“When, then, we see what was of old foretold for the nations fulfilled in our day, and when the lamentation and wailing that was predicted for the Jews, and the burning of the Temple and its utter desolation, can also be seen even now to have occurred according to the prediction, surely we must also agree that the King who was prophesied, the Christ of God, has come, since the signs of His coming have been shewn in each instance I have treated to have been clearly fulfilled.” Eusebius Demonstratio Evangelica – Book VIII.
“And we recognize that some of the blessings and curses have come, those written in the Book of Moses; therefore this is the End of Days” Dead Sea Scrolls 4QMMT (4Q397-399).
100: The Odes of Solomon “Because He is my Sun and His rays have lifted me up and His light hath dispelled all darkness from my face. In Him I HAVE acquired eyes and HAVE SEEN His HOLY DAY: The way of error I have left, and have walked towards Him and have received salvation from Him, without grudging. I HAVE put on INCORRUPTION through His name: and have put off corruption by His grace. DEATH HAS BEEN DESTROYED before my face: and Sheol bath been abolished by my word”.
150: Melito – Homily of the Pascha “Who will contend against me? Let him stand before me. It is I who delivered the condemned. It is I who gave life to the dead. It is I who RAISED UP THE BURIED. Who will argue with me? It is I, says Christ, who DESTROYED DEATH. It is I who triumphed over the enemy, and having trod down Hades, and bound the Strong Man, and HAVE SNATCHED UP MANKIND TO THE HEIGHTS OF HEAVEN.”
175: Irenaeus – Against Heresies “the temple constructed of stones was indeed then rebuilt (for as yet that law was observed which had been made upon tables of stone), yet no new covenant was given, but they used the Mosaic law until the coming of the Lord; but from the Lord’s advent, the new covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ; and He shall rebuke many people; and they shall break down their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks, and they shall no longer learn to fight.”
500: Andreas “And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal, and behold there was a great earthquake, and the sun became as black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig-tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by the wind.” [Apocalypse 6:12-13] “There are not wanting those who apply this passage to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.”
Tertullian ~200 AD “The Founder of Western Theology”
CHAP. VIII.– OF JERUSALEM’S DESTRUCTION: “Accordingly the times must be inquired into of the predicted and future nativity of the Christ, and of His passion, and of the extermination of the city of Jerusalem, that is, its devastation. For Daniel says, that “both the Holy City and the Holy Place are exterminated together with the coming Leader, and that the pinnacle is destroyed unto ruin” And so the times of the coming Christ, the Leader,
must be inquired into, which we shall trace in Daniel; and, after computing them, SHALL PROVE HIM TO HAVE COME, even on the ground of the TIMES PRESCRIBED, and of competent signs and operations of His. Which matters we prove, again, on the ground of the consequences which were ever announced as to follow HIS ADVENT; in order that we may BELIEVE ALL TO HAVE BEEN as well FULFILLED AS FORESEEN.
Athanasius 345 AD “It is, in fact, a sign and notable PROOF of the COMING OF THE WORD that Jerusalem no longer stands.”
Chrysostom 380 AD “For I will ask them, Did He send the prophets and wise men? Did they slay them in their synagogue? Was their house left desolate? Did ALL the VENGEANCE COME UPON THAT GENERATION? It is QUITE PLAIN THAT IT WAS SO, and NO MAN NO MAN GAINSAYS IT.” i
“Do you see that His discourse is addressed to the Jews, and that He is speaking of the ills that should overtake them?…And let not any man suppose this to have been spoken hyperbolically; but let him study the writings of
Josephus, and LEARN THE TRUTH of the sayings.” Commentary on Matthew 24:21
“Remembering this saving commandment and all those things which CAME TO PASS for us: the cross, the grave, the resurrection on the third day, the ascension into heaven, the sitting down at the right hand, THE SECOND AND GLORIOUS COMING AGAIN.” – St Chrysostom’s Divine Liturgy
Attend, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, from thy holy dwelling place and from the glorious throne of thy kingdom, and come to sanctify us, O thou that sits with the Father above, and that are invisibly PRESENT HERE WITH US. – St Chrysostom’s Divine Liturgy
You brought us forth from non-existence into being, and RAISED US UP AGAIN when we had fallen, and left nothing undone until you had brought us to heaven and bestowed upon us your future kingdom.” Prayer
of the Anaphora – Eucharistic Prayer
Eusebius 314 AD “The Father of Church History” “And ALL THIS PROPHECY of what would result from their insolence against the Christ has been CLEARLY PROVED TO HAVE TAKEN PLACE … afterwards from
