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- Encyclopedia Britannica 1979
, Vol 17:950-951 "Herod and his successors could not wipe out all resistance to Hellenism among the Jews. There were, of course, varying degrees of resistance. Herod's supporters sought to bridge the gap between the two cultures and thus have the best of both worlds; the Sadducees combined a strict adherence to the Mosaic Law with at least a partial acceptance of Hellenism; the Pharisees were sterner opponents of foreign culture but more flexible in their attitude toward Judaism; the Essenes and other groups hoped for a messiah to deliver them from Roman domination and restore an independent Jewish nation. The Zealots had the most important influence on political events. They condemned anything foreign and insisted that force was the only weapon with which to combat it. At first only a minority, they grew powerful as Roman policy toward the Jews changed. The mad Caligula reversed the formerly tolerant Roman policy by attempting to install his own statue in the Temple, and only his timely murder saved the day. After Claudius' inauguration of the province in 44 AD, conditions worsened under a series of greedy and incompetent procurators, and in 66 AD revolt broke out (the First Jewish Revolt 66-77). ... The governor of Syria could not quell the uprising, and the emperor Nero entrusted the campaign to the veteran commander Vespasian. With superior forces Vespasian slowly and effectively subdued Galilee and Judaea. When he was recalled to Rome to become emperor himself, he gave his army to his son Titus. In 70 Titus captured and completely destroyed Jerusalem with great slaughter. In 73 the last flames of revolt were put out at Masada, where the last rebels committed suicide rather than fall into Roman hands."
- Josephus
: "all the calamities which had befallen any nation from the beginning of the world were but small in comparison with those of the Jews" Wars 6:8:5; 9:2:3; 5:11:1.
- Further, Josephus tells us that during the sieges grip, when there was no grain left, there was wholesale ransacking within the walls of Jerusalem; food was so short that any locked door meant someone was eating a meal inside; marauders would break down the doors, rush in, and grab the throats of those inside, hoping to squeeze a morsel of food from their throats. whole families perished during the siege. Tomb-robbing was rampant. Josephus mentions that he saw 600,000 bodies thrown out the gates of the city. One deserter was caught with gold he swallowed to smuggle out of the city. Suspecting that many Jews were attempting such, in one night the Romans killed 2000 Jews and ripped their stomachs open. Josephus tells of one mother who was so hungry that she roasted, her infant son and ate half of him, offering the other half to her neighbor. In short, there has been nothing in history to match the violence, savageness; famine, pestilence, despair present in the siege of Jerusalem. It was indeed the blackest and cruelest war in the annals of mankind, yet for those who were watchful, there was a way of escape.
- "Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay to to plunder, because there remained none to be the objects of their fury...Caesar gave orders that they should now demolish the entire city and temple" Josephus Wars 7:1:1.
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Sabbatarians falsely teach that Christian would be keeping the Sabbath in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed.
