Before Josiah held a passover he had to clean out the temple and the nation of Judah. While he was very young he made the decision to bring the nation back to Yahweh Elohim. Even though Josiah held a passover, it did not turn back the wrath of Yahweh Elohim to destroy Judah. The temple was defiled and although Josiah cleansed it, it did not change the judgment against Judah. From the time of the kingdom split to the destruction in Ezekiel we see a rollercoaster of occultic practices for over 400 years. One might think that after captivity in Babylon attitudes would change, but they didn’t. Herod made passageways and towers, and reconstructed the temple, only to have it destroyed in 70 AD. The temple as well as all Godly churches are magnets for evil spirits because the last thing Satanas wants is holy people. Therefore Satanas has to manipulate people to ruin what should be sacred. Where exactly was the temple that Josiah tried to cleanse and why do the Jews keep saying they want to take over the temple mount? Will building another temple change anything about Yahweh’s already stated plans? Let’s explore.
There was a prophecy made in the northern kingdom about a future king named Josiah.
1Ki 13:1 And behold, there came a man of God out of Juda by the word of the Lord to Baethel, and Jeroboam stood at the altar to sacrifice.
1Ki 13:2 And he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, Behold, a son is to be born to the house of David, Josias by name; and he shall offer upon thee the priests of the high places, even of them that sacrifice upon thee, and he shall burn men's bones upon thee.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king. He restored the temple.
2Ki 22:1 Josias was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jedia, daughter of Edeia of Basuroth.
Chelcias/Hilkiah/Helcias found the book of the law and read it to Josiah.
2Ki 22:8 And Chelcias the high priest said to Saphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Chelcias gave the book to Sapphan, and he read it.
2Ki 22:9 And he went into the house of the Lord to the king, and reported the matter to the king, and said, Thy servants have collected the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have given it into the hand of the workmen that are appointed in the house of the Lord.
2Ki 22:10 And Sapphan the scribe spoke to the king, saying, Chelcias the priest has given me a book. And Sapphan read it before the king.
2Ki 22:11 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his garments.
2Ki 22:12 And the king commanded Chelcias the priest, and Achikam the son of Sapphan, and Achobor the son of Michaias, and Sapphan the scribe, and Asaias the king's servant, saying,
2Ki 22:13 Go, enquire of the Lord for me, and for all the people, and for all Juda, and concerning the words of this book that has been found: for the wrath of the Lord that has been kindled against us is great, because our fathers hearkened not to the words of this book, to do according to all the things written concerning us.
Huldah the prophetess is going to prophesy but it’s not good news.
2Ki 22:14 So Chelcias the priest went, and Achicam, and Achobor, and Sapphan, and Asaias, to Olda the prophetess, the mother of Sellem the son of Thecuan son of Aras, keeper of the robes; and she dwelt in Jerusalem in Masena; and they spoke to her.
2Ki 22:15 And she said to them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Say to the man that sent you to me,
2Ki 22:16 Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I bring evil upon this place, and upon them that dwell in it, even all the words of the book which the king of Juda has read:
2Ki 22:17 because they have forsaken me, and burnt incense to other gods, that they might provoke me with the works of their hands: therefore my wrath shall burn forth against this place, and shall not be quenched.
The first thing she says is that Yahweh Elohim will bring his wrath against Judah. Who dwells in the temple? Now we know from hindsight that nothing Josiah did changed Yahweh’s mind, but it may have inspired some people to turn back to Yahweh.
2Ki 22:18 And to the king of Juda that sent you to enquire of the Lord, —thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, As for the words which thou hast heard;
2Ki 22:19 because thy heart was softened, and thou was humbled before me, when thou heardest all that I spoke against this place, and against the inhabitants of it, that it should be utterly destroyed and accursed, and thou didst rend thy garments, and weep before me; I also have heard, saith the Lord.
2Ki 22:20 It shall not be so therefore: behold, I will add thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy tomb in peace, and thine eyes shall not see any among all the evils which I bring upon this place.
