In the last post, we looked at Jesus’ ministry in its historical context. Other second-Temple Jews were expecting God’s kingdom to be accompanied by the destruction of the gentiles, and perhaps purification of the Temple cult. Instead, Jesus preached that Israel had failed her vocation as a light to the gentiles, and must learn to make peace with her enemies. This was the only way that led to life, and the path that many in Israel were following would lead to “destruction” (Matt. 7:13-14). But what was the “destruction” that Jesus said would come on them if they failed to change their ways?
“Unless you repent, you all will likewise perish”
The nature of this destruction is hinted at in one of Jesus’ sayings recorded in the gospel of Luke (13:1-5). Here, he speaks to some people who bring news of a monstrous act at the hands of the Roman governor:
At that time, some people there were telling him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you! Unless you repent, you all will likewise perish. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you! Unless you repent, you all will likewise perish.”
Jesus says that the people of Israel, unless they repent, will face the same destruction as those who were recently killed in Galilee and Jerusalem — killed by Roman leaders, crushed by falling buildings. The “repentance” and “destruction” that he speaks of here aren’t individual acts, as the verbs (metanoēte and apoleisthe) are both plural; unless Israel collectively changes her ways, she will face this destruction.
In the Hebrew prophets, the collective “repentance” or “returning” of Israel was associated with her return from exile. [1] The same is true of the “forgiveness of sins,” which was a collective act associated with the end of exile. [2] When Peter said that Jesus was exalted “to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Ac. 5:31), this is precisely what the people listening would have been thinking of. When Jesus said that people would “perish” if they failed to “repent,” he was saying that it was time for Israel to change her ways to receive her promised restoration; those who failed to do so wouldn’t be restored with God’s people.
This saying comes toward the end of a long discourse about judgment. [3] Jesus says “this generation” will be condemned “at the judgment” by the queen of the South and the people of Nineveh (11:29-32). He condemns the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, and says that “this generation” will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets (11:37-52). They should fear the one who can cast them into Gehenna, if they deny him or blaspheme the holy spirit (12:4-10). They shouldn’t worry about land or any other earthly possessions — even though the Land was a central part of first-century belief about God’s kingdom! — but should trust that God will take care of everything (12:13-34).
They should stay ready for the ‘coming of the son of man’ (12:35-48). Hypocrites fail to recognize the signs of the time; they must reconcile with their accusers, lest they be thrown into prison (12:54-59). If they don’t change their ways, they will be destroyed by Roman governors and falling buildings (13:1-5). If their fig tree fails to bear fruit this year, it will be cut down (13:6-9). If they desire to be “first,” and fail to recognize that many gentiles will enter God’s kingdom, they will be “last” (13:22-30). Finally, Jesus tells them outright: if Jerusalem fails to recognize that he is “the one who comes in the name of the Lord,” the city and its Temple will be destroyed (13:33-35).
Another Lukan passage (19:41-44) also gives details about this destruction:
Now as he drew near and saw the city [of Jerusalem], he wept over it, saying, “If only you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come on you when your enemies cast up ramparts around you, and surround you and close you in on every side. They will demolish you, and your children within you, and will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Once again, we see that Jesus believed Jerusalem would be destroyed by its enemies because they failed to know “the things that make for peace.” Because many of the people of Israel didn’t listen to him — they focused on earthly things (Lk. 12:13-34), failed to reconcile with their gentile accusers (12:57-59), failed to realize that many gentiles would enter God’s kingdom (13:6-9, 22-30), and failed to recognize him as the Messiah (13:34-35) — their beloved city would fall.
But this judgment wouldn’t only affect Jerusalem. Jesus told his disciples that any city which rejected them, and failed to listen to his message, would be worse off even than the land of Sodom “on the day of judgment” (Matt. 10:14-15/Lk. 10:10-12). This was true of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, which “because they did not repent” would be worse off than Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom (Matt. 11:20-24). [4] We shouldn’t imagine that Jesus is talking about a post-mortem ‘day of judgment’ to decide which people go to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell.’ He has in mind a very concrete, historical danger, which will come upon cities rather than individuals — Jerusalem and any other city that fails to heed his message of peace.
The end of the Temple cult
The synoptic gospels record several sayings of Jesus about the destruction of the Temple (Mk. 13:1-2/Matt. 24:1-2/Lk. 21:5-6; Mk. 14:58/Matt. 26:61). These sayings are often rejected as ahistorical by scholars, thought to have been retroactively placed in Jesus’ mouth after the actual destruction of the Temple in AD 70. However, as we saw earlier, it wasn’t unusual for second-Temple Jews to believe that the Temple cult had to be overthrown and cleansed (CD 5.6-7; 7.9-21; 19.33-20.13; 1 Enoch 89:65-77). Jesus just took this one step further, since he believed that forgiveness of sins and righteousness were available outside of the Temple cult altogether (Mk. 2:3-12/Matt. 9:2-8/Lk. 5:18-26; Mk. 12:28-34).