that day to this that God turned their feasts into mourning, despoiled them of their famous Mother-City, and destroyed the holy Temple therein when Titus and Vespasian were Emperors of Rome, so that they could no longer go up to keep their feasts and sacred meetings… in return for their rejection of the Word of God; since with one voice they refused Him, so He refuses them.” – Demonstratio Evangelica, BOOK X
“When we see WHAT WAS of old FORETOLD for the nations FULFILLED in our own day, and when the lamentation and wailing that was predicted for the Jews, and the burning of the Temple and its utter desolation, can also be seen even now to HAVE OCCURRED ACCORDING TO PREDICTION, surely we must also agree that the King who was prophesied, the Christ of God, HAS COME, since THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING have been shown in each instance I have treated to HAVE BEEN CLEARLY FULFILLED.” Demonstratio Evangelica (Proof of the Gospel); BOOK VIII
“If any one compares the words of our Saviour with the other accounts of the historian (Josephus) concerning the whole war, how can one fail to wonder, and to admit that the foreknowledge and the prophecy of our Saviour were truly divine and marvelously strange.” Book III, Ch. VII
“And the people of the governor that cometh will destroy the city and the holy place.” Meaning that the city and the Holy Place arc not only to be ruined by the leader to come, whom I have identified in my interpretation,
but also by his people. And you would not be far wrong in saying, too, that the Roman general and his army arc meant by the words before us, where I think the camps of the Roman rulers are meant, who governed the nation from that time, and who destroyed the city of Jerusalem itself, and its ancient venerable Temple. For they were cut off by them as by a flood, and were at once involved in destruction until the war was concluded, SO THAT THE
PROPHECY WAS FULFILLED … You will find an accurate account of it in the history of Josephus.” – Demonstratio Evangelica “Proof of the Gospel”, BOOK VIII
Hippolytus of Rome ~200 AD
Come, then, O blessed Isaiah; arise, tell us clearly what did you prophesy with respect to the mighty Babylon? For thou didst speak also of Jerusalem, and YOUR WORD IS ACCOMPLISHED. For you spoke boldly and openly: “Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate as overthrown by many strangers. The daughter ofZion shall be left as a cottage in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.”
What then? HAVE NOT THESE THINGS COME TO PASS? ARE NOT THE THINGS ANNOUNCED BY YOU FULFILLED? Is not their country, Judea, desolate? Is not the holy place burned with fire? Are not
their walls cast down? Are not their cities destroyed? Their land, do not strangers devour it? Do not the Romans rule the country? And …Thou art dead in the world, but YOU LIVE IN CHRIST.” (resurrection!) – Fragments
of Dogmatic and Historical Works
Irenaeus ~174 AD Early Church Father
CHAP. IV.– THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM WAS PUT IN EXECUTION BY THE MOST WISE COUNSEL OF GOD. 1. Further, also, concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they venture to assert that, if it had been “the City of the Great King,” it would not have been deserted. This is just as if any one should say, that if straw were a creation of God, it would never part company with the wheat;…so also [was it with] Jerusalem, which had in herself borne the yoke of bondage under which man was reduced, who in former times was not subject to God when death was reigning … 2. Since, then, THE LAW originated with Moses, it TERMINATED WITH JOHN as a necessary consequence. Christ had come to FULFILL it: wherefore “the law and the prophets were” with them “until John. “And therefore Jerusalem, taking its commencement from David, and fulfilling its own times, must have an End of legislation when the New Covenant was revealed.”
Origen ~ 100’s “I challenge anyone to prove my statement untrue if I say that the entire Jewish nation was destroyed less than one whole generation later on account of these sufferings which they inflicted on Jesus. For it was, I believe, forty-two years from the time when they crucified Jesus to the destruction of Jerusalem.” Contra Celsum, 198-199
“Therefore he, also, having separated from her [Old Covenant Israel], married, so to speak, another [New Covenant Israel], having given into the hands of the former the bill of divorcement; wherefore they can no longer do the things enjoined on them by the law, because of the bill of divorcement. And a sign that she has received the bill of divorcement is this, that Jerusalem was destroyed along with what they called the sanctuary of the things in it which were believed to be holy, and with the altar of burnt offerings, and all the worship associated with it…Jerusalem was compassed with armies, and its desolation was near, and their house was taken away from it… And, about the same time, I think, the husband wrote out a bill of divorcement to his former wife, and gave it into her hands, and sent her away from his own house…ORIGEN’S COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW, Book 2., sec. 19