Yahweh Elohim doesn’t change his mind about Judah being utterly destroyed and accursed, but Josiah won’t see it happen. This tells us that even though Josiah is doing the right things and trying to turn the country back to Yahweh Elohim, there were too many people against Yahweh Elohim. Nevertheless, Josiah is going to do the right thing anyway.
2Ki 23:1 So they reported the word to the king: and the king sent and gathered all the elders of Juda and Jerusalem to himself.
2Ki 23:2 And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and every man of Juda and all who dwelt in Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people small and great; and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord.
2Ki 23:3 And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his ordinances with all the heart and with all the soul, to confirm the words of this covenant; even the things written in this book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
2Ki 23:4 And the king commanded Chelcias the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and them that kept the door, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and all the host of heaven, and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kedron, and took the ashes of them to Baethel.
2Ki 23:5 And he burned the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Juda had appointed, (and they burned incense in the high places and in the cities of Juda, and the places around about Jerusalem); and them that burned incense to Baal, and to the sun, and to the moon, and to Mazuroth, and to all the host of heaven.
They burn the people and the priests as well as their artifacts.
2Ki 23:6 And he carried out the grove from the house of the Lord to the brook Kedron, and burned it at the brook Kedron, and reduced it to powder, and cast its powder on the sepulchres of the sons of the people.
2Ki 23:7 And he pulled down the house of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove tents for the grove.
Let’s look at how this verse has been translated.
2Ki 23:7 (ABP)And G2532 he demolished G2507 the G3588 house G3624 of the G3588 male prostitutes G2504.2 of the ones G3588 in G1722 the G3588 house G3624 of the LORD G2962 in G1722 which G3739 the G3588 women G1135 wove G5306.1 apparel there G1563 G4749 for the G3588 sacred grove. G251.1
2Ki 23:7 (DRB) He destroyed also the pavilions of the effeminate, which were in the house of the Lord, for which the women wove as it were little dwellings for the grove.
2Ki 23:7 (ISV) He also demolished the temples of the cultic male prostitutes that had been operating in the LORD's Temple, where the women had been doing weaving for the Asherah.
2Ki 23:7 (LITV) And he broke down the houses of the male prostitutes that were in the house of Jehovah, where the women were weaving shelters for Asherah.
2Ki 23:7 (LSV) And he breaks down the houses of the whoremongers that [are] in the house of YHWH, where the women are weaving houses for the Asherah.
There were booths or houses for male prostitutes in the temple. There were also booths for female prostitutes. The problem with these booths being in the temple is that they were used by the priests and levites. The people as well as the king did not go into the inner parts of the temple where the booths were in this time period. After Herod’s reconstruction the king could go into the inner temple to the booths of the male and female prostitutes. The temple has always had a well kept, hidden, secret that continued to the time of Nehemiah and Herod’s temple in Jesus’ day, John 8. Why were there sexual rituals in the temple?
2Ki 23:8 And he brought up all the priest from the cities of Juda, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Gaebal even to Bersabee; and he pulled down the house of the gates that was by the door of the gate of Joshua the ruler of the city, on a man's left hand at the gate of the city.
2Ki 23:9 Only the priests of the high places went not up to the altar of the Lord in Jerusalem, for they only ate leavened bread in the midst of their brethren.
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Tapheth which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, constructed for a man to cause his son or his daughter to pass through fire to Moloch.
2Ki 23:11 And he burned the horses which the king of Juda had given to the sun in the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the treasury of Nathan the king's eunuch, in the suburbs; and he burned the chariot of the sun with fire.
2Ki 23:12 And the altars that were on the roof of the upper chamber of Achaz, which the kings of Juda had made, and the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king pull down and forcibly remove from thence, and cast their dust into the brook of Kedron.
2Ki 23:13 And the king defiled the house that was before Jerusalem, on the right hand of the mount of Mosthath, which Solomon king of Israel built to Astarte the abomination of the Sidonians, and to Chamos the abomination of Moab, and to Moloch the abomination of the children of Ammon.
