The People of the Coming Prince (Pt. 2)

What People?

If the Messiah Prince is the Lord Jesus, as we have seen, then who is His people? Notice it is the people of the Prince who are credited with destroying the city and temple, not the Prince himself. The people are connected with the Prince, but how? It is the people who are related to or belong to the Prince who destroy the city and temple.

The Hebrew word translated as people is ‘am and appears about 1,868 times in the Old Testament. It is translated as “people” 1836 times. It is most often used to describe Israel and its tribes. It is used to show a personal or familial connection. Here is an Outline of Biblical Usage of the Hebrew word, ‘am.

• 1. nation, people
  • A. people, nation
  • B. persons, members of one's people, compatriots, country-men
• 2. kinsman, kindred

In researching the Hebrew word, ‘am, I found that one of the core ideas behind it is “to bind.” It points to what is bound together. In this way, ‘am refers to people who are bound together by a common source, such as ancestry, or a common society, such as nation or citizenship.

As stated earlier, this word is overwhelmingly used in the Bible for the people of Israel, as the people of God, or the ‘am elohim. They are bound together by both a common ancestry, citizenship and faith.

Josephus reports that the size of Titus’ army was 60,000 plus servants. Of this number, approximately 20-25 thousand were troops from his four legions. The rest of the army came from local auxiliary forces. To qualify as his people, this army would need to be of Italian descent and all Roman citizens. All of those who were legionnaires were Roman citizens, but few were true Italians like Titus.

Apart from this, the people of the Prince are credited with destroying the city and temple. Never has an army been given credit for a military victory above their commander.

The People can only refer to the Judahites (Jews), and the Prince can only refer to the Messiah Jesus.

Corrupt To Destroy

Did the Jewish people destroy the city and temple? Yes, they did. The Hebrew word translated “destroy,” is shachath. Its basic meaning is, to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin, decay. In its use in Daniel 9:26, it is in the causative Hiphil tense. Accordingly, it takes the following meanings.

• 1c1) [cause] to spoil, ruin, destroy
• 1c2) [cause] to pervert, corrupt (morally)
• 1c3) destroyer (participle)

The idea behind this word is to corrupt or ruin a thing until its intended or created purpose is destroyed. We can see this illustrated very clearly in the first instances of its use in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 6, we read,

7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

In verse 7, God said He would “destroy” man. This word for destroy is the Hebrew, mâḥâ, which means, to wipe out, blot out, obliterate, exterminate.

Why is God going to wipe man out? Because he has “corrupted his way upon the earth.” Here, corrupted is the Hebrew, shachath ( שָׁחַת), which is the very same word used in Daniel 9:26. Man corrupted his way upon the earth, which means he destroyed the purpose for which God had created him.

Because of this, “The earth was also corrupt (shachath) before God.” The earth had been corrupted so that it had lost the purpose God had given it. Because both man and the earth had destroyed through corruption their purpose in God, God would destroy (shachath) them by blotting them out (mâḥâ).

When we move to the scene of AD 70, we will see the Jews, by corrupting both the city and temple, destroyed their intended purpose, so that all that was left, was for God to obliterate or lay both city and temple even to the ground by means of the Romans.

As we have already seen, Josephus testified, “I venture to affirm that the sedition destroyed the city, and the Romans destroyed the sedition.”[Wars 5.6.1]

Josephus records how the seditious violated all the laws of men and of God.

“These men, therefore, trampled upon all the laws of men, and laughed at the laws of God; and for the oracles of the prophets, they ridiculed them as the tricks of jugglers; yet did these prophets foretell many things concerning [the rewards of] virtue, and [punishments of] vice, which when these zealots violated, they occasioned the fulfilling of those very prophecies belonging to their own country; for there was a certain ancient oracle of those men, that the city should then be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God. Now while these zealots did not [quite] disbelieve these predictions, they made themselves the instruments of their accomplishment.” (bold emphasis added, Wars, 4.6.3)

The "certain ancient oracle”, mentioned above by Josephus, most likely is this very prophecy in Daniel 9. There is hardly any other one that we know of that fits what Josephus describes in the phrase above,
“that the city should then be taken and the sanctuary burnt, by right of war, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hand should pollute the temple of God,”

It sounds very much like what is described by the meaning of the verb, shachath, to destroy by corrupting.

As part of this corrupting, Josephus describes roving bands of murdering transvestites polluting the city.

