In 70AD The Roman Legions under Titus sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Temple. The legions that were involved were Rome’s Auxiliary Legions that for the most part were made up of Arabs and Syrians and other Middle-Eastern people. Josephus (37AD-100AD) the famous Jewish historian tell us; “Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand footmen, the greatest part of which were archers; so that the whole army, including the auxiliaries sent by the kings, as well horsemen and footmen, when all were united together, amounted to sixty thousand” [1]
Tacitus (56AD-120AD), both a senator and a historian of the Roman empire wrote; “Titus Caesar…found in Judaea three legions, the 5th, the 10th, and the 15th…To these he added the 12th from Syria, and some men belonging to the 18th and 3rd, whom he had withdrawn from Alexandria. This force was accompanied…by a strong contingent of Arabs, who hated the Jews with the usual hatred of neighbours” [2]
Both Josephus and Tacitus state that the Roman legions used to attack Jerusalem were stationed in Judea and Syria and that there was a strong contingent of Arabs. Syria is where Titus gathered them together as he proceeded toward the Jewish capital. He also details that “a considerable number” of auxiliaries, or volunteers, from Syria and the surrounding regions were also gathered for the attack. Interestingly, it is now believed by Roman historians that the eastern legions which attacked and destroyed Jerusalem, were made up almost entirely of Syrians, Egyptians, and other Middle Eastern peoples, not Europeans. By 70 AD, Italians made up only around 20% of all Roman soldiers; only 1% by the end of the first century. One Roman historian says that the “legionaries of provincial birth outnumbered the Italians by about four or five to one.” He continues, “Legions based in Cappadocia (in modern-day Turkey), Syria, and Egypt were made up of recruits from Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Syria, and Egypt.”
When Titus heard that his legions were destroying the Temple he tried to stop it from happening but his men were so intent on destroying the Jews that they burned everything that they could to destroy the Jewish nation so intense was their hatred of the Jews. These were Arab and other Middle-Eastern Auxiliaries. Josephus records that it was not the Roman officials who commanded the destruction of the Temple, but it was the hatred of those in the Roman legions (Middle Eastern Auxiliaries) that burnt the Temple of God to the ground.
Josephus writes: “And now a certain person came running to Titus, and told him of this fire…whereupon he rose up in a great haste, and, as he was, ran to the holy house, in order to have a stop put to the fire; after him followed all his commanders, and after them followed the several legions, in great astonishment; so there was a great clamour and tumult raised, as was natural upon the disorderly motion of so great an army. Then did Caesar, both by calling to the soldiers that were fighting, with a loud voice, and by giving a signal to them with his right hand, order them to quench the fire.” [3]
Josephus continues with the reason why the men ignored Titus: “Titus supporting what the fact was, that the house itself might yet be saved, he came in haste and endeavoured to persuade the soldiers to quench the fire…yet were their passions too hard for the regards they had for Caesar, and the dread they had of him who forbade them, as was their hatred of the Jews, and a certain vehement inclination to fight them, too hard for them also…And thus was the holy house burned down, without Caesar’s approval.” [4]
According to Josephus, it was not the Italian cohorts of Rome who destroyed the Temple but those of Middle-Eastern origin. General Titus tried to stop the fire. It was the ancient hatred that the Arabs and other peoples in the region had toward the Jews that led to the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70 AD. So then the inhabitants of Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, and Egypt were the ancestors of the modern day inhabitants of the Middle East. They were the ancestors of the Muslim peoples that dominate the entire region today.
In His discourse on the Mount of Olives concerning the last days the Lord Jesus took a past event prophesied by Daniel the prophet and said it would happen again in the future. This past event happened round 160 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus when Antiochus Epiphanies the Seleucid Greek General invaded Jerusalem and desecrated the Jewish Temple, (Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11) (Matthew 24:15) With this past event in mind the Lord Jesus spoke about a future event which would also see the sacking of Jerusalem and the wholesale destruction of the Temple. (Matthew 24:2) (Mark 13:2) This occurred 40 years after He had prophesied this destruction.
In 70AD the Romans under Titus sacked Jerusalem and actually destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. A careful reading of the text of Matthew chapter 24 sees the Lord Jesus telescoping to the end of this age when the Temple in Jerusalem would be desecrated by the Antichrist. What Antiochus and the Seleucid Greeks did and Titus and the Romans did in past history will happen again in the future by the Antichrist at the end of this present age. The rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem will once again be defiled by the Antichrist himself. (Daniel 11:36) (2 Thessalonians 2:4)
This man of sin will command a military force that will sweep down through the Middle East and invade the Promised Land and there in Israel he will actually meet his demise at God’s hands. (Daniel 11:36-45) Today the Arabs and the whole Islamic world for that matter are still hell bent on destroying Israel. This enmity of course goes back to the Book of Genesis where we see Ishmael despising Isaac and Esau despising Jacob. (Genesis 21:9; 27: 41)
To this present day there has always been hostility between the decedents of Isaac and Jacob (The fathers of the Jewish people) and the descendants of Ishmael and Esau. (The fathers of the Arab nations) As we see the dark storm clouds of war rapidly gathering across the Middle–East we can see the Islamic armies now coming together. The cohorts of the Antichrist are forming. At present they are not united but when the man of sin, the Mahdi of Islam arises the whole Muslim world will follow him in a global Jihad that the western powers will be hard-pressed to stop. (Revelation 13:4)
These hordes of the Antichrist are likened unto locusts in the prophet Joel. In its historical context ‘the locusts’ Joel describes represent the invading Babylonian armies but prophetically these ‘locusts’ represent the armies of the Antichrist. It is a Middle-Eastern army Joel describes. So then in 70AD it was the Arabs and the Syrian Auxiliaries that attacked Israel and destroyed the Jewish Temple. At the end of this age it will be the Arabs, the Syrians, the Turks, the Iranians, the Egyptians, the Libyans, the Sudanese, the Turkic speaking independent Islamic former states of the Soviet Union and possibly even Pakistan and other Islamic nations that will all unite under the banner of the resurrected Turkish Ottoman Caliphate to attack Israel. (Ezekiel 38:1-6)
For three and a half years the power of God’s Holy people will be broken (both Jews and Christians) and the Temple Mount of the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem desecrated and defiled. (Daniel 12:7) (Revelation 13:7) After three and a half years, for the sake of God’s elect saints and the nation of Israel and for the survival of the world, God will cut those days short and send the Lord Jesus back. The Messiah our Lord Jesus will destroy the Islamic Antichrist and his Beast Empire and the false prophet, save Israel, rapture and resurrect the saints and establish His Messianic Kingdom on earth. (Matthew 24:21-22; 29-31) (Daniel 7:21-22, 25-27; 8:23-25; 12:7) (Daniel 2:34-35; 44-45) (Isaiah 63:1-6) (Revelation 19:11-21)
This Messianic kingdom is the rock, not cut out by human hands, that struck the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and smashed the statue all to pieces and then filled the whole earth!” (Daniel 2:34-35) As Luke writes; “and He (the Messiah) will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!” (Luke 1:33)
Sources: (Flavius Josephus, The Complete Works of Josephus, The Wars of the Jews or The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem, Book III, Chapter 4, Paragraph 20). [1] (Tacitus, The History, New Ed edition Book 5.1. Editor: Moses Hadas, Translators: Alfred Church, William Brodribb (Modern Library; New York, 2003). [2] Josephus. Book 6, chapter 4, part 6. [3] Ibid. Book 6, chapter 4, part 7. 8 [4] Link: https://www.hope-of-israel.org/peopleofprince.html
