Horrific Jewish history (Reformation 502, not Halloween) Part 2 of 2

       This concludes from Part 1, a 2-part series on the use of the "Description of the Destruction of Jerusalem" in Old Missouri's worship services and instructional materials.  Franz Pieper's statement on the Jews fits well as a preface:

"Poor people!  But none of us has cause to rise above the Jews striving for earthly things.  If God's grace would not have mercy on us, we would also act according to our own ways."

      Josephus, the Jewish historian, was largely the basis for the following "Description" and "History". — The first translation presents Walther's Hymnal "Description" from the original hymnbook of the Old Missouri Synod and was read every year in church, as Prof. Schaller explains, though not on Reformation Day:

The second translation is of Prof. Schaller's later "History" from 1887, an essay that explains the usage and history in more depth, and was published in Der Lutheraner:

      But it seemed that a side-by-side reading of both the Hymnal's "Description" and Schaller's "History" would be of benefit for the reader, especially for a fuller understanding of the use of this history in a worship service.  Portions of the text were color highlighted to aid in showing corresponding information between these accounts. — Some might think this History would be more appropriate for a "celebration" of Halloween, but it was actually used in a Church of the Reformation, the Old Missouri Synod:

Description of the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem.

The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem. (G. Schaller) [Der Lutheraner, vol 43 (1887), p 117-118]

When the time approached that God wanted to let the final wrath of Jerusalem and the Jewish people pass over them, as the prophets and the LORD Christ himself had threatened them, and had said before, these following signs preceded them. A comet has been seen in heaven, shaped like a sword, which has stood against the city for a whole year, and has been seen by everyone. Again, just in the days of the unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month of April, at nine o'clock in the night, such a bright shining light appeared at the altar in the Temple that everyone thought it was day.

It was on August 10, the year 70, after Christ's birth that the temple in Jerusalem went up in flames, whereupon soon (on September 7th) the complete conquest and destruction of the city itself took place. The anniversary of the first-mentioned event coincides closely with the 10th Sunday after Trinity [Luke 19:41-47]; so the Gospel of the destruction prophesied by Christ with tears [Luke 19:41-47] was quite appropriately transferred to this Sunday. At the same time it has become church custom to read the history of the destruction of Jerusalem, which is of extraordinary importance for us Christians as well, in the churches on this Sunday, according to the report of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. But now in the reading of this history, as it can also be found in our St. Louis hymnbook, it remains somewhat dark and incomprehensible in certain places for the devout listeners. So we now want to provide some explanations in the following remarks. The city of Jerusalem was protected from hostile attacks on three sides, namely from the east, south and west, by deep chasms and gorges. Only to the north did it come up against undulating land; only from this side was it exposed to the attacks of its enemies. From the north came all the enemy armies, including the Romans. So when our lesson says, among other things, “The city of Jerusalem was very strong in the place where one could come to the city, and had three walls,” So it means the northern side of the city; for from all other sides it was unassailable. But what about the three walls of the city mentioned above?  Were they the same also on the north side and were they erected close to each other? Not at all. These three walls crossed Jerusalem in different directions and each included a particular district of the city. Jerusalem had four hills: to the southwest was Mount Zion, to the north <page 117, column 2> of which was Mount Akra, to the southeast was Mount Moriah with the temple and the Fortress of Antonia, and to the north of it was Mount Bezetha. The first and oldest wall ran around Mount Zion and included the Temple Mount and the Fortress of Antonia. It had 60 towers and thus protected the highest and oldest part of the city, which nature already made into an almost impregnable fortress. The second wall then enclosed the so-called lower city on the hill of Akra and was fortified with 14 towers. The third wall finally, the most extreme to the north and the youngest of all, ran in a wide arc around Mount Bezetha and the new city built on it.  It had 90 towers, was 25 cubits high and 10 cubits thick. So an enemy who wanted to conquer Jerusalem first had to break through this strong wall to gain possession of the new city, then he had to break through the second wall and take the lower city. When this was done, the hardest part of his work was to conquer the Fortress of Antonia, the Temple, and the upper city, the city of David on Mount Zion, with its mighty palaces and astonishingly high towers. That the Romans actually succeeded in this was a miracle before all eyes. The jewel of Jerusalem and the ornament of all the East was the Temple where the Son of God Himself had gone out and entered. Herod had constructed it new and magnificently. Thousands of wagons were used to carry the stones; ten thousand experienced workers were hired and thousands of priests, who were allowed to work alone in the inner sanctuary, were adorned by him with priestly robes. The old foundation was rebuilt and a new one laid, on which the Temple of white marble was constructed, to a length of 100 cubits, and a height of 120 cubits. The individual workpieces were about 25 cubits long, 8 cubits high and 12 cubits wide. Hence the astonishment of the disciples: “Master, see what stones and what a building this is” (Mark 13:1) The roof was quite covered with dense gold plates, and especially at dawn <page 117, column 3> was given a majestic shine by the sun. This was the actual temple: around it columned halls of great expanse and splendor were built. Only the outermost halls were allowed for strangers (Gentiles) to enter up to a 6 foot high partition, where they were forbidden by inscriptions to penetrate further under penalty of death. On 14 steps one climbed up to the second row of columns. Twelve steps led from there to the third innermost room, which only the priests were allowed to enter. Among the columned halls, the “royal” one on the south side was the most admirable. It consisted of 4 rows which together comprised 162 Corinthian columns and formed 3 halls. Of the two outermost halls, each was 30 feet wide, 600 feet long and over 50 feet high; but the middle one was one and a half times as wide and twice as high. So the middle part of this temple hall stood out very much. The whole building stood on a high, steep rock, the sides of which had been walled up to the summit with tremendous effort since ancient times. If one stood now on the highest roof (pinnacle) of this royal hall, one thought to look dizzyingly into an abyss of immeasurable depth. If one came from afar and looked at Jerusalem, the great marble building of the temple on its rocky heights gleamed like a distant snow mountain range. “Forty and six years was this temple in building”, the Jews countered to the Lord (John 2:20). So long had it been since Herod had it constructed anew; but it was still being built on, until shortly before its destruction.

