by Brian Godawa
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 90–91.
“This “age to come” was the new covenant age. Paul wrote elsewhere that the gospel (the new covenant) was “hidden for ages, but now revealed to his saints (Col 1:26). In 1 Corinthians 10:11, he wrote that the old covenant events occurred as an example “for our instruction upon whom the end of the ages has come.” Did you catch that? The temple had not yet been destroyed, and Paul was saying that his generation was at the end of the ages! He said that it had come upon that first century of believers. The end of the age is not a future event that hasn’t happened yet; it occurred in the first century with the coming of the new covenant, confirmed in the destruction of the temple. But Paul isn’t the only one who wrote that in the New Testament.
“Hebrews 9:26 says that Jesus suffered on the cross, “once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” The end of the ages is not the end of history or the end of the world as we understand it. The end of the ages had already occurred at the time of the crucifixion of Christ. The end of the ages was the end of the old covenant era and the beginning of the new covenant in Christ’s blood!
“But get this: that same writer of Hebrews talked about the new covenant in Christ being superior to the old covenant in Hebrews 8. He quoted Jeremiah confirming that the prophets predicted the arrival of the new covenant age. And then he said, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (8:13).
“What was growing old and ready to vanish at that time?
“It blew my theology when I realized that he was talking about the destruction of the temple as the final culmination of the new covenant replacement of the old covenant! He was writing in the time period after Christ’s death and resurrection and right before the temple had been destroyed. So the new covenant had been established in Christ’s blood, but it was not consummated with historical finality. Like Paul, the writer believed they were at the end of the ages. The new covenant would make the old covenant obsolete. But take a closer look at the language he used. He said that the old is “becoming obsolete and is ready to vanish away,” as if the old covenant had not vanished yet. It was only in the process of becoming obsolete. “Becoming,” not “had become,” and not “would become” thousands of years in the future. What could that mean?
“Well, the writer was writing within the generation that Jesus said would see the destruction of the temple. The temple had not yet been destroyed. Hebrews 8 says that they were in a time period of change between covenants and that change had not yet been fully or historically consummated. That first century generation was in the transition period between ages or covenants. So, what would be the event that would embody the theological claim that the old covenant was obsolete and the new covenant had replaced it? The destruction of the symbol of the old covenant, the temple! The old covenant would not be obsolete until its symbolic incarnation, the temple, was made desolate.”
Brian Godawa, End Times Bible Prophecy: It’s Not What They Told You (Los Angeles, CA: Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2017), 72-74.
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Jesus greater than Moses, angels, Aaron: This is the message of Hebrews 1-5.
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Torah fulfilled in Christ: 2Corinthians 1:20. Also…
Romans 10:4–10
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. 5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, …“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Galatians 3:23–29
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Romans 7:1–6
1 Or do you not know, brothers – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
Torah abolished:
Ephesians 2:13–15
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
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Cassandra quotes from: Ephesians 2:19-22.
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Symeon quotes from: Genesis 17:4-8.
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CHAPTER 36
Description of the Antonia fortress: Flavius Josephus 5.5.8, The Wars of the Jews, §238-247.
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Daniel speaks of Rome as the trampling beast of iron jaws:
Daniel 7:7
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
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Two Messiahs and a prophet in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
CD–B Col. xix:10
“These shall escape in the age of the visitation; but those that remain shall be delivered up to the sword when there comes the messiah of Aaron and Israel.”
Florentino Garcı́a Martı́nez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (translations)” (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–1998), 577.
1QS Col. ix:11
“until the prophet comes, and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel.”
Florentino Garcı́a Martı́nez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (translations)” (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–1998), 93.
1QS Col. ix:10
“shall be ruled by the first directives which the men of the Community began to be taught until the prophet comes, and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel.”
Florentino Garcı́a Martı́nez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (translations)” (Leiden; New York: Brill, 1997–1998), 93.
See also: CD–B Col. xx:1; 4Q266 Frag. 10 i:11. CD–A Col. xii:22-xiii:1.
Priestly Messiah and Kingly Messiah: 1Q28a ii:11-21.
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Messiah saving his Remnant at the Day of the Lord for Israel:
/> Zechariah 8:6–8
6 Thus says the LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the LORD of hosts? 7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, 8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.”
Paul claimed that this prophecy was fulfilled in the New Covenant:
2 Corinthians 6:16
16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Hebrews 8:10
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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CHAPTER 37
Marduk splitting Tiamat: In the Babylonian myth The Enuma Elish, Marduk splits the dragon of chaos, named Tiamat in half to create the heavens and earth.
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“Victor” the battering ram:
Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 5.7.2, §298-299.
“So they retired out of the reach of the darts, and did no longer endeavor to hinder the impression of their rams, which, by continually beating upon the wall, did gradually prevail against it; (299) so that the wall already gave way to the Nico (“Victor”), for by that name did the Jews themselves call the greatest of their engines, because it conquered all things.”
