1
Ne 19:13 those who are at Jerusalem¡¦shall be
scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel
It
is politically incorrect to blame the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
It is doctrinally incorrect to blame anyone else. When Pilate made a feeble
attempt to free Jesus, the Jews answered saying, His
blood be on us, and on our children (Matt 27:25). Never was a more self-condemning statement
ever made.
That
the Lord knew of impending destructions awaiting this wicked generation is seen
in his comment to the weeping daughters of Jerusalem on the weary path to
Golgotha, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me,
but weep for yourselves, and for your children (Lu 23:28). He also
taught that the temple would be destroyed, There
shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down
(Matt 24:2). Both of these prophecies had reference to the first Abomination of
Desolation, or destruction of Jerusalem, which occurred at the hands of the
Romans in 70 AD. This was the beginning of a long history of scourging that the
house of Israel was to suffer.
Josephus
is the fundamental historian of the Roman capture of Jerusalem. He records that
the Roman soldiers would capture about 500 Jews a day, then crucify them all,
¡°So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those
they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by
way of jest; when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the
crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.¡± (Josephus, the Wars of the
Jews, Book V, Chap. XI, v. 1) He describes a terrible famine:
¡°Then
did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families;
the upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine; and
the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged¡¦many died as
they were burying others¡¦while yet robbers were still more terrible than these
miseries were themselves; for they brake open those houses which were no other
than graves of dead bodies and plundered them¡¦in order to prove what mettle
they were made of, they thrust some of those through that still lay alive upon
the ground¡¦
¡°However,
when Titus in going his rounds along those valleys saw them full of dead bodies
and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan.¡± (Josephus,
the Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chap. XII, v.3-4)
Josephus,
as an eyewitness to many of these atrocities, described them in gruesome
detail. He records that many starving Jews deserted to the Syrians and Arabians
for protection. However, some Jews had made a practice swallowing as much gold
as possible prior to deserting. Josephus explains their terrible fate:
¡°Yet
did another plague seize upon those that were thus preserved; for there was
found among the Syrian deserters a certain person who was caught gathering
pieces of gold out of the excrements of the Jews¡¯ bellies; for the deserters
used to swallow such pieces of gold¡¦.when this contrivance was discovered in
one instance, the fame of it filled their several camps, that the deserters
came to them full of gold. So the multitude of the Arabians, with the Syrians,
cut up those that came as supplicants, and searched their bellies. Nor does it
seem to me that any misery befell the Jews that was more terrible than this,
since in one night about two thousand of these deserters were thus dissected.¡±
(Josephus, the Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chap. XIII, v.4)
Josephus
tallied the destruction suffered in this great war, ¡°Now the number of those
that were carried captive during this whole war was collected to be
ninety-seven thousand; as was the number of those that perished during the
whole siege, eleven hundred thousand.¡± (Josephus, the Wars of the Jews,
Book VI, Chap. IX, v.3) This great destruction brought the following conclusion
from Josephus, ¡°in reality it was God who condemned the whole nation, and
turned every course that was taken for their preservation to their destruction.¡±
(Josephus, the Wars of the Jews, Book V, Chap. XIII, v.5) Such was the
result of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth and the woeful statement, His blood be on us and upon our children.
Marion
G. Romney
¡°All of this destruction and the
dispersion of the Jews would have been avoided had the people accepted the
gospel of Jesus Christ and had their hearts changed by it.
¡°Today the peoples of the
earth stand at the crossing of the same roads as did the Jews in the days of
Jesus. The same choice is before them. They may accept the gospel of Jesus
Christ and move on to righteousness, peace, love, and happiness, or they may
reject it and suffer wickedness, hate, war, and destruction.¡± (Conference
Report, Oct. 1948, p. 77)