Preterist John Gill:
And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great
city
Not Jerusalem, which was destroyed when John had this vision, and which will; not be rebuilt at the time it refers to;
nor is it ever called the great city, though the city of the great King; however, not in this book, though the new Jerusalem is so called, (
Revelation 21:10 ) ; but that can never be designed here; but the city of Rome, or the Roman jurisdiction, the whole empire of the Romish antichrist, which is often called the great city in this book; see (
Revelation 16:19 ) (
17:18 ) (
Revelation 18:10 Revelation 18:16 Revelation 18:18 Revelation 18:21 ) . The city of Rome itself was very large, and the Roman empire still larger, so as to be called the whole world and the antichristian see of Rome has been of great extent.
It is mentioned as a "great City" in Jeremiah 22 and fulfilled in 70ad as shown in Revelation 18:
Jeremiah 22:
1Thus said Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
2Say, Hear the word of Yahweh, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.
3Thus says Yahweh: Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.
5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says Yahweh, that this house shall become a desolation.
6For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited.
7I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city? 9Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.
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Rev 11:8
And their dead bodies
will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our[fn] Lord was crucified.
Rev 14:8
And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon[fn] is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
Rev 16:19
Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
The Great City/Harlot/Queen Revelation chapts 17-19
Rev 17:18
“And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Rev 18:10
“standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'
Rev 18:16
“and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!
Rev 18:18
“and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘
What is like this great city?'
Rev 18:19
“They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.'
Rev 18:21
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw
it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.
Rev 21:10
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me
the great city, the holy[fn] Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
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https://www.preteristarchive.com/JewishWars/timeline_military.html
The Destruction of Jerusalem - George Peter Holford, 1805AD
The vial of divine wrath, which had been so long pouring out upon this devoted city was now emptying, and JERUSALEM, once "a praise in all the earth," and the subject of a thousand prophecies, deprived of' the staff of life, wrapt in flames, and bleeding on every side sunk into utter ruin and desolation. This memorable siege terminated on the eighth day of the ninth month, A. D. 70 : its duration was nearly five months, the Romans having invested the city on the fourteenth day of the fourth month, preceeding.
In executing the command of Titus, relative to the demolition of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers not only threw down the buildings, but even dug up their foundations, and so completely levelled the whole circuit of the city, that a stranger would scarcely have known that it had ever been inhabited by human beings.
Thus was this great City, which only five
months before, had been crowded with nearly two
millions of people, who gloried in its impregnable strength,
entirely depopulated, and levelled with the ground. And thus, also was our LORD'S prediction, that her enemies should "lay her
even with the ground," and "should not leave in her
one stone upon another, " (Luke xix. 44.) most strikingly and fully accomplished ! -- This fact is confirmed by Eusebius, who asserts that he himself saw the city lying in ruins ; and Josephus introduces Eleazer as exclaiming "Where is our great city, which, it was believed, GOD inhabited ? It is altogether
rooted and torn up from its foundations ; and the only monument of it that remains, is the camp of its destroyers pitched amidst its reliques !"
Concerning the Temple, our LORD had foretold, particularly, that, notwithstanding their wonderful dimensions, there should "not be left one stone upon another that should not be thrown down ;" and, accordingly, it is recorded, in the Talmud, and by Maimonides, that Terentius Rufus, captain of the army of Titus, absolutely
ploughed up the foundations of the Temple with a ploughshare. Now, also, was literally fulfilled that prophecy of Micah- "Therefore shall Zion, for your sakes (i. e. for your wickedness,) be
ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the LORD's house as the high places of the forest." (Micah iii. 12)
Thus awfully complete an ever, beyond example, were the calamities which befel the Jewish nation, and especially the city of Jerusalem. With what truth, then, did our LORD declare, that there should "be great tribulation,
such as was not since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be !" (Matt. xxiv. 21.) Such was the pre
diction : the language in which Josephus declares its
fulfillment is an exact counterpart to it : "If the misfortunes," says he, " of all nations, from
the beginning of the world, were compared with those which befel the Jews, they would appear far less in comparison ;" and again, "No
other city ever suffered such
thing's, as no other generation , from the
beginning of the world, was ever more fruitful in wickedness." These were, indeed, "the days of vengeance," that all things which are written (especially by Moses, Joel, and Daniel,) might be fulfilled." Luke xxi. 22.