming to pass,
a second time, in the future. An absurd comic romp comparable with
the woe-saying Jesus being struck dead by a stone. Imagine someone
today who, claiming to be able to see the future, gives a list of events
that will happen in the coming century. At the end of the list, he predicts that Germany will lose World War II. The comedy is vaudevillian.
There are several points. First, the most straightforward, non-supernatural explanation is that the same source produced both the
Zechari'ah, son of Barachi'ah, passage in the New Testament and the
Zacharias, son of Baruch, passage in Josephus. This is because it is
unlikely that two distinct authors would have made the same mistake.
Further, the passages work together to create a humorous piece,
another example of the New Testament and War of the Jews producing a comic effect when read together.
The New Testament passage regarding Zacharias is also notable
in that it gives a point in time when "these things shall come upon
this generation." In other words, Jesus is predicting exactly when the
tribulation of the "wicked generation" shall occur — that is, directly
following their killing of Zacharias. David Brown wrote in 1858:
Does not this tell us plainly as words could do it, that the
whole prophecy was meant to apply to the destruction of
Jerusalem? There is but one way of setting this aside, but
how forced it is, must, I think, appear to every unbiased
mind. It is by translating, not "this generation,". . . but "this
nation shall not pass away": in other words, the Jewish
nation shall survive all the things here predicted! Nothing
but some fancied necessity, arising out of their view of the
prophecy, could have led so many sensible men to put this
gloss upon our Lord's words. Only try the effect of it upon
the perfectly parallel announcement in the previous chapter: "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers . . . Where-
fore, behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and
scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and
some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and
persecute from city to city . . . that upon you may come all
the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
198 Caesar's Messiah
righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, whom ye slew
between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All
these things shall come upon this generation" . . . (Matt,
xxiii. 32, 34-36). Does not the Lord here mean the then
existing generation of the Israelites? Beyond all question he
does; and if so, what can be plainer than that this is his
meaning in the passage before us? 136
Brown is arguing that the context of Jesus' use of the word generation in the Zacharias passage proves that Jesus is referring to the
events of 70 C.E. I could not agree more. When Jesus states that the
Jews have been wicked "from the blood of righteous Abel unto the
blood of Zacharias" and that this generation will "fill up" on the
measure of their fathers, a first-century convert to Christianity would
have understood that he was "predicting" the Jews' destruction in 70
C.E. Indeed, what other interpretation of Jesus' words is possible?
In addition, by giving "the blood of Zacharias" as the end point
of the Jews' wickedness Jesus is also clearly stating it that will be an
event immediately before the "wicked generation" will "fill up" on
their "tribulation." Jesus is clearly predicting that Zacharias' blood
will be spilled immediately before the Jews' destruction by the Romans.
This temporal parallel, that both Jesus and Josephus "saw"
Zacharias as being killed by the "wicked generation" immediately
before the destruction of the temple, is of great importance. By each
placing the destruction of Zachariah immediately before the
destruction of the temple, the authors of the New Testament and
War of the Jews create another of their "milestones," conceptually
parallel events that occur in the same sequence.
The final "fulfilled prophecy" I want to analyze from Jesus'
doomsday speech in Matthew is the one that he makes regarding a
"stone" that will crush. In the passage, Jesus also predicts that another
nation, obviously Rome, will be given the "Kingdom of God."
"Have you never read in the Scriptures," said Jesus, "The
Stone which the builders rejected has been made the Cornerstone: this Cornerstone came from the Lord, and is
wonderful in our eyes?
Until All Is Fulfilled 199
That, I tell you, is the reason why the Kingdom of God
will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that will
exhibit the power of it.
He who falls on this stone will be severely hurt; but he
on whom it falls will be utterly crushed."
Matt. 21 :44.6
In the Whiston translation of War of the Jews, published by J. M.
Dent in 1915, I found the following extraordinary pun regarding the
"stone" that "crushed."