The balance of this synchronized presentation is available 

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Again, a brazen great strong door at the inner Temple, as twenty men had to lift it up if one wanted to open it, which was guarded with strong iron locks and bolts, opened itself around the sixth hour of the night. Again, on the twenty-first day of June has been seen in the air and clouds chariots hovering in many places of the heaven, and like a large army of horsemen and servants gathering in the clouds, and rattling themselves in the night. <page 529>  Again, before the day of Pentecost, when the priests are about to prepare in the temple for what belongs to the feast, they have a great turmoil and rumbling, and afterwards heard a voice that called: Let us move away from there! Although some say that this happened at the time when the curtain in the Temple was torn under Christ's suffering. Again, there has been a man, Jesus, called Ananias, a common man's son, who, when he is coming to Jerusalem on the feast of tabernacles, has cried out of a special spirit: O a cry of the morning! O a cry from the evening! O a cry from the four winds! O a cry over all Jerusalem and the Temple! A wretched lament for the bride and groom, a cry for all the people. And the pitiful cry he cried day and night to one another, and ran around violently in the city. And even though some punished him with scourges and rods, who do not like to hear these words as an evil interpretation of the city, he does not cease. And when this man was brought before the Roman governor there, who also had him scourged and whipped hard with scourges until he bled, he did not ask for mercy with a word, nor did he shed tears, but without ceasing he cried out loudly, Woe to you, O poor Jerusalem! Albinus, the judge, despised him as a fool. But this man did not mingle much with people for seven years, but went alone, like a man who reflects deeply on something in himself, or writes poetry, and always lets these words be heard from him: Alas, alas, you poor Jerusalem! And he never got tired of such shouting. Now when the city was besieged by the Romans, he walked about on the walls, and cried always, Woe to the Temple, and to all the people! and last of all he said these unusual words for a time, Woe to me also! And with that word he was struck by the enemy's projectile, and so was struck dead. These and other great signs preceded before Jerusalem was destroyed. Now we want to speak briefly about the destruction itself. Since the Jews, as Stephan says, [Acts 7:52] as murderers and betrayers had killed the righteous and innocent Christ, conditions became increasingly worse for the whole Jewish empire in all classes. The high priests began to practice tyranny against the other priests; among the other rulers there was all sorts of hatred and envy, and everything in the government was sent into disunity.  These let it be seen that there was a great change and disruption threatening the kingdom; out of such conflict and hatred among the rulers there arose factions and all sorts of partisan divisions, and out of that came all sorts of misfortune, much robbery and murder inside and outside the city of Jerusalem, and sent themselves all things, that by both governments of the people, spiritual and secular, would bring them to ruin. It also happened that the Emperor Nero sent Cestium Florum [sic: see Schaller note on correct name] to the Jewish land. And when he was very hard on the Jews, with many things, <page 530> exercising his greed, pride, and petulance, the Jews drove him away, and when he came to strike at them, he lost five thousand of his own men. So the Jews raged by the destiny of God, that they also resisted against the Romans, and fell away from them. But when Emperor Nero heard of it, he sent Vespasian with his son Titus to Syria. And it is this time in all the Orient, as Tranquillus also writes, that there was a common legend and rumor, that at this very time someone, coming from Judea, should become very great and mighty in all the world. And although this became true in the spiritual realm of Christ, when the name of Christ (born of the Jewish tribe) was great in all the world by the preaching of the Gospel, as had some of the two Vespasians understood it, yet the Jews drew the prophecy upon themselves.  