Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations until the Gentile Times are Fulfilled. — Luke 21:24

by Fisherman 63 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Slidin Fast

  Ozziepost, I'm late for this party but my first thought was:

  Here we go again !
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  peacefulpete

  The writers of Daniel, Baruch, Enoch, Revelation etc. and the Gospels naturally had a narrow focus on recent events. Their world was unraveling, and they desired and anticipated divine intervention. Typological interpretation was the rage. Parallels were perceived and pronounced. A review of the works from the late 2nd temple period reveals the strenuous effort to understand their world by looking at the past. Even a past that never really was.
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  Jeffro

  Vidqun:

  Fisherman, I prefer Jesus' interpretation.

  *The interpretation later attributed to Jesus.

  Jesus warned: When one catches sight of the disgusting thing that causes desolation, “standing in a holy place,” “standing where it ought not,” then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains

  This interpretation, attributed to Jesus after Jerusalem’s destruction, is called an analogy.
  
  
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  Fisherman

  Fisherman, I prefer Jesus' interpretation.

  Vidqun, I prefer Jesus’ interpretation, obviously the one I posted. But everyone can have their view.
  
  
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  ozziepost

  
  

  
  

  Slidin Fastan hour ago

  Ozziepost, I'm late for this party but my first thought was:

  😉

  
  
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  peacefulpete

  Jeffro...I 'll be brief in commenting on your 3.5 year span of Rev referring to 66-70. The writer of Rev was actively sourcing OT for parallels and symbols. The events under Antiochus (the blasphemer who called himself a god) became the archetype for a host of antichrist figures. Revelation has Rome in focus and its foremost blasphemer Nero.

  Rev 13 uses the Daniel motif (1260 days , 42 months 3.5 year) in reference to the time Nero Redivivus will be limited to.

  In (11:2) it's used as emphasizing the limits of the time of domination of the 'Holy city' and persecution of Christians until their death.

  In (12:6) it is used in a different context, the woman being taken care of for 1260 days. Again, here it has become a placeholder metaphor for a period of waiting.

  In other words, it has become thoroughly detached from any temporal meaning but rather has become a metaphor for limited time.
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  Anony Mous

  Jerusalem had kings after Zedekiah. Currently they even have a Jewish “king”.
  So shouldn’t this prophesy be fulfilled by now, regardless of the calculation that is used?
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  peacefulpete

  
  

  As I said months earlier : The writers of Daniel, Baruch, Enoch, Revelation etc. and the Gospels naturally had a narrow focus on recent events. Their world was unraveling, and they desired and anticipated divine intervention. Typological interpretation was the rage. To repeat that same point The writer of the Psalms of Solomon, writing just after the Roman response to the Hasmonean rebellion, similarly utilized the idea of divine retribution for religious apostasy via the agency of a foreign power, in this case Pompey in 63BCE. However in time this foreign agent becomes prideful and is eventually to be destroyed by God and the pure Jews are elevated.

  
  

  Concerning Jerusalem.

  2:1

  When the sinner became proud, he struck down fortified walls with a battering-ram, and you did not prevent him.

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  Foreign nations went up to your altar; in pride they trampled it with their sandals,

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  because the sons of Jerusalem had defiled the sanctuary of the Lord, had profaned the gifts of God with acts of lawlessness.

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  Because of these things he said, "Cast them

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  far from me; I take no pleasure in them."

  5

  The beauty of her glory was despised before God; it was completely dishonored.

  6

  The sons and daughters were in harsh captivity, their neck in a seal, with a mark among the nations.

  7

  According to their sins he dealt with them, for he abandoned them into the hands of those who prevail.

  8

  He

  c

  turned away his face from pitying them, young and old and their children once again.

  
  

  17:21

  See, O Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, at the time which you chose, O God, to rule over Israel your servant.

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  And gird him with strength to shatter in pieces unrighteous rulers, to purify Jerusalem from nations that trample her down in destruction

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  in wisdom of righteousness, to drive out sinners from the inheritance, to smash the arrogance of the sinner like a potter's vessel,

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  to shatter all their substance with an iron rod, to destroy the lawless nations by the word of his mouth,

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  that, by his threat, nations flee from his presence, and to reprove sinners with the thought of their hearts.

  26

  And he shall gather a holy people whom he shall lead in righteousness.
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  peacefulpete

  While the "trampling" metaphor likely started with the book of Daniel (8:13), when Antiochus was the foreign enemy in focus and the Hasmoneans were the heroes that the author imagined would usher in the restoration of a golden age, now ironically the Hasmoneans are seen as apostate and worthy of destruction by the Romans. Pompey, the Roman general who lead this destruction in 63BCE) is soon felt to be too boastful, becomes due for punishment. The author of Ps of Solomon interprets his death in Egypt as a divine sign that the golden age of the Messiah is at hand.

  2:26 And I did not wait long until God showed me his insolence, pierced, on the mountains of Egypt, more than the least despised on land and sea.

  27

  His body, carried about on the waves in great insolence, and there was no one to bury, for he had rejected him in dishonor.

  28

  He did not consider that he was a human, nor did he consider the hereafter.

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  He said, "I will be lord of earth and sea, and he did not recognize that God is great, mighty in his great strength

  Fast forward another 100 years or so and once again a late redactor of the Gospel known as Mark utilized the same idiom of nations trampling Jerusalem as a sign of a golden age for the pure. (Luke 21:24).

  Interestingly this is combined with the idea of a delay in time as earlier discussed. This redactor (Luke) now lived decades after the book of Mark was written and disappointment was becoming a problem. He wove the trampling idiom with the concept of an intervening period that his readers were then experiencing.
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  peacefulpete

  Tobit 14:5

  But God will again have mercy on them and bring them back to the land of Israel. They will build the house again, but it will not be like the first until the era when the appointed times will be completed.* Afterward all of them will return from their captivity, and they will rebuild Jerusalem with due honor. In it the house of God will also be rebuilt, just as the prophets of Israel said of it.

  Tobit was written in the 2nd century BCE, but, like Daniel, was cast in a setting centuries before. The author describes the destruction by Babylonians and return to Jerusalem as if they were prophecy. With the benefit of hindsight he was aware that the Temple was not fully rebuilt for decades after the return. He uses an expression "until appointed times are completed (fulfilled)" to suggest the delay was by God's providence.

  The author of Luke saw a parallel with his time of apparent delay and apparently drew inspiration from this text and the repeated notion of appointed times from Daniel. So now we have a period of delay from the destruction of Jerusalem till the return of Jesus to usher in a golden age being inserted into the text of Mark.

  Luke 21:24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.