2Ki 23:14 And he broke in pieces the pillars, and utterly destroyed the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
2Ki 23:15 Also the high altar in Baethel, which Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that high altar he tore down, and broke in pieces the stones of it, and reduced it to powder, and burnt the grove.
2Ki 23:16 And Josias turned aside, and saw the tombs that were there in the city, and sent, and took the bones out of the tombs, and burnt them on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of the Lord which the man of God spoke, when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the feast: and he turned and raised his eyes to the tomb of the man of God that spoke these words.
It seems there were altars, pillars, groves, and high places, all over Judah. Josiah had the graveyard dug up but he left the bones of two prophets.
2Ki 23:17 And he said, What is that mound which I see? And the men of the city said to him, It is the grave of the man of God that came out of Juda, and uttered these imprecations which he imprecated upon the altar of Baethel.
2Ki 23:18 And he said, Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones. So his bones were spared, together with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
2Ki 23:19 Moreover Josias removed all the houses of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel made to provoke the Lord, and did to them all that he did in Baethel.
2Ki 23:20 And he sacrificed all the priests of the high places that were there on the altars, and burnt the bones of men upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
Josiah burnt some people and priests and sacrificed others. This is one way to stop the occultic practices.
2Ki 23:21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Keep the passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant.
2Ki 23:22 For a passover such as this had not been kept from the days of the judges who judged Israel, even all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Juda.
2Ki 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of king Josias, was the passover kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:24 Moreover Josias removed the sorcerers, and the wizards, and the theraphin, and the idols, and all the abominations that had been set up in the land of Juda and in Jerusalem, that he might keep the words of the law that were written in the book, which Chelcias the priest found in the house of the Lord.
2Ki 23:25 There was no king like him before him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses; and after him there rose not one like him.
We might think that now Yahweh Elohim would decide not to utterly destroy Judah, but we would be wrong.
2Ki 23:26 Nevertheless the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great anger, wherewith he was wroth in his anger against Juda, because of the provocations, wherewith Manasses provoked him.
2Ki 23:27 And the Lord said, I will also remove Juda from my presence, as I removed Israel, and will reject this city which I have chosen even Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.
This is exactly what happened. Yahweh Elohim made the decision years before Josiah, so we might ask what was the purpose of Josiah’s reign if the people were going to go back into idolatry and occultic practices? Even though we might think this temple cleansing is useless, it does have the benefit of showing people the difference between good and evil, or Yahweh Elohim and Satanas. Humanity has been on this rollercoaster from the fall of the adam.
Where was the temple located? Today people have been misled to believe it was on the temple mount, but it was not there nor was it ever there. Because the temple and the city of David were leveled, people misunderstood its location because the fortress Antonia was still standing. Herod rebuilt Nehemiah’s temple but made a few additions.
Antiquities of the Jews 11:4:7. (104) When Darius found this book among the record of Cyrus, he wrote an answer to Sisinnes and his associates, whose contents were these:—“King Darius to Sisinnes the governor, and to Sathrabuzanes, sendeth greeting. Having found a copy of this epistle among the records of Cyrus, I have sent it to you; and I will that all things be done as therein written.—Farewell.” (105) So when Sisinnes, and those that were with him, understood the intention of the king, they resolved to follow his directions entirely for the time to come. So they forwarded the sacred works, and assisted the elders of the Jews, and the princes of the sanhedrin! (106) and the structure of the temple was with great diligence brought to a conclusion, by the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, according to God’s commands and by the injunctions of Cyrus and Darius the kings. Now the temple was built in seven years’ time: (107) and in the ninth year of the reign of Darius, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, which is by us called Adar, but by the Macedonians Dystrus, the priests and Levites, and the other multitude of the Israelites, offered sacrifices, as the renovation of their former prosperity after their captivity, and because they had now the temple rebuilt, a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve kids of the goats, according to the number of their tribes (for so many are the tribes of the Israelites); and this last for the sins of every tribe. (108) The priests also and the Levites, set the porters at every gate according to the laws of Moses. The Jews also built the cloisters of the inner temple that were round about the temple itself.