“They also devoured what spoils they had taken, together with their blood, and indulged themselves in feminine wantonness, without any disturbance, till they were satiated therewith; while they decked their hair, and put on women’s garments, and were besmeared over with ointments; and that they might appear very comely, they had paints under their eyes, and imitated not only the ornaments, but also the lusts of women, and were guilty of such intolerable uncleanness, that they invented unlawful pleasures of that sort. And thus did they roll themselves up and down the city, as in a brothel-house, and defiled it entirely with their impure actions; nay, while their faces looked like the faces of women, they killed with their right hands; and when their gait was effeminate, they presently attacked men, and became warriors, and drew their swords from under their finely dyed cloaks, and ran every body through whom they alighted upon.” (Wars, 4.9.10)

In one of his attempts to persuade the rebels to surrender to the Romans, Josephus says to the rebels,

“You have not avoided so much as those sins that are usually done in secret; I mean thefts, and treacherous plots against men, and adulteries. You are quarreling about rapines(rapes) and murders, and invent strange ways of wickedness. Nay, the temple itself is become the receptacle of all, and this Divine place is polluted by the hands of those of our own country;”(Wars, 5.9.4)

The phrase above, “this Divine place is polluted by the hands of those of our own country” describes exactly what the phrase in Daniel’s prophecy means.

Again Josephus states,

“I suppose, that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, that the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed.” (Wars, 5.13.6)

It was by the madness of the rebels “that all the people came to be destroyed.” In one of his pleadings with the rebels, Josephus says,

“And who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them, and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions.” (Wars 6.2.1)

Josephus states that God was using the Romans to purge the city and the temple of the rebels and their sedition. The city and temple were full of their pollutions. Parts of the temple had already been set on fire by the rebels before the Romans ever started their own fires.

Later, Titus himself pleads with the rebels to surrender and save their lives and those of their families.

"And what do you do now, you pernicious villains? Why do you trample upon dead bodies in this temple? And why do you pollute this holy house with the blood of both foreigners and Jews themselves? I appeal to the gods of my own country, and to every god that ever had any regard to this place; (for I do not suppose it to be now regarded by any of them;) I also appeal to my own army, and to those Jews that are now with me, and even to yourselves, that I do not force you to defile this your sanctuary; and if you will but change the place whereon you will fight, no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house, whether you will or not." (Wars, 6.2.4)

In a footnote to the above section (Wars, 6.2.4), the translator William Whiston makes this observation, (11) That these seditious Jews were the direct occasions of their own destruction, and of the conflagration of their city and temple, and that Titus earnestly and constantly labored to save both, is here and every where most evident in Josephus.

There are those who suggest that Josephus, writing for the benefit and pleasure of his benefactors, Vespasian and Titus, put them in a better light than they deserved. However, this is merely based upon their own conjecture and bias, demeaning what is otherwise the only eye-witness report of perhaps the greatest tragedy in Jewish history.

Here, Mr. Whiston simply points out the theme which runs through the entirety of Josephus’ record, i.e., Titus gave the rebel Jews every opportunity to lay down their arms and save themselves, their families, their city and temple. The rebels refused every one of Titus’ gestures for peace.

In one of Titus’ pleas with the rebels to lay down their arms and surrender, he states the following,

“I hope you, sirs, are now satiated with the miseries of your country, who have not had any just notions, either of our great power, or of your own great weakness, but have, like madmen, after a violent and inconsiderate manner, made such attempts, as have brought your people, your city, and your holy house to destruction.”

Titus accuses these rebels of destroying the people, the city and the temple. Titus judges that the temple was destroyed, even though it was still standing. He did this due to the fact that the original purpose of the temple had been destroyed. Titus continues,

“When I came near your temple, I again departed from the laws of war, and exhorted you to spare your own sanctuary, and to preserve your holy house to yourselves. I allowed you a quiet exit out of it, and security for your preservation; nay, if you had a mind, I gave you leave to fight in another place. Yet have you still despised every one of my proposals, and have set fire to your holy house with your own hands. And now, vile wretches, do you desire to treat with me by word of mouth? To what purpose is it that you would save such a holy house as this was, which is now destroyed? What preservation can you now desire after the destruction of your temple? [Wars, 6.6.2]

According to the very words of Titus himself, the Jews had for all practical purposes, destroyed the temple themselves. It no longer held the purpose for which it was created.