And after some battles were fought against their enemies, they became proud, made three captains, and attacked the city of Ascalon by force, where they were defeated in two battles, having lost (without the captains perishing) twenty thousand men. So after that Vespasian, at the emperor's command, went to Galilee, which was a country of rich people, and devastated and laid waste all things, and there was no end to the murders, robbery, and burning; and many thousands of Jews were slain, at one time into the fifty thousands of  fortified men, apart from the women, children, common rabble, and peasantry. The warring people spared neither old nor young, not the pregnant women, not the children in cradles.  At one time, Vespasian sent six thousand young men as his own people to the Isthmus to dig in Achaia. Thirty thousand Jewish warriors were sold as slaves at that time. Five thousand flung themselves off the high cliffs out of despair. At that time there was an excellent man, most learned, wise, and understanding, a priestly minister among the Jews, and one of their leaders in war, named Josephus. And when, in the first terror, he had fled with a few into a cave, near the city of Galilee, called Jotopata, he was seized and led to Vespasian. When he now prophesied to the same that he would yet become emperor, he was received graciously. And the same Josephus has written what we know of this Historia. When this happened in Galilee, a mass of brazen, outspoken, rapacious people came to Jerusalem. One of their great lords, John [of Giscala], managed to bring the government to himself through this gang. And again there was much secret murder, much robbery, much plundering in Jerusalem, and he sent itself everywhere to great misfortune, and the poor city was much afflicted everywhere. There were many high priests slain and blood was shed, even in the temple. Josephus writes that twelve thousand of the best oldest Jews had perished in this brawl, and their goods and houses were given to the rabble and servants to plunder. Some believe that the Romans had done this by secret trickery. <page 531> So Jerusalem was already plagued with three misfortunes before the right weather came upon it: namely, with the war of the Romans, with rebellion and all sorts of mutinies in the city, and with the tyrants who arose through partisan intrigues, one after the other, and for the sake of dominion much blood was spilled. Now when the Gadarenes revolted against the Romans at that time, Vespasian had to rise hastily from the winter camp, and took Gadara, the city, and through his captain Placidum he slew citizens in flight into the thirty thousands, two thousand he captured. The other mob and the fugitive multitude rushed into the Jordan, their dead bodies flowing in the Jordan [River] into the Lake Asphaltites, which is called the Dead Sea, and on the other side of the Jordan, as far as Macheron, all the Jews were attacked by the Romans everywhere, and came into great terror. Now when spring came at the end of winter, when Vespasian heard that Nero had died, he was lying in Caesarea, and hastened up, and had taken all the cities of the Jews and Idumaeans, without many castles, which held some foreign warriors, and everywhere he occupied the cities with Roman warriors, that he might more easily storm and take over Jerusalem (which alone had remained). And at that time Vespasian was cast up by his men of war to be emperor, after which he moved to Egypt, from then on he wanted to go to Italy, and meanwhile Titus ordered the war regiment against the Jews. But Titus, when he had ridden near Jerusalem for the sake of his clients at Oerter, barely escaped so that he was not captured by the Jews. Then he pitched his camp at [Mount] Scopus, a quarter mile from the city, and divided the men of war to besiege the city more than in one place. About that time a great multitude of people from all cities, from all nations, came together to Jerusalem on Passover [Osterfest] for the services. And so also, as indicated above, there were many possessions collected in the city before, and daring people who were driven out of Galilee, and three parties in the city, who tore apart the unity and the governance more and more. Some of them held the Temple interior, among them was Eleazar the chief, a son of Simon, with the Zealots, an evil hypocritical people, who were very hostile to the citizens. The lower section of the city was controlled by John within, who was the beginning of all misfortune, of which is said above. The upper part had those of Simon within with twenty thousand Idumaeans, who were required to protect the city from the Zealots' mischief and violence. Given that one would have liked to have been rid of the same guests, one can't get rid of them.

