Other pages in this series:

1. Overview
2. Dome of the Rock
3. 360 prophetic calendar
4. Daniel’s 70 weeks

The key question we need to ask is does the timeline of the destruction of the city and sanctuary in AD 70, and General Titus’ slaughter of a pig, fit the timeline given by Daniel for the Abomination of Desolation?

By way of reminder, this is the timeline Jesus said was required, when he referred to the Abomination:

• When was a firm covenant (treaty, pact, terms of surrender) made for at the beginning of the week, and who did it? When did they do it?
• ~3-5 days (in the middle of the week)
• When did the sacrifices and prayers on the temple mount cease?
• +1290 days (Daniel 12:10)
• Abomination of desolation (on the “wing” of the temple)

An extra question needs to be asked too: given the destruction of the city and sanctuary and slaughter of pig by Titus is basically a single event, how does this square with the prophecy that the destruction would be carried out by the people of the prince who is to come? suggesting strongly that the prince referred to arrives on the scene some time later, and wasn’t intimately involved with the destruction.

A short review of AD 70.

The war began in May AD.66 and the city was taken 8 Sept AD.70. The temple was burned 10 August AD.70 and Titus slaughtered a pig on the Eastern Gate to Jupiter that same day.

After a revolt by the Jews in AD 66, Titus’ father was ordered by Nero to quell the rebellion and was given 4 legions + auxiliary units to crush the rebellion; about 40 000 soldiers. Titus was 2nd in command. Vespian (his father) was opposed to besieging a fortified city, so he progressively took over other cities in Israel. When he left for Rome to claim the title of Emperor, he left his son Titus in charge. Titus began to move towards taking Jerusalem, and after a 7 month siege, Jerusalem fell. Zealots set the north-west colonnade on fire to try to stop the Roman advances. Only then did Roman soldiers set fire to an adjacent colonnade to the Temple, starting a conflagration which the Jews subsequently made worse because they wanted the 2nd colonnade to burn to trap soldiers.¹ By the time Jerusalem fell, the city had been weakened due to the food supplies being burned by zealots to motivate people to fight against the siege rather than negotiate a truce with the Romans, and the factions of various rebel groups were killing each other in the desire to control the temple.

Titus did not want the Temple to be destroyed. The Roman leadership tried to stop the destruction of the temple because Titus even ordered the commanders to club anyone who tried. Josephus records that the people (soldiers and their auxiliaries) so hated the Jews, that they ignored the orders given by their commanders². Titus even refused a wreath for the victory, claiming he had merely been an instrument of divine wrath.³. However, after the battle was over, Titus did order that the very foundations of the temple and city be ripped up, in response to the Jewish leaders’ impious response to their defeat.

After the fall of Jerusalem, Jewish life continued to grow and thrive in Israel and in Judea (which had borne the brunt of Roman attacks), although resentment towards the Romans diminished slowly. Even so, Jerusalem prospered economically and some Roman garrisons even helped rebuild damaged infrastructure. While the temple had been destroyed, the altar was not, and Jews were allowed to continue sacrifices and offerings.⁴

After the Bar Koba revolt in AD 135, Emperor Hadrian, who had previously offered to allow the Jews to rebuild the temple, barred them from the temple mount. Emperor Constantine allowed the Jews to visit on Tisha B’Av. Over the following few centuries Jews were periodically allowed or banned from praying on the temple mount. Since the building of  the Dome of the Rock, non-Muslims have not been allowed to visit or pray on the temple mount. They have essentially been banned from praying or making offerings since the erection of the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque.⁵.

The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and sanctuary

Scripture seems to make a distinction between the empire, and the people, and the prince. In most depictions, it would say that the beast would to X or Y. However, in this case, the question should be asked why we’re to draw attention to the people themselves. And if the Prince refers to Titus, he was hardly “to come” as he was already there. Thus, it should be understood that Titus is not the ‘prince to come’ but that another prince should follow after the destruction, who will perform the covenant etc. This understanding does not prevent an antichrist arising from Rome, however, it is important to pay more attention to the “people of the prince to is to come.”

Most people assume that it was the Romans who destroyed the city and sanctuary, but that’s not the whole story and it’s worth knowing more.

