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It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction of our
Saviour in which he foretold these very events. His words are as
follows: "Woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give
suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the
winter, neither on the Sabbath day; For there shall be great
tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this
time, no, nor ever shall be." The historian, reckoning the whole
number of the slain, says that eleven hundred thousand persons perished
by famine and sword, and that the rest of the rioters and robbers,
being betrayed by each other after the taking of the city, were slain.
But the tallest of the youths and those that were distinguished for
beauty were preserved for the triumph. Of the rest of the multitude,
those that were over seventeen years of age were sent as prisoners to
labor in the works of Egypt, while still more were scattered through
the provinces to meet their death in the theaters by the sword and by
beasts. Those under seventeen years of age were carried away to be
sold as slaves, and of these alone the number reached ninety thousand.
These things took place in this manner in the second year of the reign
of Vespasian, in accordance with the prophecies of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power saw them beforehand as if
they were already present, and wept and mourned according to the
statement of the holy evangelists, who give the very words which be
uttered, when, as if addressing Jerusalem herself, he said: "If
thou hadst known, even thou, in this day, the things which belong
unto thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days
shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a rampart about
thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and
shall lay thee and thy children even with the ground." And then, as
if speaking concerning the people, he says, "For there shall be
great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they
shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into
all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles,
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." And again: "When
ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh." If any one compares the words of our
Saviour with the other accounts of the historian concerning the whole
war, how can one fail to wonder, and to admit that the foreknowledge
and the prophecy of our Saviour were truly divine and marvellously
strange. Concerning those calamities, then, that befell the whole
Jewish nation after the Saviour's passion and after the words which
the multitude of the Jews uttered, when they begged the release of the
robber and murderer, but besought that the Prince of Life should be
taken from their midst, it is not necessary to add anything to the
account of the historian. But it may be proper to mention also those
events which exhibited the graciousness of that all-good Providence
which held back their destruction full forty years after their crime
against Christ, during which time many of the apostles and disciples,
and James himself the first bishop there, the one who is called the
brother of the Lord, were still alive, and dwelling in Jerusalem
itself, remained the surest bulwark of the place. Divine Providence
thus still proved itself long-suffering toward them in order to see
whether by repentance for what they had done they might obtain pardon
and salvation; and in addition to such long-suffering, Providence
also furnished wonderful signs of the things which were about to happen
to them if they did not repent. Since these matters have been thought
worthy of mention by the historian already cited, we cannot do better
than to recount them for the benefit of the readers of this work.
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