Hi Laodicea.
If Jesus was born in 1 AD, could He have been about 30, as Luke says, when He was baptized?
What I recall is that Cestius surrounded Jerusalem in 66 AD rather than in 67 AD. That's what a number of websites say. And they also say that Cestius died by the spring of 67.
Hello Bob,
Say Jesus was born in 3 BC. By 28 AD, he would be 30 and baptized. (One had to be at least 30 to hold certain positions according to Moses' Law- ie priest-Numbers 4:3;23;30;35;39;&47). By 31 AD he would have been crucified and then resurrected. By 70 AD those born at the same time that he was would have been 72. So roughly, this is still a generation (...and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years psalm 90:10 This is life expectancy as written by Moses)
Here is an internet quote:
"The procurator whose actions ultimately triggered an armed rebellion was Gessius Florus. He released robbers from prison for a price, then allowed them to continue their thefts for a share of the booty. The Jews complained to Cestius Gallus, the legate of Syria and Florus' immediate superior. Gallus could not or would not control Florus. The procurator next took 17 talents from the treasury of the Temple of Jerusalem. When the people protested, he marched his troops into the city and turned them loose to plunder and kill.
The Jewish people disagreed over what they should do. The priestly Sadducees and other leaders wanted to coexist with the occupiers and hope for a gentler successor to Florus. Nationalistic groups such as the Zealots were ready to fight. They had already been waging a guerrilla war of independence for years. One Zealot faction, known as the Sicarii, or knife-wielders, were urban terrorists who murdered people in the streets whom they viewed as Roman collaborators.
The captain of the Temple committed the first act of rebellion in July of 66 ad, when he stopped the twice daily offering of a bull and two lambs on behalf of the emperor and the Roman people. That slap in the Roman face alarmed Jerusalem's leading citizens, who requested troops from both Florus and Agrippa II, grandson of Herod the Great and king of the region north of Galilee known as Chalcis. Agrippa had no political authority in Jerusalem, but he maintained a palace there for himself and his sister Berenice. He was also in charge of the Temple.
In September, Agrippa sent 2,000 horsemen. They entered the Upper City and fought a battle of mutual slaughter against Zealots led by Eleazar. After seven days of bloody strife, Sicarii reinforcements helped the Zealots drive Agrippa's men from the city. At about the same time, the Sicarii leader Menahem and his men took Masada and returned to Jerusalem with a veritable arsenal of weapons. Their blood up, the victors in Jerusalem burned the house of the high priest and the palace of Agrippa and Berenice. They stormed the fortress Antonia, adjacent to the northwest corner of the Temple, and killed its Roman cohort. They laid siege to Herod's palace, then massacred all but the leader of its Roman garrison after promising a safe exit. Those murders on the Sabbath put the entire city in fear of both human and divine reprisal.
During that fighting, a rift developed between the Sicarii and the other zealots. The larger zealot faction drove the Sicarii out and killed Menahem, but the war between the two factions was far from over.
Cestius Gallus marched from Antioch, the Syrian capital, with an army of 18,000, destroying some towns in Galilee en route and receiving assurances of loyalty from others. Arriving at Jerusalem in early October, he entered the city through the unfinished third wall, which Agrippa I had begun building years before around the northern half of the city.
When the insurgents retreated to the Temple, Gallus' legionaries undermined the Temple wall and prepared to burn the Temple gate. The legate seemed close to crushing the rebellion when, for some reason, he ordered his forces to withdraw from the city. Gallus may have felt that he could not prevail against such courageous defenders. Instead of staying put, the Jews chased the retreating army, inflicting heavy damage as they went. In the northern suburb of Bezetha, the Jews descended on the column in force, killing 6,000 Romans and forcing Gallus to abandon his baggage and siege train. The rout left the rebels stocked with captured siege engines and swollen with confidence of future victories.
Many prominent Jews left Jerusalem to escape the inevitable Roman retaliation, but the leaders who remained there prepared to defend their country. They completed the third wall of the city and appointed men to mobilize resistance in different regions. To Galilee they sent a priest named Joseph ben Mattathias. Posterity would know him as Flavius Josephus, the principal historian of the Jewish War."
ref:
http://www.historynet.com/first-jewish-roman-war.htmReferring to when the Jews fled Jerusalem- OK some say 66 AD. Even if they began to leave in the fall of 66 AD, it may have still been between 66 and 67 AD before all had fled. Go figure.
-Laodicea