3 Resurrections
That's 666 YEARS, folks
- Aug 21, 2021
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Does history give us the date in AD 66 when Jerusalem was surrounded by armies?
CG, your apparent expertise on this calendar dating system is what I have been looking for on the various Christian forums I frequent, so that I can make sure my dating for this second resurrection at Christ's return on Pentecost day in AD 70 is absolutely correct. Since you have expended so much effort on this subject, I'd like to compare notes, so to speak, even though our eschatological positions are not the same.
When I read Josephus' account of this AD 66 abomination of desolation event, he gives the date when the Roman armies of Cestius came against Jerusalem (as Luke 21:20 predicted) with his 12th legion, and the additional auxiliary forces with him, coming from the kings Antiochus, Agrippa, and Sohemus (Wars 2.18.9). Plural armies coming against Jerusalem, as Luke 21:20 said.
Cestius and his collective armies traveled from Ptolemais through various cities to finally reach Jerusalem. Josephus writes that, after pitching his camp on Mount Scopus, it was "on the fourth day, which was the thirtieth of the month Hyperbereteus [Tisri], when he put his army in array, he brought it into the city." (Wars 2.19.4. 528). The Zealot armies retreated from the suburbs into the inner part of the city, and to the temple. Cestius set on fire the new city section and the timber market, and set his camp up against the royal palace in the upper city section.
For five days, Cestius's army attempted to attack the Temple wall, under a rain of darts and pelting stones - without any success. But the next day, the Roman soldiers braced themselves and their shields against the wall in layered, Testudo fashion as they dug to undermine the walls and prepared for setting fire to the Temple entry gate.
It was at this point that Josephus said, "a horrible fear seized upon the seditious, insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it were to be taken immediately." (Wars 2.19.6). For the invading Gentile armies to make actual physical contact during their attack on the walls of the holy temple in their efforts to burn the Temple gate was a profanation of the Jews's "holy place". This is what Christ predicted about Daniel's AOD "standing where it ought not". Josephus presumed that it was the rebellious Zealots fleeing the city, but more than likely it was Jewish Christians in Jerusalem who recognized the sign of fulfillment of the AOD "standing where it ought not", when Christ warned them to immediately drop everything and run for the mountains.
In spite of these favorable conditions for his army, at this critical point when he could have taken Jerusalem in one day, Cestius for no reason whatever (except for God's providence) decided to retreat from the city. His 12th legion in humiliation was defeated by the Zealot armies which gave chase and captured the legion's eagle standard. But while all these armies were outside Jerusalem battling each other as far as Bethoron, any Jewish Christians within Jerusalem were given a brief interlude to flee the city for the mountains, just before the victorious Zealots returned after chasing the remainder of Cestius's armies as far as Antipatris, and closed up the city gates. "This defeat happened on the eighth day of the month Dius [Marhesvan] in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero." (Wars 2.19.9-555).
From historical casualty lists of the entire AD 66-70 conflict compared to the AD 66 Passover census in Jerusalem, we can figure out that approximately 1-1/4 million people took advantage of that brief opportunity to flee Judea and Jerusalem and head for the mountains to wait out the war in distant locations like Pella. The very last page of Usshers "Annals of the World" has these records compiled by a Justus Lipsius.
I believe Daniel's 1290 days probably began from the date of Cestius's soldiers undermining the Temple wall, which counts down until Titus came again with the Roman armies in AD 70, (42 months later), just after AD 70's Passover had begun. Titus timed his attack in AD 70 in order to trap as many Passover celebrants within the besieged city as possible. From that 1290 days' point, 45 days later on the 1335th day, the blessing of the Pentecost-Day resurrection took place at Christ's return to the Mount of Olives, as predicted by Daniel 12:11-13 and Zechariah 14:4-7. Significantly, the "First resurrection" of Christ and the Matthew 27 saints was at Passover in AD 33, and this second resurrection was on Pentecost in AD 70. That leaves a final third resurrection for us in the future, timed to fall at the time of year when the Feast of Tabernacles celebration would have ordinarily taken place; the reason why Zechariah 14:16-19 emphasizes this one single Feast to be remembered after the AD 70 siege of Jerusalem was over.
CG, if my calculations are off on these critical numbered days of 1290 and 1335 during these years from AD 66 until AD 70, I would appreciate it if you can either confirm them or give reasonable proof from your calendar studies why they cannot be correct. (Not that you are obligated to make my case for me! )
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