The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECTION I.

The Desolation of the Temple and City.

THE Temple was burnt down, as Josephus a spectator setteth the time, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, On the tenth day of the month Lous: which he saith was a fatal day to the Temple, for it had been burnt down by the Babylonians before on that day, De Bell. lib. 6. cap. 27. And yet his Countrymen that write in the Hebrew Tongue, fix both these fatalities to the ninth day of that month which they call the month Ab; and they account that day fatal for three other sad occurrences besides: On the ninth day of the month Ab, say they, the decree came out against Israel in the wilderness that they should not enter into the Land: On it was the destruction of the first Temple, and on it was the destruction of the second. On it the great City Bitter was taken, where there were thousands and ten thousands of Israel, who had a great King over them [Ben Cozba] whom all Israel, even their greatest wise men thought to have been Messias: But he fell into the hands of the Heathen, and there was great affliction, as there was at the destruction of the Sanctuary. And on that day, a day allotted for vengeance, The wicked Turnus Rufus plowed up the place of the Temple, and the places about it, to accomplish what is said, Sion shall become a plowed field. Talm. in Taanith. per. 4. halac. 6. Maymon. in Taanith per. 5.

It is strange men of the same Nation, and in a thing so signal, and of which both par∣ties were spectators, should be at such a difference: and yet not a difference neither, if we take Josephus his report of the whole story, and the other Jews construction of the time. He records that the Cloister walks commonly called The Porches of the Temple, were fired on the eighth day, and were burning on the ninth, but that day Titus called a Council of War, and carried it by three voices, that the Temple should be spared: but a new busling of the Jews caused it to be fired, though against his will, on the next day: Joseph. ubi supr. cap. 22. 23, 24. Now their Kalendar reckons, from the middle day of the three that fire was at it as from a Center: and they state the time thus: It was the time of the evening, when fire was put to the Temple, and it burnt till the going down of the Sun of the next day. And behold what Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai saith: If I had not been in that generation I should not have pitched it upon any other day, but the tenth, be∣cause the most of the Temple was burnt that day. And in the Jerusalem Talmud it is related that Rabbi, and Joshua ben Levi fasted for it the ninth and tenth days both. Gloss. in Maym. in Taanith per. 5.

Such another discrepancy about the time of the firing of the first Temple by Nebu∣chadnezzar, may be observed in 2 King. 25. 8, 9. where it is said, that In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, came Nebuzaradan Captain of the guard, and burnt the House of the Lord. And yet in Jerem. 52. 12. it is said to have been In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month. Which the Gemarists in the Babylon Talmud reconcile thus: It cannot be said on the seventh day, because it is said On the tenth: Nor can it be said, On the tenth day, because it is said On the seventh. How is it then? On the seventh the aliens came into the Temple, and eat there and defiled it, the seventh, eighth and ninth days, and that day towards night they set it on fire: and it burnt all the tenth day, and was the case also with the second Temple. Taanith fol. 29.

The ninth and tenth days of the month Ab on which the Temple was burnt down, was about the two and three and twentieth of our July: and the City was taken and sacked the eighth day of September following: Joseph. ubi supr. cap. 47. That day being their Sabbath day, Dion fol. 748.

After eleven hundred thousand destroyed and perished in the siege and sacking, and ninety seven thousand taken prisoners, Titus commanded City and Temple to be razed to

the ground, only three of the highest Towers left standing, Phasaelus, Hippicus and Mariamme, and the Western Wall of the City: those, that they might remain as monu∣ments of the strength of the place, and thereby of the renown of the Roman Conquest: and this, that it might be of some use to the Roman Garrison that was left there, which was the tenth Legion. Their chief Captain was Terentius Rufus, a man of exceeding fre∣quent mention in the Hebrew Writers, but his former name a little shortned, yet a little added which makes it long enough, for they constantly call him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tur∣nus Rufus the wicked one. There are endless disputes betwixt him and R. Akibah mention∣ed, about the Jews Law and Religion, and when he died R. Akibah married his widdow, now become a Proselitess.

Amongst those that perished in the fate of the City, the names most famous were Jocha∣nan, Simeon and Eleazar, the three ringleaders of sedition, names famous for faction. But the person of the best rank that perished, was Rabban Simeon, the President of the San∣hedrin, a man educated with Paul at the foot of Gamaliel his father. The Sanhedrin had sitten at Jabneh a long while, but the Feast of the Passover had now brought them up to Jerusalem, and there he is caught. The Bab. Talmud in the place lately cited, relates, that he was once in danger, but one of the Roman Commanders was a means of his de∣livery: But at last he was caught and slain, and in the Jews Martyrology he is set the first of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The ten slain by the Kingdom: meaning ten eminent ones that were put to death by the Romans. All the ten are reckoned by Midras Tillin upon Psal. 9. fol. 10. col. 3. He forgetteth not, saith he, the cry of the poor: that is, he forgetteth not the blood of Israel to require it of the Nations: nor the blood of those Righteous ones that were slain: viz. Rabban Simeon the son Gamaliel, Rabbi Ismael the son of Elisha, R. Ishbab the Scribe, R. Hotspith the Interpreter, R. Jose, R. Judah ben Baba, R. Judah Hannachtom, R. Simeon ben Azzai, R. Hananiah ben Tera••ion, and R. Akibah. But the Author of Tsemach David reckoning up these, next after Rabban Simeon nameth Ananias the Sagan, or the second Priest, and saith that he was slain at the destruction of the City when Rab∣ban Simeon was slain. Of this Ananias Sagan there is mention in the Talmud Text se∣veral times: we will take but one instance, Shekalim per. 6. halac. 1. There were thirteen worshippings or bowings in the Temple, but the house of Rabban Gamaliel, and the house of Ananias Sagan made fourteen. The Sagan was, as it were, Vice-Highpriest, the next to him in Dignity and Office, and is sometimes called the Highpriest, as Luke 3. 2. And it may be this was the man, and bare that title, Act. 23. 2, 4. the enemy of Paul, and whose character and doom he reads, that he was a whited wall, and God would smite him: ac∣complished when he perished in the fall of the City.

We may not omit the calculation of the time that the Jews make further, of the Tem∣ples burning: When the first Temple was destroyed, say they, it was the evening on the ninth of Ab, it was the go••••g out of the year of release, and it was the going out of the Sabbath: And so was it with the second Temple. Tal. Bab. ubi supr. Observe, by their confession the Temple was burnt down upon the Lords day, or on the Christian Sabbath. Fire put to it upon their Sabbath, and it burnt all ours: And so the City fell upon their Sabbath, as was mentioned out of Dion even now.