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The Significance of the Year A.D. 30 89

First, note what the Jerusalem Talmud has to say Chamber of Hewn Stones in the Temple] and
on this matter. [The following translation is that sat in the Trading Station [also in the Temple,
of Jacob Neusner from his book The but east of its former location]” (Shabbath
Yerushalmi, pages 156, 157.] 15a the bold letters and words in brackets are
mine).
“Forty Years before the destruction of the Tem-
ple the western light went out, the crimson The move of the official Sanhedrin from the
thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Chamber of Hewn Stones (near the Altar of
Lord always came up in the left hand. They Burnt Offering in the Temple) could be ac-
would close the gates of the Temple by night and counted for by the falling stone-work that
get up in the morning and find them wide open. was over the entrance to the Hekel [the Holy
Said Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai to the Tem- Place] which supported the curtain that tore
ple, ‘O Temple, why do you frighten us? We in two at the time of the crucifixion. Some-
know that you will end up destroyed. For it has thing must have happened to the vaulted
been said ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the structure called the Chamber of Hewn Stones
fire may devour your cedars’ (Zechariah 11:1)’” that rendered it unfit for the Sanhedrin to en-
(Sotah 6:3 the bold letters are mine). ter from A.D. 30 onward. The earthquake at
the crucifixion could well have caused the
Let us now look at what the Babylonian Talmud damage. No other explanation that is discern-
has to say (quoted from the Soncino Version). ible in the historical records makes sense.
This would mean that the last trial ever held
“Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years in that prestigious and beautiful building on
before the destruction of the Temple the lot [’for the Temple mount was that of Jesus.
the Lord’] did not come up in the right hand; nor
did the crimson-coloured strap become white; And with that event which occurred exactly
nor did the western most light shine; and the forty years before the destruction of Jerusa-
doors of the Hekel would open by themselves, lem and the Temple, there began a series of
until Yohanan ben Zakkai rebuked them, saying: important signs that the Temple and its ritual-
Hekel, Hekel, why wilt thou be the alarmer thy- istic system were destined to come to an end.
self? I know about thee that thou wilt be de- The four signs mentioned above were inter-
stroyed, for Zechariah ben Ido has already preted by Yohanan ben Zakkai as being
prophesied concerning thee: Open thy doors, O warnings that the Temple was to be de-
Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars” stroyed. This witness of Yohanan is signifi-
(Yoma 39b the bold letters are mine and italics cant because he lived both before and after
are part of the Soncino text). the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
Indeed, he was the most important person in
The four signs are precisely the same in both the Jewish hierarchy during the period after
Talmuds, and both state that the signs began in the destruction in A.D. 70. He was no less
the year A.D. 30 (which is the very year in which than the head of the new seat of Jewish gov-
Christ died on the tree of crucifixion). There is ernment which was established after A.D. 70
another important historical event which hap- at Jabneh (Jamnia) about thirty miles west of
pened to the Jewish nation in that same year. Jerusalem. His witness and interpretation is
paramount to justify the reliability of the oc-
“Forty years before the destruction of Jerusa- currence of these signs.
lem, the Sanhedrin was banished [from the

The Berean Voice November-December 2002