First is the passage as I originally read it (in a more recent translation). This is the translation given in most modern English versions of Josephus:
The engines, that all the legions had ready prepared for
them, were admirably contrived; but still more extraordinary
ones belonged to the tenth legion: those that threw darts
and those that threw stones were more forcible and larger
than the rest, by which they not only repelled the excursions
of the Jews, but drove those away that were upon the walls
also. Now the stones that were cast were of the weight of a
talent, and were carried two furlongs and further. The blow
they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those that
stood first in the way, but by those that were beyond them
for a great space. As for the Jews, they at first watched the
coming of the stone, for it was of a white color, and could
therefore not only be perceived by the great noise it made,
but could be seen also before it came by its brightness;
accordingly the watchmen that sat upon the towers gave
them notice when the engine was let go, and the stone
came from it, and cried out aloud, in their own country's
language, THE STONE COMETH, so those that were in its
way stood off, and threw themselves down upon the ground;
by which means, and by their thus guarding themselves,
the stone fell down and did them no harm. But the Romans
contrived how to prevent that by blacking the stone, who
then could aim at them with success, when the stone was
not discerned beforehand, as it had been till then; and so
200 Caesar's Messiah
they destroyed many of them at one blow. Yet did not the
Jews, under all this distress, permit the Romans to raise
their banks in quiet; but they shrewdly and boldly exerted
themselves, and repelled them both by night and by day. 137
In the 1915 Dent translation, this passage reads differently.
THE STONE COMETH" was translated as "THE SON COMETH."
To determine the basis for this discrepancy I looked at the passage
in the oldest Greek versions of War of the Jews. They all show the
phrase as "ho huios erchetai" "huios" being the Greek word for
"son." Modern translators have arbitrarily substituted the word they
believed Josephus intended to use here (stone), refusing to translate
the actual Greek word that appears in the oldest extant manuscripts.
This is interesting because the word petros, which scholars have chosen to translate "stone," is in no way linguistically similar to the
word huios "son," which is actually found in the passage.
Whiston was aware that the original word in the phrase is
"huios." In his translation of Josephus he left the footnote below, in
which he attempts to explain how it came to pass that all the ancient
works he used for his translation had used the Greek word huios for
son. His explanation is fascinating in that it is an example of the
kind of cognitive dissonance that he and other scholars have used to
avoid seeing what is right in front of them. He admits that the only
language in which "stone" and "son" might have been mistaken for
one another, Hebrew, is not the language in which Josephus wrote
War of the Jews. He also argues that alternative translations — arrow
or dart — are "groundless conjectural alteration." Therefore, he really
has no alternative than to accept the word as it is written — that is,
"SON." However, he does not wish to do this either, leaving him
with no explanation.
What should be the meaning of this signal or watchword,
when the watchmen saw a stone coming from the engine,
"The Stone Cometh," or what mistake there is in the reading, I cannot tell. The MSS., both Greek and Latin, all agree
in this reading; and I cannot approve of any groundless conjectural alteration of the text from "ro" to "lop," that not the
son or a stone, but that the arrow or dart cometh; as hath
Until All Is Fulfilled 201
been made by Dr. Hudson, and not corrected by Havercamp.
Had Josephus written even his first edition of these books
of the war in pure Hebrew, or had the Jews then used the
pure Hebrew at Jerusalem, the Hebrew word for a son is so
like that for a stone, ben and eben, that such a correction
might have been more easily admitted. But Josephus wrote
his former edition for the use of the Jews beyond Euphrates,
and so in the Chaldee language, as he did this second edition in the Greek language; and bar was the Chaldee word
for son, instead of the Hebrew ben, and was used not only
in Chaldea, etc. but in Judea also, as the New Testament
informs us. Dio lets us know that the very Romans at Rome
pronounced the name of Simon the son of Giora, Bar Poras
for Bar Gioras, as we learn from Xiphiline. Reland takes
notice, "that many will here look for a mystery, as though
the meaning were, that the Son of God came now to take
vengeance on the sins of the Jewish nation;" which is
indeed the truth of the fact, but hardly what the Jews could
now mean; unless possibly by way of derision of Christ's
threatening so often made, that he would come at the head
of the Roman army for their destruction. But even this
interpretation has but a very small degree of probability. 138
Whiston mentions the seventeenth century scholar and theologian Reland's interpretation of the phrase. It is a most straightforward understanding and based, of course, on the word "SON" being
the word Josephus wrote. Reland understood that the phrase relates
to the coming of the Son of God described in the New Testament.