8. (109) And as the feast of unleavened bread was at hand, in the first month, which, according to the Macedonians is called Xanthicus, but according to us Nisam, all the people ran together out of the villages to the city and celebrated the festival, having purified themselves, with their wives and children, according to the law of their country; (110) and they offered the sacrifice which was called the passover, on the fourteenth day of the same month, and feasted seven days, and spared for no cost, but offered whole burnt offerings to God, and performed sacrifices of thanksgiving, because God had led them again to the land of their fathers, and to the laws there to belonging, and had rendered the mind of the king of Persia favorable to them. (111) So these men offered the largest sacrifices on these accounts, and used great magnificence in the worship of God, and dwelt in Jerusalem, and made use of a form of government that was aristocratical, but mixed with an oligarchy, for the high priests were at the head of their affairs, until the posterity of the Asamoneans set up kingly government; (112) for before their captivity, and the dissolution of their polity, they at first had kingly government from Saul and David for five hundred and thirty-two years, six months, and ten days: but before those kings, such rulers governed them as were called Judges and Monarchs. Under this form of government, they continued for more than five hundred years, after the death of Moses, and of Joshua their commander.—(113) And this is the account I had to give of the Jews who had been carried into captivity, but were delivered from it in the times of Cyrus and Darius.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 293.
Josephus gives us a lot of information. First there was the prophecies regarding the rebuilding of the temple, which we note as the temple of Nehemiah. (Herod rebuilt the temple which can be read in Antiquities of the Jews 15:11.) Then they celebrated the passover on the 14th day of the first month, this is the corroboration from Ezra 6. But Josephus goes further to explain that the kingdom was not run in the same manner as it had been. If we look at Josephus’ history in the reverse of how he explained it, and we put it in chronological order, we see that the Judges and Monarchs were running the country at first. The government changed to the Kings era. Next the government was ruled by the aristocracy of national rulers and an oligarchy of religious rulers. This was until the Hasmoneans took over and made Johnathan Apphus high priest, which caused a religious split from Jerusalem. From the time of the return from Babylon, Judah was not under its own control politically even though the pseudo religious order seemed to have a lot of pull in the government.
What poses a problem for us today is not the fact that there is no temple but the understanding of where the temple actually was. Josephus helps our understanding.
Speaking of Herod:
Antiquities of the Jews 15:8:5. (292) Since, therefore, he had now the city fortified by the palace in which he lived, and by the temple which had a strong fortress by it, called Antonia, and was rebuilt by himself, he contrived to make Samaria a fortress for himself also against all the people, and called it Sebaste, (293) supposing that this place would be a stronghold against the country, not inferior to the former
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 416.
Herod fortified his palace. The temple had a strong fortress called Antonia which he also rebuilt. Today the temple mount is the fortress Antonia. The temple was not on the temple mount but down the hill, next to the fortress Antonia. There is/was no water on the temple mount, which is required for the temple service. Today there is plumbing for bathrooms on the temple mount. The temple was over the Gihon Springs, where Solomon was coronated.
Antiquities of the Jews 15:11:4 (409) And that these things were so, the afflictions that happened to us afterward [about them] are sufficient evidence: but for the tower itself, when Herod the king of the Jews had fortified it more firmly than before, in order to secure and guard the temple, he gratified Antonius, who was his friend, and the Roman ruler, and then gave it the name of the Tower of Antonia.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 424–425.
Herod named the fortress for his friend Antonius as well as the tower.
Antiquities of the Jews 15:11:7. (424) There was also an occult passage built for the king; it led from Antonia to the inner temple, at its eastern gate; over which he also erected for himself a tower, that he might have the opportunity of a subterraneous ascent to the temple, in order to guard against any sedition which might be made by the people against their kings. (425) It is also reported, that during the time that the temple was building, it did not rain in the daytime, but that the showers fell in the nights, so that the work was not hindered. And this our fathers have delivered to us; nor is it incredible, if any have regard to the manifestations of God. And thus was performed the work of the rebuilding of the temple.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 425–426.
