Matthew 24:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

There shall not be left here one stone— No impostor, Bishop Chandler very justly observes, would have attempted to foretel an event at once so disagreeable, and so improbable as it seemed at present, considering the peace of the Jews with the Romans, and the strength of their citadel;which forced Titus himself to acknowledge, that it was the singular hand of God which compelled them to relinquish fortifications unconquerable by human power. The worthy Bishop of Bristol (to whose accuracyand learning we shall be particularlyobliged in the course of our annotations on this chapter, as we have already enriched a former part of this commentary from his valuable Dissertations on the Prophesies) observes, that our Saviour in his prophesies frequently alludes to phrases and expressions used by the ancient prophets; and as Haggai 2:15 expresses the building of the temple, by a stone being laid upon a stone, so Christ expresses the destruction of it by one stone not being left upon another. See Luke 19:44. It is a proverbial expression to denote an utter destruction; and the prophesy would have been amply fulfilled, if the city and temple had been entirely ruined, though every single stone had not been overturned. But it happened in this case that the words were almost literally fulfilled, and scarcely one stone was left upon another. For when the Romans had taken Jerusalem, Titus ordered his soldiers to dig up the foundations both of all the city, and also of the temple, after it was burnt. The temple was a building of such strength and grandeur, of such splendor and beauty, that it was likely to be preserved for a monument of the victory and glory of the Roman empire: Titus was accordingly very desirous of preserving it; and protestedto the Jews who had fortified themselves within it, that he would preserve it even against their will. He had expressed the like desire of preserving the city too, and sent Josephus and other Jews, again and again, to their countrymen, to persuade them to surrender; but one greater than Titus had determined it otherwise. The Jews themselves first set fire to the porticos of the temple, and then the Romans. One of the soldiers neither waiting for any command, nor trembling at such an attempt, but urged by a certain divine impulse, says Josephus, mounted the shoulder of his companion, thrust a burning brand in at the golden window, and thereby set fire to the building of the temple itself. Titus ran immediatelyto the temple, and commanded his soldiers to extinguish the flame; but neither exhortations nor threatenings could restrain their violence; they either could not or would not hear; those behind encouraging those before to set fire to the temple. Titus was still for preserving the holy place: he commanded his soldiers even to be beaten for disobeying him. But their anger and hatred of the Jews, and a certain warlike vehement fury, overcame their reverence for their general, and their dread of his commands. A soldier in the dark set fire to the doors; and thus, as Josephus says, the temple was burned against the will of Caesar. Afterwards, as we read in the Jewish Talmud, and in Maimonides, Terentius Rufus, who was left to command the army at Jerusalem, did with a ploughshare tear up the foundation of the temple, and therebysignally fulfilled Micah 3:12. Eusebius too affirms that it was ploughed up by the Romans, and that he saw it lying in ruins. The city also shared the same fate, and was burned and destroyed as well as the temple. The Romans burned the extremest parts of the city, and demolished the walls. Three towers only, and some part of the wall were left standing, for the better encamping of the soldiers, and to shew to posterity what a city, and how fortified, the valour of the Romans had taken. All the rest of the city was so demolished and levelled with the ground, that they who came to see it, could not believe that it was ever inhabited. After the city was thus taken and destroyed, great riches were found among the ruins; and the Romans dug them up, in search of the treasures which had been concealed and buried in the earth. So literallywere our Saviour's words accomplished, in theruin both of the city and of the temple; and well might Eleazer say, "That God had delivered his most holy city to be burned and subverted by their enemies;"—and "wish that they had all died, before they saw that holy city demolished by the hands of their enemies, and the sacred temple so wickedly dug up from the foundations." See Bishop Newton's 18th Dissertation, and Josephus's War, lib. 6: and 7: