The Signs Given to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Before Their Destruction

A whole year before the coming of Vespasian to [reconstructed: Jerusalem] the [reconstructed: City], right over it, was seen a blazing star like a sword, which the common people did interpret to be a token of their deliverance out of bondage, into which they were brought by the Romans.

Before the war began, at the feast of unleavened bread, which was then the eighth day of April, there was suddenly seen at nine o'clock at night, for the space of half an hour, such a great light about the altar and the Temple, that it seemed to be midday.

At the same feast, a cow being brought to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the church.

The east gate of the Temple, being of brass and shut every night, but not without the strength of twenty men, being locked and barred with various locks and bars, was seen at five o'clock at night, and (as Egesippus testifies) various nights to open itself without the hand of men. This thing was thought of the most part to be a token of good luck, and that the gates of their enemies should open to them of their own accord. But some that were of the wiser sort said it was a token that the strength of the Temple should be dissolved without the hand of man, that it might be despoiled by their enemies and destroyed.

A few days after their solemn feasts, there appeared in the clouds before sun setting a vision of chariots and hosts of armed men, with which all the cities of Judea and the country thereabout were invaded and overrun.

At the feast called Pentecost, the priests entering in the night into the inner Temple, according to their manner to do their divine service, first they perceived a noise or rustling, and after that they heard a voice saying often: Let us depart from here, let us depart from here.

One called Jesus, the son of Anani, a base man and of low degree, four years before the war, the city being in great wealth and quietness, coming to the celebration of one of their solemn feasts, called the feast of tabernacles, went up into the Temple, and suddenly cried out with a loud voice, saying: A voice from the East, a voice from the West; a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against newly married men and newly married women, a voice against all this people. Crying thus day and night, he went through all the streets of the city. Certain of the chief men, being alarmed and fearing that it was a token of misfortune, took the man and whipped him. But while he was beaten, he cried still as before, and being still beaten, until one might see his bare bones, he never desired them to let him go, nor did he shed any tears for the matter, but cried still at every stroke: Woe, woe to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And at length dismissed, as a man out of his wits, he cried still as before, especially on the solemn feast days, until the siege of the city, at which time, entering upon the wall and crying woe, woe to the city, the temple, and the people, he cried at last woe to myself, and was cast down dead with a stone hurled at him by the enemies out of one of their engines. They were nothing moved with these signs, but thinking they should have victory over their enemies, resisted them, until both they and their city was destroyed, according to the words of our Savior (Luke 19:43).