Many prophecy scholars regard the Roman Army as a singular entity. However this is not an accurate depiction of history.

…the notion of a singular ‘Roman army’ is a modern construct that is entirely anachronistic to the Roman Principate…[the] notion of ‘the Roman army’ is problematic because it retrojects modern notions of the ‘war machine’ into antiquity and purports a unified military structure that did not exist in the Roman Empire…. Thus, while contemporary scholars may understand these units to be part of a single ‘Roman military apparatus’, this way of thinking is entirely anachronistic to antiquity.

Zeichmann, C. B. (2018). Military Forces in Judaea 6–130 ce: The status quaestionis and Relevance for New Testament Studies. Currents in Biblical Research, 17(1), 86-120. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476993X18791425
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1476993X18791425

Without a doubt, it was the Roman army that destroyed the city and sanctuary. The commanders we know of were Roman, but the soldiers and support were mostly not Italians or even Roman citizens.

It is historically known that by the early/mid 1st century, extensive recruitment for the legions occurred among the populations they were stationed; by Nero’s death (AD 68) less than half ⁶the Roman Army were actually Roman citizens and by the end of the 1st century, less than 10% was Roman. Recruits were promised good pay & the promise of Roman citizenship at the end of their service. Even the Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen by birth. We know from historical records where these legions had campaigned and as a result we have a strong idea of the ethnicity of the people who destroyed the city and sanctuary against the orders of the Roman commanders⁷.

• Legio V Macedonia, stationed in Moesia, which is modern day Albania
• Legio X Fretensis, stationed in Heirosolyma, Judea. Had acquired soldiers from campaigns in Parthia (Iran) & Armenia (Iran/Turkey) (AD 58-63).
• Legio XII Fulminata, – stationed in Melitene, Cappadocia (Eastern Turkey) protecting Armenia for many years before being sent to Jerusalem.
• Legio XV Apollinaris – stationed in Satala, Cappadocia (Eastern Turkey). It had acquired soldiers from Syria and Armenia in (AD 62/63) and then in Egypt (AD 64-66).
• Auxillary Cohors I Sebastenorum Cohortes II–V Sebastenorum, Ala Sebastenorum were Syrians (although it is not certain these fought in AD70).
• Cohors I Thracum milliaria; Cohors II Thracum (Western Turkey)
• Cohors I Damascenorum Armeniaca (Eastern Turkey)
• Cohors I milliaria Sagittariorum (Jordan)
• Ala Gaetulorum (Albania and later Arabia)
• Ala Thracum Mauretana (Algeria)
• Ala Vocontiorum (Egypt)

As we can see from historical records, it is evident that the people (in particular the auxiliaries) who destroyed the city and sanctuary, were not Romans.

After AD70, maintenance of ethnic and regional homogeneity among auxiliary units was no longer a priority across the empire, as AD70 had proven that local loyalties could counter officers’ military goals.

We have actual “reference letters” called diplomas for non-Romans completing their service and being awarded Roman citizenship. This one made in AD.71 is for a man ‘Lycaeus’ from the tribe of Illyrian (Balkan) – Pannonian tribe of Breuka who served 26 years and attained the rank of centurion. Among the privileges he gets is Roman citizenship for himself and his family.

Titus’ army was supported by a force of 16,000 non-combatants (usually auxillary units listed above) responsible for supply and logistics. The non-combatants were rarely Romans but they went with the soldiers into combat and would have been at the destruction of the temple and city.

Thus, it can be shown that while it was the Roman army that destroyed the city and sanctuary, it was not the Roman commanders who authorised it. In fact, Titus’ speech at the conquest, makes it very clear he was at great pains to avoid such destruction and according to Josephus, the impeity of the Jewish leaders response to their defeat was the primary reason for Titus’ decision to uproot the city. Scripture’s description that it was the people of the prince who is to come, then almost certainly rules out Rome as being the place of the 7th or 8th Beast (to be discussed in other pages)

Some have argued that the Holy Roman Empire, is the 7th beast, and then the Catholic Church being the 8th beast. There are several problems with this, firstly, neither the Holy Roman Empire, nor the Catholic Church has ever had control over Israel. Prophecy tends to be Israel centric, so this is not favourable. Secondly, while the Catholic church has persecuted true Christians, it can hardly be said to promote a God whom “his” fathers did not acknowledge” (Daniel 11:38). Christianity grew and was even favoured in the Holy Roman Empire.

