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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews, and
thus cause them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when
taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of
the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner, and the
dreadful work continued until, along the valley of Jehoshaphat and
at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was
scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was fulfilled the
profane prayer uttered forty years before, “His blood be on us, and
on our children.” [
Matthew 27:25
.]
Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene, and
thus have spared Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was
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filled with horror as he saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps
in the valleys. Like one entranced, he looked from the crest of
Olivet upon the magnificent temple, and gave command that not
one stone of it be touched. Before attempting to gain possession
of this stronghold, he made an earnest appeal to the Jewish leaders
not to force him to defile the sacred place with blood. If they would
come forth and fight in any other place, no Roman should violate the
sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself, in a most eloquent appeal,
entreated them to surrender, to save themselves, their city, and their
place of worship. But his words were answered with bitter curses.
Darts were hurled at him, their last human mediator, as he stood
pleading with them. The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the Son
of God, and now expostulation and entreaty only made them more
determined to resist to the last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to
save the temple; One greater than he had declared that not one stone
was to be left upon another.
The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable
crimes perpetrated within the besieged city, excited the horror and
indignation of the Romans, and Titus at last decided to take the
temple by storm. He determined, however, that if possible it should
be saved from destruction. But his commands were disregarded.
After he had retired at night to his tent, the Jews, sallying from the
temple, attacked the soldiers without. In the struggle, a firebrand was
flung by a soldier through an opening in the porch, and immediately
the chambers about the holy house were in a blaze. Titus rushed to
the place, followed by his generals and legionaries, and commanded
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the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were unheeded. In their