Since the Jews had now revolted against their rulers, the Romans, especially against the unspeakable cruelty and tyranny of the Roman governor Gessius (not: Cestius) Florus *) and the revolt began to take on a very threatening form, the emperor sent the general Vespasian with a strong army to Palestine. He stormed the  ———————— *) Cestius Gallus is the name of the simultaneous governor of Syria to whom Gessius Florus was subordinate. ———————— <Page 118, column 1>  rock fortress of Jotapata, north of Nazareth, among other permanent places,  made the commander of it, Josephus, his prisoner, killed many thousands of the rebels with his sword, devastated and ravaged all Galilee, and finally moved forward to the city of Jerusalem.  Proclaimed emperor by the legions, Vespasian went to Rome and left the end of the Jewish war to his son Titus. On May 7 the latter succeeded in making a large breach in the northern city wall with war machines. The Jews retreated, the Romans moved into the new city, tore down the wall and now had the northern part of the town. Titus opened his headquarters here and began storming the second wall that separated him from the lower city. The besiegers broke through this wall already after 5 days, and while the many thousands of crowded inhabitants of the lower city took their last refuge on the mountain Zion, that is, in the upper city and enlarged there the crowd of people and the enormous hustle and bustle, the Romans moved now further into the deserted lower city. Titus also had the second wall demolished, and then proceeded to siege and storm the third wall, which surrounded the Fortress of Antonia and the Temple Mount on the left, Mount Zion or the upper city on the right. In such a small and limited space several millions of Jews were crowded together with women and children and their refugees. Hunger began to prove its power. The enormous supplies of grain by means of which the city could have held itself for years had long since been destroyed by fire in the internal war of the ruthless and tyrannical party leaders John of Giscala on the Temple Mount and Simon in the upper city by mad rage, out of mutual envy. Of course, there was a lack of food now. Only the richest could gain some. The poor sneaked through the gates at night and looked for roots in the gardens and fields to feed their pining wives and children. The number of these nocturnal herb seekers became so great that Titus suspected a trick of war, attacked them by horsemen and had them crucified in pairs, so that the crosses stood like a forest next to the Roman camp. “Crucify him, crucify him! His blood be on us, and on our children” had they called in hellish blindness (Matt. 27:25.). [Matth. 27:22-25]