Herod made sure there was a secret tunnel from the fortress Antonia to the inner temple. He built a tower over the secret passageway, so that he could travel between the fortress, his palace, and the temple, unseen.
There were also cloisters in the temple where the Roman military would be posted to try and quell any uprisings. Cumanus was in charge of the Jewish affairs in 48-52 AD.
Antiquities of the Jews 20:5:3. (105) Now, while the Jewish affairs were under the administration of Cumanus, there happened a great tumult at the city of Jerusalem, and many of the Jews perished therein; but I shall first explain the occasion whence it was derived. (106) When that feast which is called the Passover was at hand, at which time our custom is to use unleavened bread, and a great multitude was gathered together from all parts to that feast, Cumanus was afraid lest some attempt of innovation should then be made by them; so he ordered that one regiment of the army should take their arms, and stand in the temple cloisters, to repress any attempts of innovation, if perchance any such should begin; (107) and this was no more than what the former procurators of Judea did at such festivals; (108) but on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier let down his breeches, and exposed his privy members to the multitude, which put those that saw him into a furious rage, and made them cry out that this impious action was not done to reproach them, but God himself; nay, some of them reproached Cumanus, and pretended that the soldier was set on by him; (109) which when Cumanus heard, he was also himself not a little provoked at such reproaches laid upon him; yet did he exhort them to leave off such seditious attempts, and not to raise a tumult at the festival; (110) but when he could not induce them to be quiet, for they still went on in their reproaches to him, he gave order that the whole army should take their entire armor, and come to Antonia, which was a fortress, as we have said already, which overlooked the temple; (111) but when the multitude saw the soldiers there, they were affrighted at them, and ran away hastily; but as the passages out were but narrow, and as they thought their enemies followed them, they were crowded together in their flight, and a great number were pressed to death in those narrow passages; (112) nor indeed was the number fewer than twenty thousand that perished in this tumult. So, instead of a festival they had at last a mournful day of it; and they all of them forgot their prayers and sacrifices, and betook themselves to lamentation and weeping; so great an affliction did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring upon them.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 531.
While this story is quite funny, we see that the Jews did exactly what they still do today. They start a disinformation campaign to blame someone they want to persecute, in this case Cumanus. Once the people saw the soldiers they ran away.
Going back to the Hasmonean time period John Hyrcanus was a high priest who pursued military campaigns to expand the Hasmonean kingdom around 134 BC.
Wars of the Jews 1:5:4. (117) In the meantime, Alexandra fell sick, and Aristobulus, her younger son, took hold of this opportunity, with his domestics, of which he had a great many, who were all of them his friends, on account of the warmth of their youth, and got possession of all the fortresses. He also used the sums of money he found in them, to get together a number of mercenary soldiers, and made himself king; (118) and besides this, upon Hyrcanus’s complaint to his mother, she compassionated his case, and put Aristobulus’s wife and sons under restraint in Antonia, which was a fortress that joined to the north part of the temple. It was, as I have already said, of old called the Citadel, but afterwards got the name of Antonia, when Antony was lord [of the east], just as the other cities, Sebaste and Agrippias, had their names changed and these given them from Sebastus and Agrippa. (119) But Alexandra died before she could punish Aristobulus for his disinheriting his brother, after she had reigned nine years.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 552.
The fortress was joined to the temple. Why then is the fortress so important today? Why does Israel want to take control of the temple mount where the fortress Antonia was.