Further, Whiston's next comment — "which is indeed the truth of the
fact, but hardly what the Jews could now mean; unless possibly by
way of derision of Christ's threatening so often made, that he would
come at the head of the Roman army for their destruction" — is so in
accord with my thinking as to need almost no clarification. Whiston
is specifically taking the position that I am arguing, that Christ's
prophecies relate to the coming war between the Romans and the
Jews, and that the "Son of God" would lead the Roman army. It is a
small step then to the position that all of Jesus' warnings regarding
the coming of the Son of God, who will bring destruction with him,
202 Caesar's Messiah
are predicting the Son of God who actually was at the head of the
Roman army, Titus.
It is also fascinating to notice how effective and long-lasting the
anti-Semitism created by the New Testament has been. Notice that
Whiston sees the destruction of the Jews as being a quite appropriate vengeance for their destruction of the Savior. It is easy to imagine how such a perspective would have affected his everyday dealings with Jews. Hence, if Rome did create Christianity to instill
anti-Semitism, their invention certainly stands the test of time. It is
still working thousands of years after its creation.
To demonstrate the importance of the statement, the editor of
Josephus has capitalized all the letters in the phrase. "THE SON
COMETH." The editor of Josephus has identified the importance of
the passage in the same way as he identified the phrase house of hyssop in the "Son of Mary" passage cited earlier, by writing that phrase
in italics.
The point at which Josephus inserts the pun helps to make its
meaning clear. The passage is at the very beginning of the Roman
assault on Jerusalem, the exact moment in time when the son actually did "cometh" to destroy Jerusalem.
Further, it is implausible that someone would sound the alarm
for a hurled projectile with such a lengthy phrase. "Incoming" is all
a contemporary soldier utters before he hits the deck. "THE STONE
COMETH" is too long a phrase to speak when milliseconds matter.
This idea becomes even clearer in the original Greek, "ho petros
erchetai" is not an expression that would naturally come to mind
when a large stone is bearing down on someone.
The substitution of "stone" for "son" actually continues another
comic concept in the New Testament, "stone" being another of the
important self-designations Jesus uses. Jesus compares himself to a
stone, one that if it strikes will "utterly crush." In other words, he is
saying that the "Son of God" is a "stone" who will crush those who
reject him, obviously meaning the Jews. He states this specifically
within the context of Rome's use of power. This is, of course, the
same comic concept presented above, where Josephus records that a
"Son," who is in fact a "stone," has crushed Jews.
Until All Is Fulfilled 203
Like Jesus' other comic self-designations, (fisher of men, living
bread, living water) with "stone" the physical location where Jesus uses
the expression is part of the joke. He calls himself a "stone" rejected
by the builders (meaning the Jews), which will "utterly crush" those
on whom it falls, at the exact spot where Josephus records that
stones did actually fall on Jews during the war with Rome.
In the "lunatic Jesus" passage above, Josephus continues the
comic theme of Jesus calling himself a stone that will "crush." The
lunatic Jesus is killed just as the Roman siege of Jerusalem begins.
Josephus records this slapstick Jesus' last words:
"Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the
holy house!" And just as he added at the last, "Woe, woe to
myself also!" there came a stone out of one of the engines,
and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was
uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost. 139
It is clear that a resident of the Flavian court would have found
humor in each of Jesus' self-designations because of the locations
where he pronounced them. Imagine a patrician with a copy of the
Gospels in 80 C.E., knowing what the Roman war catapults had
done to the Jewish defenders of Jerusalem, reading about a Messiah
who, while standing beneath that city's walls, calls himself a stone
and threatens to fall on and utterly crush Jews. For such an individual, the humor would have been obvious. Could Jesus, by sheer
chance, have given himself so many unique self-designations at the
exact locations that would have made them humorous to patricians?
When viewed as a group, the parallels between these two pas-
sages and the comedy they create seems too exact to have occurred
by chance. The choices are either to agree with Eusebius, who writes
It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction of
our Savior in which he foretold these very events. His words
are as follows: "Woe unto them that are with child, and to
them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your
flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day; For
there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the
beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be."
204 Caesar's Messiah
. . . These things took place ... in accordance with the
prophecies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who by
divine power saw them beforehand as if they were already
present. . , 140
or accept the idea that the same source produced both the New
Testament and War of the Jews.
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