Flavius Josephus and William Whiston, The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987), 712.
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Israel has become a symbolic Babylon, Sodom, Egypt:
Revelation 11:8 …and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
Israel called by the name of Sodom: Isaiah 3:8–9; Jeremiah 23:14; Lamentations 4:6; Ezekiel 16:46, 48–49, 55–56; Amos 4:11; John 11:8 Matthew 10:15; 11:23–24).
Israel likened to Egypt: Amos 4:10-11.
The Great City of Babylon in Revelation 17 is Jerusalem:
Revelation 18:21–24 21 “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;.. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the land.”
The Great City was previously introduced as the place of the crucifixion, which is Jerusalem.
Revelation 11:8 …and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
Jerusalem was the one guilty of the “blood of all the prophets and saints who have been slain on the land.” (Rev 18:24):
Matthew 23:35–37 35 so that on you [Jerusalem] may come all the righteous blood shed on the land…. 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!!
Old Testament prophets call Jerusalem the Great City: Jeremiah 22:8 “ ‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?”
Lamentations 1:1 How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave.
Josephus calls Jerusalem a great city: “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, The Wars of the Jews, 7.4.
"And where is now that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation, which was fortified by so many walls round about, which had so many fortresses and large towers to defend it, which could hardly contain the instruments prepared for the war, and which had so many ten thousands of men to fight for it? (376) Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein?" Flavius Josephus, Jewish Wars 7:8:7 §375.
Roman historians Tacitus and Pliny call Jerusalem a great city: "However, as I am about to describe the last days of a famous city, it seems proper for me to give some account of its origin." Tacitus, Histories 5.2
“Jerusalem, by far the most famous city, not of Judæa only, but of the East, and Herodium, with a celebrated town of the same name.” Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, 15.15, ed. John Bostock (Medford, MA: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1855), 1428.
The Great City is Jerusalem. Extra biblical sources: Sibylline Oracles 5:154, 226, 413.
Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is Jerusalem, not Rome: “Several textual indicators suggest that John is focusing on Jerusalem rather than Rome (cp. Provan 1996: 94). (1) In this very Judaic book the language of religious defilement in 18:2 would suggest a Jewish city is in view. (2) Babylon’s double punishment reflects the Old Testament prophetic witness against Jerusalem (18:6; see below). (3) The “great city” (18:10, 16, 18, 19, 21; cp. 18:2) was previously introduced as the place of the crucifixion (11:8). (4) In 18:24 the killing of the prophets by Babylon reflects a familiar sin of Jerusalem (Neh 9:26; cp. 1Ki 19:10, 14; 21:13; 2Ch 24:19, 21; 36:14-16; Isa 1:15; Jer 2:30; 25:4; 26:20-23). (5) The bowl judgments in Revelation 16 are being expanded upon in Revelation 17-18. In the latter bowls “Babylon the great” was distinguished from the cities of the nations (16:19).”Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr., The Divorce of Israel: A Redemptive-Historical Interpretation of Revelation Vol. 2 (Dallas, GA: Tolle Lege Press, 2016), 506-507.
“It might be objected that the great city in Revelation appears too important among the nations to be identified with Jerusalem rather than Rome. However, Jerusalem was thought to be the “navel” or center of the earth (Gen R 59:5), “destined to become the metropolis of all countries” (Exod R 23:10), and the Psalms (e.g. 48:2–3, 50:2); Lamentations (e.g. 1:1, 2:15) and Prophets (e.g. Zech 14:16–21, Isa 2:2–4, Micah 4:1–3) speak in the loftiest terms of Jerusalem’s place among the nations. Rev 17:18 is probably a similar hyperbole; cf. 4QLam which describes her as “princess of all nations.” J. Massyngberde Ford, Revelation: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, vol. 38, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 285.
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Fighting for their lives: Remember, the judgment of the Watchers in Psalm 82 is “death” like any human prince.
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Agrippa’s archers:
Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 3.4.2, §68
“A considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came from the kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand footmen, the greatest part of whom were archers.”
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The source for this battle: The spiritual warfare is obviously creative license. The human story of what really happened here can be found in Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 5.8.1-2, §331-347. The Romans ended up taking this wall five days later, but I have altered that for purposes of brevity and avoiding redundancy.
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CHAPTER 38
Cut off, condition of the Abrahamic covenant:
Genesis 17:9, 14
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
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To see a fuller fleshed out biblical argument for Jesus fulfilling all the promises of Abraham: See Brian Godawa, Israel in Bible Prophecy: The New Testament Fulfillment of the Promise to Abraham, (Los
Angeles, Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2017).
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CHAPTER 39
This incident is described in: chapter 53 of Resistant: Revolt of the Jews, Chronicles of the Apocalypse Book 3 by Brian Godawa.