Wars of the Jews 5:5: 8. (238) Now, as to the tower of Antonia, it was situated at the corner of two cloisters of the court of the temple; of that on the west, and that on the north; it was erected upon a rock, of fifty cubits in height, and was on a great precipice; it was the work of king Herod, wherein he demonstrated his natural magnanimity. (239) In the first place, the rock itself was covered over with smooth pieces of stone, from its foundation, both for ornament, and that anyone who would either try to get up or to go down it, might not be able to hold his feet upon it. (240) Next to this, and before you come to the edifice of the tower itself, there was a wall three cubits high; but within that wall all the space of the tower of Antonia itself was built upon, to the height, of forty cubits. (241) The inward parts had the largeness and form of a palace, it being parted into all kinds of rooms and other conveniences, such as courts, and places for bathing, and broad spaces for camps; insomuch that, by having all conveniences that cities wanted, it might seem to be composed of several cities, but by its magnificence, it seemed a palace; (242) and as the entire structure resembled that of a tower, it contained also four other distinct towers at its four corners; whereof the others were but fifty cubits high; whereas that which lay upon the southeast corner was seventy cubits high, that from thence the whole temple might be viewed; (243) but on the corner where it joined to the two cloisters of the temple, it had passages down to them both, through which the guard (244) (for there always lay in this tower a Roman legion) went several ways among the cloisters, with their arms, on the Jewish festivals, in order to watch the people, that they might not there attempt to make any innovations; (245) for the temple was a fortress that guarded the city, as was the tower of Antonia a guard to the temple; and in that tower were the guards of those three. There was also a peculiar fortress belonging to the upper city, which was Herod’s palace; (246) but for the hill Bezetha, it was divided from the tower of Antonia, as we have already told you; and as that hill on which the tower of Antonia stood, was the highest of these three, so did it adjoin to the new city, and was the only place that hindered the sight of the temple on the north. (247) And this shall suffice at present to have spoken about the city and the walls about it, because I have proposed to myself to make a more accurate description of it elsewhere.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 708–709.
There was a dual purpose here, the temple was a fortress and the fortress Antonia was a fortress. Herod's palace was sandwiched in-between. This was great protection for him. The Romans at his back and the Jews at his front.
Wars of the Jews 6:4:5. (249) So Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to storm the temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to encamp round about the holy house; (250) but, as for that house, God had for certain long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous [Ab], upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon;
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 739.
The temple was burnt by Titus. Then the city of David was taken apart stone by stone.
Wars of the Jews 7:1:1. (1) Now, as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder, because there remained none to be objects of their fury (for they would not have spared any, had there remained any other such work to be done) Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple, but should leave as many of the towers standing as were of the greatest eminency; that is, Phasaelus, and Hippicus, and Mariamne, and so much of the wall as enclosed the city on the west side. (2) This wall was spared, in order to afford a camp for such as were to lie in garrison; as were the towers also spared, in order to demonstrate to posterity what kind of city it was, and how well fortified, which the Roman valor had subdued; (3) but for all the rest of the wall, it was so thoroughly laid even with the ground by those that dug it up to the foundation, that there was left nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited. (4) This was the end which Jerusalem came to by the madness of those that were for innovations; a city otherwise of great magnificence, and of mighty fame among all mankind.
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 750–751.
What did Jesus say?
Mat 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
We have to understand that even with Josiah cleaning up the temple and city, Yahweh pronounced a judgment, and that judgment was for the future, a future generation that wasn’t alive at the time of Manasseh and Josiah. Judah went into captivity, but rebuilt the temple. Then the second judgment was pronounced by Jesus Messiah, for the future generations around forty years into the future. The city and the temple were unrecognizable, which led to the misunderstandings during the Constantinian era up to the Byzantium era. During the Ottoman era, the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the fortress of Antonia. Yet we know that the temple was not on that hill, the temple was below it over the Gihon Springs. Today, Israel owns the land that Solomons temple was built on, it is a national park. At any time the temple could be built there. So then why isn’t the temple being built? No one wants the muslims looking down into the temple area at the sacrifices being made. It is logical to want the entire area secure and unseen by the outside world, however the next temple will not be the divine sanctuary they believe it will be. We know that the Jews will be deceived when the world leader makes peace in the world, but they will recognize their mistake only when the son of perdition, or son of destruction, enters into the holy of holies, sits down, then comes out and declares that he is god. That is when many Jews will be martyred under the altar. Before this happens there must be a revolt, or an apostasy. Next week.
