Quotes about Temple Destruction

Cassius Dio

Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers [of Romans] who tried to crowd through the opening and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans. Nevertheless, the soldiers, because of their superstition, did not immediately rush in but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their way inside. Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the Temple and fall in its defense.” The populace was stationed below in the court and the elders on the steps and the priests in the Sanctuary itself. And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were not conquered until part of the Temple was set on fire. Then they met their death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives and still others leaping into the flames. And it seemed to everybody and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it was victory and salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the Temple. While the holy house (The Temple) was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age…but children and old men…and priests, were all slain in the same manner….The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those who were slain…one would have thought the whole city would have been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything greater and more terrible than this noise.

Describing the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD.

Meir Soloveichik

To the Christian Church, the destruction of the Temple served as an ultimate sign that the Jews were no longer God's chosen people, divine favor having now been transferred to a newer and better Israel.

Ben Katchor

I think Jewish history did away with a priesthood when the Temple was destroyed, and it became, supposedly, a religion of scholars. A rabbi is just a scholar.

Jonathan Sacks

After the destructionofthe Second Temple Jewslived by an ancient and fundamental insight, that God does not live in buildings but in the human heart.

Philip II of Macedon

Was is being declared against the Persians on behalf of the Greeks, to punish the barbarians for their lawless treatment of the old Greek temples.

From earliest times, leaders have justified war using religion as the lever to convince the people to fight and pay the other costs of a war. The leaders may have been motivated by hegemony, land, trade and the like but almost always tried to make the war a moral crusade.

Philip James Bailey

The temples perish, but the God still lives.

Meir Soloveichik

When the Temple was destroyed, the Jewish people faced a crisis unlike any other in its history. For centuries, the sacrificial system had served as the primary medium of atonement before the Almighty.

Ambrose Bierce

K, n. A consonant; originally precisely that of our H, but altered to its present shape to commemorate the destruction of [one of two lofty columns in] the great temple of Jarute.

Aurangzeb

The houses of this country (Maharashtra) are exceedingly strong and built solely of stone and iron. The hatchet-men of the Govt. in the course of my marching do not get sufficient strength and power (i.e. time) TO DESTROY AND RAZE THE TEMPLES OF THE INFIDELS that meet the eye on the way. You should appoint an orthodox inspector (darogha) who may afterwards DESTROY THEM AT LEISURE AND DIG UP THEIR FOUNDATIONS

Subramanian Swamy

There is a history which has to be reversed, and that is the demolition of our temples.

Helen Keller

No loss by flood and lightning, no destruction of cities and temples by the hostile forces of nature, has deprived man of so many noble lives and impulses as those which his intolerance has destroyed.

Ahmad Nawfal

Armageddon is a word in English, and it has become … of global proportions. They have inflated it to the point that it has become an actual belief. There are now dozens of millions of pro-Zionist Americans who believe that the temple should be founded on the ruins of Al-Aqsa, in order to hasten the coming of the Messiah –-- as if Allah accelerates his timetable on the basis of human deeds. Thus, they want to hasten the coming of the Messiah by accelerating the destruction of Al-Aqsa and the building of the temple on its ruins.

This is another example of a major weakness of many fundamentalist Islamic scholars, clerics and experts. They have studied their subject extensively but rarely have studied other theologies, history, archeology or many other subjects which Western clerics and religious experts generally do. Nawfal does not seem to recognize the role of the New Testament Book of Revelations or the Mormon Prophecies having to do with the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple. It is true that there are many Christians who believe in the prophesy that the Jews will rebuild the Temple of Solomon before the second coming of the Messiah, but most do not; and the Jews do not at all. As a matter of fact the Israeli Jewish authorities of Israel have forbidden any Jews to even consider the rebuilding of the Temple. Nor does he recognize that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the ruins of the Jewish Temple of Solomon. Nawfal believes (see {588663}) that Solomon and King David were ancestors of the Arabs.

Temple Destruction Quotes