Life
did change for those in the first century - in a material way. And the elements (of the Old Covenant) did melt with fervent heat in the fire. Biblical Judaism life completely revolved around the Temple and that entire religious system. That isn't figurative at all, for that to literally disappear (as the author of Hebrews wrote would happen in their generation - Hebrews 8:13).
Quoting from linked page:
But for Josephus, the date of the fire was not due to Roman choice. He had been trying his hardest to obtain the peaceful surrender of the rebels and in this way preserve the Temple and the city. The long, long sermon he claims to have given before the walls is surely a fabrication.
It is easy to imagine that after the destruction he would have tormented himself: "Is there something I could have said that would have saved the Temple? If I had only found the right words..." The idealized speeches can be seen as an intellectual way to handle this guilt, as indeed, perhaps, is his entire writing of the War. In these speeches he finds solace by explicitly identifiying himself with Jeremiah, another prophet who failed to save his city. There was nothing, he realizes, that he or any human could have done:
The Deity, indeed long since, had sentenced the Temple to the flames; but now in the revolution of the years had arrived the fated day, the Tenth of the Month of Lous [Av]. [...] Deeply as one must mourn for the most marvellous edifice which we have ever seen or heard of, yet may we draw very great consolation from the thought that there is no escape from Fate, for works of art and places, any more than for living beings. And one may well marvel at the exactness of the cycle of Destiny; for, as I said, she waited until the very month and the very day on which in bygone times the Temple had been burnt by the Babylonians.- War 250, 267-270
And as Andy Stanley said in a recent article:
View attachment 288959
"Andy Stanley on Evangelicals After Trump - The Atlantic"
The Evangelical Reckoning
Begins
