Recently, Yishai Fleisher hosted a discussion with Rabbi Elie Mischel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtTuhpaj2x0) which started with a discussion of the views of Nick Fuentes on the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. Below is the letter I posted as part of that discussion. It is based on the much longer blog-post, https://colinbarnesblog.blogspot.com/2021/08/jesus-and-jewish-history-quickre-cap-we.html
Dear Yishai Fleisher,
Thank you
for a fascinating discussion! As one of those Christians who love Israel, there
was much here I could joyfully affirm. The discussion about the views of Nick Fuentes
was excellent. Rabbi Elie Mischel rightly said the
charge by Mr Fuentes that Jesus “destroyed the Temple” was false! This is
completely correct. As the Rabbi says, ““Jesus never came to abolish the
temple. … Paul worshipped in the Temple.”
There are indeed several places in the New Testament where
opponents of Jesus and his followers make this charge, and in every case, the New
Testament records them as “false accusations.” Mr Fuentes has clearly got his
facts wrong here! The origin of this false charge is found in John 2:13-19 “When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went
up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and
doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of
cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered
the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold
doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into
a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house
will consume me.’ Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you
show us to prove your authority to do all this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy
this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’"
Note that the Pharisees also found the prices charged in the Temple to be an affront. See Mishna Keriot 1:7. “There was an incident where the price of nests, i.e., pairs of birds, stood in Jerusalem at one gold dinar, as the great demand for birds for the offerings of a woman after childbirth and a zava led to an increase in the price. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel said: I swear by this abode of the Divine Presence that I will not lie down tonight until the price of nests will be in silver dinars. Ultimately, he entered the court and taught: A woman who has in her case five definite discharges of a zava or five definite births brings one offering, and then she may partake of the meat of offerings. And the remaining offerings are not an obligation for her. And as a result, the price of the nests stood that day at one-quarter of a silver dinar, as the demand for nests decreased.” Mishna Keriot 1:7.
So in this case, the Pharisees would presumably have sided with Jesus against the Sadducees’ administration of the Temple, (as they would side with Paul against them in Acts 23:6-9).
In any event, Jesus goes to the Temple, sees what a disgrace it has become, is overcome with zeal for God’s house (because he loves it), he cleanses it. When asked for a sign to show by what authority he did this, re replies; "[you] Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." The word “destroy” here is in second person plural! Having seen the state it is in, Jesus is in effect accusing them of destroying it! He was not destroying it, rather out of zeal for it, he was cleansing it. They were the ones destroying the Temple. Jesus then goes further, and alludes to his own mission as being to restore the Temple once it has fallen. This is a very important point, and an active bone of contention in New Testament times, where both Luke and Mark go out of their way to brand as false the then present accusations that Jesus had said that he would destroy the Temple.
Mark 14:57-58 And some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying, 58 "We heard Him say, 'I (singular in the Greek) will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"
Acts 6:13-14 And they put forward false witnesses
who said, "This man incessantly speaks against this holy place, and the
Law; 14 for we have heard him say that this Nazarene, Jesus, will
destroy this place." (See also Paul, Acts 25:8
Then Paul made his defence: "I have done nothing wrong against the law of
the Jews or against the temple.”)
In the
Talmud, four signs are recorded as occurring in the Temple which showed that
its destruction was inevitable. While the time these signs began is a little
vague, 40 years being a generic phrase, it does date them to the time Jesus
went beyond the city gates, and was crucified;
Yoma 39b “Our Rabbis taught: During the last
forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot [‘For the Lord’] did
not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-coloured strap become white;
nor did the westernmost light shine; and the doors of the Temple [to the Holy
place] would open of their own accord. Then R. Johanan b. Zakkai rebuked them,
saying: Temple, Temple, why do you alarm yourself [Predict thy own
destruction]? I know about you that you will be destroyed, for Zechariah ben
Ido [11:1] has already prophesied concerning you [I.e., concerning this
significant omen of the destruction of the Temple]: Open your doors, O Lebanon,
that a fire may devour you cedars. R. Isaac b. Tablai said: Why is its name
called Lebanon? Because it makes white the sins of Israel ...” [The Sanctuary.
A play on לְבָנוֹן,
connected with לְבָנ]
The
first two signs concern the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. The lot was for
the two goats of the sin offering. Leviticus 16:7-10 details the placing of the
lots. That the lot “for the Lord” did not come up in the right hand for 40
years in a row was seen as inexplicable, and a sign of God’s displeasure. The
scarlet thread was tied both to the second goat and also to the door of the
Temple on the outside; “as it has been taught: ‘Originally they used to fasten
the thread of scarlet on the door of the [Temple] court on the outside. If it
turned white the people used to rejoice, and if it did not turn white they were
sad. They therefore made a rule that it should be fastened to the door of the
court on the inside. People, however, still peeped in and saw, and if it turned
white they rejoiced and if it did not turn white they were sad. They therefore
made a rule that half of it should be fastened to the rock and half between the
horns of the goat that was sent [to the wilderness]’... and it has further been
taught: ‘For forty years before the destruction of the Temple the thread of
scarlet never turned white but it remained red’” Rosh HaShana 31b The most
important sacrifice of the year, for the sins of the people and the nation, was
rejected by God!
The
third sign concerned the westernmost light; “The westernmost light on the
candlestick in the Temple, into which as much oil was put as into the others.
Although all the other lights were extinguished, that light buried oil, in
spite of the fact that it had been kindled first. This miracle was taken as a
sign that the Shechinah rested over Israel. V. Shab. 22b and Men. 86b.” Soncino
Commentary, Yoma 39a. RaSHI also states that the above events were signs that
the Shechina, the Holy Spirit, was leaving the Temple.
The fourth sign was that the door of the Holy Place opening of its own accord; Josephus in Wars, 6:5:3 records a similar omen when the massive brass eastern gate of the Temple’s inner court, which was so heavy it needed twenty men to move it each evening, and though securely locked by iron bolts, opened by itself in the middle of the night, at the sixth hour. The Temple guards ran and reported the matter to the Captain, and he came up and by strenuous efforts managed to close it. Something very similar is recorded in three of the Gospels; looking at the record of Luke, Luke 23:44-46 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.
If we put
these accounts together, we find they testify to the departure of the Holy
Spirit from the Temple, as recorded in Ezekiel. Luke has the departure from the
Holy of Holies, the Talmud the departure from the Holy Place (the Hekal), and
Josephus the departure from the Eastern Gate.
Ezekiel 9:3 “Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim [in the Holy of Holies], where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple.” Ezekiel 10:18 “Then the glory of the LORD departed from over the threshold of the temple” Ezekiel 10:19 “They stopped at the entrance to the east gate of the LORD's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.” Ezekiel 11:23 The glory of the LORD went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. Hebrews 8:13 “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”
[Jesus will in fact re-trace these steps when he returns to the Temple, descending firstly upon the Mt of Olives, then entering through the Eastern gate; Psalm 24:7-10 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty-- he is the King of glory. Selah”]
Thank you
again for what you shared,
God
bless,
Colin