Titus, when he realized that the city was overloaded with so countless people, prepared and strengthened himself in great haste to besiege the city, and to defeat them, as Christ had said of them, with a fortress of wagons, while the people were with each other, that the hunger oppressed them all the harder and frightened them. Since the Jews saw this, they tried their supreme power to prevent it, to ward it off <page 532> and to come forward.   But it was over, there was no happiness any more, our Lord God would that the horror play out with them, therefore no attack nor council went for them. There was vain dissension. And there was a riot in the city at that time, that a great multitude of people were slain at the Temple. The city of Jerusalem was very firm in the place where one could come to the city, and it had three walls; therefore the Roman people of war lay down with all their might to storm the city; and after great work the twofold wall was conquered and taken. That same time a countless amount of people died of hunger, as Josephus writes: The best friends have often carved and stabbed each other over a little bit of bread. The children have often torn the food out of their parents' mouth, father and mother. Neither brother nor sister had mercy on the other. A bushel of corn was worth much gold, some had cow dung in great hunger, some ate the straps of the saddles, the leather of the shields was gnawed off.  And some still had hay in their mouths, and were thus found dead. Some sought in the secret chambers to save themselves from hunger with filth and dung; and such a great amount died of hunger that Ananias, Eleazar's son, who fled to Titus in the time of the siege, indicated that one hundred and fifteen thousand dead bodies were found and buried in the city. Hegesippus writes that so many thousands of corpses were carried out to one gate alone, and that six hundred thousand people of such time of siege finally died. The Jews were still inside the Fortress of Antonia, which was a strong fortress, they also had the Temple interior from which a bridge went into the city. Conquering this fortress cost much more work than any other place. But Titus, though he was certain that hunger would finally destroy and divide the Jews in the city, laid low for a long time, and then ended this and admonished the men of war to storm the fortress by force. Even though there was great danger in it, the Romans would have everything, and no victory nor happiness was with the Jews. Now when the Romans had the palace interior, the trumpeter with the trumpet gave a sign, and the Jews who were in the palace interior were all slain.  Some of them were thrown from the walls, some of them fell to death, some of them escaped hastily into the city by night. As a result, the men of war seriously took care of those who had the Temple interior. It is said Titus was willing to spare the Temple, but it was over. God had decreed that there was nothing to be spared, for when they had long argued and worked, and when the Jews had not been moved to surrender the strongholds with threatenings, nor with admonitions, the men of war noticed no difference whether the stronghold was to be taken by starvation (which would take a long time) or with fire. <page 533>  And so some of the soldiers threw fire into the temple that it was burnt, and so at that hour the glorious, excellent and gorgeous building, which was at that time famous far and wide, was burned to ashes. The Jews, who had held the upper part of the city interior, fled to the city in part, but many more died by fire and sword. The priests pleaded and admitted that they had carved out their lives miserably, but there was grace with God and people. Titus, as Hegesippus writes, replied, If their temple and worship were gone, the priest would no longer be needed. The desolation of the Temple took place on the tenth day of August, the very day that the first Temple was burned by the king of Babylon; and that day was especially the day of calamity for the Temple. And from the first Temple and its construction which Solomon built, until the second year of Vespasian, when the Temple was devastated, are eleven hundred and one years. But from the time that the other Temple was begun to be built again, which was done in the other year Ehri, are five hundred and sixty-nine years. Now when the Jews were so frightened, although there was no hope of rescue, many thousands died of hunger; but the rest remained in their charge. Josephus writes that in these days when the temple was burned and devastated, a terrible, horrible thing took place, which will hardly be believed among the generations. There was an honest woman, rich and great beyond the Jordan, fleeing with the others to Jerusalem out of fear. Now when the city was so hard pressed and frightened with hunger, she slaughtered her young child in the cradle (with what misery and pain is to be imagined), and roasted and ate half of it. As the soldiers walked around looking for food, she presented the other half to them. But the soldiers were horrified at the horrible sight, and yet they took pity on the wretched woman, and revealed this matter to the great chief men of Jerusalem. This terrible case moved them [the Jews] to think that they would surrender from that day on, and so they came to Titus for discussion and action. But because peace had taken too long to make, and they asked for peace and freedom because they were already hungry and pressed to the limit, nothing came of it, and in a few days the city was still held up wretchedly.  In the meantime innumerable people, out of great fear and highest need of unbearable hunger, ran from the city into the camp, into the hands of the enemies. There they were sold very cheaply. By looking about the soldiers noticed gold coins in the dung of a Jew which he had swallowed: there soon went a rumor through the whole camp among the war party that the Jews who had fled out to their camp had swallowed gold (for there were quite a few who by watching out could bring nothing other than gold out, and so keep it from the warriors). The rumor now gave <page 534> cause for the soldiers to think that they could find gold among all the Jews.  Thus over two thousand Jews were cut open in one night; and many more would have perished if Titus had not called out and commanded that the prisoners should not be killed. Finally, the city of Jerusalem had been conquered, and neither young nor old were spared; but a command had been proclaimed that one should spare all miserable people, if they were unable to defend themselves or resist. So Jerusalem was terribly plundered, infected and burned by enemies, and many parts of it have been destroyed and devastated. A few buildings have remained standing, that could accommodate quite a few Roman men of war for the occupation. So also some individual, desert, stone buildings and towers remained, only bare and barren, to indicate that there had been a city for instance. And so Jerusalem was devastated, and destroyed to the ground, the eighth day of September, the fifth month after it was besieged. Of the immense crowd and countless number of prisoners, Titus sent seventeen thousand, all young strong men, to Alexandria to carry stones and work there like servants in bondage. Many Jews were sold cheaply like cattle. Two thousand have been distributed from time to time, in lands throughout the Roman Empire, so that they have been made a spectacle in a theater, to be torn up by wild beasts. The multitude of all captives that remained alive were ninety-seven thousand in number, yet ten times a hundred thousand [a million] were in the city when the siege began, mostly which were foreigners, and not citizens, though all of the Jewish tribe and blood. So when Titus had taken Jerusalem by force and had destroyed it, he occupied it with soldiers for the sake of the land, and he went as far as the river Euphrates, because that was how far the Roman Empire went. But when the mighty, famous and holy city of Jerusalem was destroyed, four thousand and thirty-four years were counted from the beginning of the world. From the beginning of the city of Rome there were eight hundred and twenty-three years. From Christ's Passion there were forty years. So Jerusalem, the most famous city in all the Orient, had a miserable and pathetic end.

The siege works were almost finished, the Roman ramparts and towers rose threateningly against the Fortress of Antonia; there the Jews suddenly destroyed all works with fire. There was no tree around Jerusalem, there was no wood nearby. The Romans almost lost their courage. Then Titus held a council of war and, before getting back to work, he decided to surround the whole city of Jerusalem closely with a “wagon castle”, a rampart, a ring wall, which would block every gate, every access and prevent the nightly wanderings. Within three days a ring wall with 13 solid towers, built by the legions, stood close to the crowded Jerusalem.  Now the hunger among the besieged raged in horrible ways. The flat roofs, the inner chambers, the alleyways, the public squares of the whole upper city were covered with corpses. Men and youths swayed along <page 118, column 2> like shadows. When their foot only hit a stone, they fell to the ground and were unable to rise again because of weakness; the dying stretched themselves down beside the dead and awaited their end. The blistering heat of summer, the plague of pestilence, brooded over the city. Then the atrocity of a mother slaughtering her own son and preparing herself for a meal took place. [Schaller does not recount this horror.] But now the unhappy city quickly came to an end. On July 9, the Fortress of Antonia fell. John of Giscala withdrew from it into the fortified Temple and did not want to hear about the surrender.  Now the Temple, this glorious miracle, was besieged itself. The column halls around it became a robbery of flames one after the other. Finally, a soldier impatiently threw a blazing fire through a window into the row of chambers surrounding the Holy Place. From the panel of cedar wood the bright flame immediately rose and a tremendous wailing of the Jews proclaimed their general horror. Titus rushed in, commanding calm, order, and fighting and fire to be stopped. In vain, in the tumult, his command died away. When Titus finally saw that there was no means left to stop the frenzy of the soldiers, he went into the Holy place, looked at it, and saw the splendor and the wealth that were in it. Everything far exceeded what he had been told. As soon as he left the temple, the glorious building was reduced to rubble and ashes. In the meantime every soldier robbed what he could get.  And as immeasurable were the treasures that were stored here, so great was the spoil that every soldier became rich, so that in all Syria the value of gold fell by half. The Jews inside the Temple suffered a great defeat. The Romans destroyed everything and knew no mercy. The streams of blood seemed to inhibit the power of fire. Mountains of dead men lay around the altar of burnt offering, streams of blood flowed over the steps. In the midst of the hopeless turmoil, John of Giscala and his followers broke through and escaped on the bridge over the so-called Käsemacherthal ["Valley of the Cheesemakers"  – Tyropoeon Valley] to Simon in the upper city. This is how we understand the somewhat dark words of our lesson, where it says: “The Jews, who held the upper part of the city — (namely the Temple and its towering column halls), have in part fled into the city — (namely not into the lower city, which was already burnt to ashes and moreover in the hands of the Romans — but into the upper city on Mount Zion, which alone still offers a meager refuge), but much more have perished by fire and sword”. But now the siege and storming of the upper city began with all earnestness and zeal. Then the two God-forsaken leaders John of Giscala and Simon finally despaired. They threw themselves to the ground out of dismay and reproached each other for their foolishness. They left the safe defences of their towers and hid in underground corridors and caves, where everything lay full of corpses of starving people. John surrendered first, forced by hunger. He begged for mercy, and life was actually given to him, with lifelong imprisonment. Simon, on the other hand, had taken stonemasons and food with him and wanted to make a <page 118, column 3> safe exit. But soon he ran out of food; he put on a white coat and a purple robe, and like a ghost at the end of October, when Jerusalem had long since been a large pile of smoking rubble, he climbed out of the temple to the horror of the soldiers on guard, was now imprisoned and kept in chains with John and 700 other Jews by the Romans. Titus celebrated in Rome with his father Vespasian a splendid triumph over Judea. In this John and Simon were staged; Simon was executed before the thanksgiving sacrifice. Also the holy Temple vessels, the golden candlesticks, tables and cups were carried to the show. Such a dark end was brought by God's judgment to the holy city, where the beautiful splendor of God began, the place which the Lord had chosen for his name to dwell, and of which even a heathen writer (Pliny) called the most famous city by far of the whole Orient.