Applying Daniel’s description:

Assuming the pig offered to Jupiter at the Eastern Gate is the abomination that causes desolation, working 1290 days (Daniel 12:11) backwards from the 10 August AD.70, is 29 January AD.67, which is when the daily sacrifices and prayers were to stop – but there is no record of this that I have been able to find. Then working back 3.5 years from that, is approximately mid-late July AD.63 which is when we expect the covenant to be made. To my research, there is no such sequence of events that match these events.

Looking at the events and time-frame given by Daniel – we have to work backwards from Titus’ slaughter of the pig:

• A covenant/treaty must have occurred mid-late July AD.63 – but there is not evidence of this
• +3.5 years (middle of the week)
• Stopping of sacrifices and prayers (must have occurred about 29 January AD.67) – there is no evidence that the sacrifices stopped then.
• +1290 days
• Abomination of desolation (Titus slaughtered the pig at the eastern gate on 10 August AD.70)
• The Abomination of Desolation remains until the consummation. – This did not happen.

Antiochus Epiphanes’ slaughter of the pig on the altar, while an abomination, did not cause endless desolation; the temple was cleansed and sacrifices and offerings continued. And since it was prior to Jesus’ statement to look for the Abominatiaon of Desolation, it cannot be the one spoken of by Daniel. Thus, in the case of Titus, the temple mount could also have been cleansed, and in fact, just like the continuation of sacrifices and offerings that continued after the destruction of the temple in 586 BC, daily prayers and offerings did continue after the destruction of the temple in AD 70 on and off until the mid-late AD 600s. Emperor Hadrian even offered to allow the Jews to rebuild the temple, until they revolted in 135AD.

Additionally, Daniel 9:27 conveys the impression that this abomination remains until the consummation.  But, just like Antiochus before, the slaughtered pig was temporary, as was the Roman standard erected on the site. Finally, Jesus’ instruction for those in Judea to flee to the hills once they saw the abomination of desolation (Matthew 24) would have been too late. If the pig had been the fulfillment of that, those fleeing were most likely killed. Jerusalem had been under siege for 7 months with Romans killing any and all trying to escape the siege. Fleeing at that time would have been pointless.

According to historical records, approximately 111 000 people were killed, and estimate of up to 150 000 were taken captive. This is out of a population of at least 2 700 000 (according to Josephus⁸. This makes the death & captive toll, approximately 10% of the population.

Couple this with the economic prosperity that took place after the destruction, it is difficult to suggest that a Desolation of Israel occurred.

Thus, on balance AD.70 was most likely not the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, but rather the fulfillment of the destruction of the city and sanctuary that occurs after the death of the messiah in Daniel 9:26, and that the destruction of Jerusalem is prior to the Prince, and prior to the abomination of desolation, as the prophecy of Daniel 9 suggests.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Josephus records several events that occurred before and during the destruction of Jerusalem. In The War of the Jews (chapter 6, paragraph 3) Josephus reports there was a star in the shape of a sword which stood over the city for a whole year. And later in the same paragraph, he records (296-302) a remarkable sign that he doubts its veracity: “as the sun was setting, it was seen in the clouds of a great number of chariots and troops of soldiers running among the clouds surrounding the cities”, and when going to perform their Pentecost duties, great voices from heaven were heard, saying “Let us remove hence.” There are other accounts of this, with Josephus being the most well known. These reports are used by preterists to support the idea that Revelation has been fulfilled, or at least up to chapter 20.

1. Hadas-Lebel, Mireille (2006). Jerusalem Against Rome. Peters Publishers. p. 86.
2. Josephus, The War of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 4, paragraph 7 (260-266)
3. Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana 6.29
4. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-temple-mount
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock#Accessibility
6. although some put this as early as 100 BC for friendly “allies” – https://www.worldhistory.org/article/859/roman-citizenship/
7. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1476993X18791425
8. War of the Jews, Book 6, Chapter 9, paragraph 4 (428).