One of Jesus’ actions which is widely accepted by scholars as historical is the cleansing of the Temple when he entered Jerusalem (Mk. 11:15-18/Matt. 21:12-15/Lk. 19:45-47). Let’s look at this event:
When they entered Jerusalem, he came into the Temple and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple. He began teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers’!” (Mk. 11:15-17)
There are a few details here that may be lost on modern readers. First, by not allowing anyone to carry anything unclean through the Temple, Jesus was fulfilling a prophetic condition for the coming of God’s kingdom (according to Zech. 14:9, 21). [5] Second, the term “robbers” (lestai), in first-century Judaism, referred not to swindlers but to nationalistic revolutionaries like the Zealots (as can be seen throughout the writings of Josephus). These nationalists exclude the gentiles from worshipping in the Temple, thus preventing it from becoming “a house of prayer for all nations” as God desires (Isa. 56:6-7). Third, when Jeremiah referred to the Temple as “a den of robbers,” he wasn’t saying that it merely needed to be cleansed, but that it had to be destroyed (Jer. 7:11-14).
Thus, Jesus’ critique of the Temple is similar to his critique of the rest of Israel — they’ve excluded the gentiles from the promises, thus failing their vocation to be the light of the world. For this reason, the whole Temple cult is fit to be destroyed again, just as it was in Jeremiah’s day. There’s no reason why the historical Jesus couldn’t have predicted the destruction of the Temple, since it fits very well with the rest of his ministry and his other judgment warnings.
Cast into the Valley of Hinnom
Several times in his ministry, Jesus is said to have warned his audience about being “cast into Gehenna” (Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 10:28/Lk. 12:4-5; Mk. 9:43-48/Matt. 18:8-9; 23:33). “Gehenna” is typically translated as “hell,” as though Jesus were warning about something that might happen to someone after death. This ignores the contextual implications of his warnings.
“Gehenna” technically refers to a physical location, the Valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where child sacrifices took place in ancient times (Josh. 15:8; 18:16; 2 Kgs. 23:10; 2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Neh. 11:30; Jer. 32:35). Jeremiah associated this valley with the siege of Jerusalem, saying that Jerusalem would become as defiled as the valley (Jer. 7:30-34; 19:2-15). Jesus made the same association, when he said that “the judgment of Gehenna” would come upon “this generation,” and Jerusalem and its Temple would be desolated (Matt. 23:33-38).
Gehenna was associated with post-mortem punishment in later texts (4 Ezra 7.26-36; Sybilline Oracles 4.176-191), and perhaps some pre-70 texts as well (1 Enoch 27:1-2; 53:1-6). However, prior to AD 70, the name “Gehenna” wasn’t used to denote the valley of judgment, and it’s unclear how widespread this tradition was. It’s much more likely that Jesus intended to refer to the more deeply-rooted tradition, from Jeremiah, in which Gehenna was associated with the siege and fall of Jerusalem — especially since he appears to have made this connection himself (Matt. 23:33-38).
Jesus also used an Isaianic text about undying worms and unquenched fire (Isa. 66:24) to talk about the judgment of Gehenna (Mk. 9:43-48; cf. Matt. 3:12; 18:8-9; 25:41). Elsewhere in the Hebrew prophets, unquenched fire was used not to denote individual post-mortem punishment, but the corporate judgment of nations (Jer. 4:4; 7:20; 17:27; 21:10-12; Ezek. 20:47-48; Amos 5:5-6); this association continued into the second-Temple period (Jud. 16:17; but cf. Sir. 7:17 Gk). Therefore, Jesus wasn’t referring to a punishment of ‘hell’ for individuals, but the corporate punishment of Israel if she failed to heed his warnings. Israel would be destroyed “body and soul” in Gehenna, as Isaiah had predicted long ago for Assyria (Matt. 10:28/Lk. 12:4-5; cf. Isa. 10:18; 30:31-33).
In summary, Jesus’ judgment warnings in the synoptic gospels aren’t about what happens to people after they die (whether they go to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’), nor are they about a far-off future judgment (at the Second Coming or afterward). His warnings had a concrete, historical importance for first-century Israel. Jesus was bringing the true kingdom of God, and if Israel failed to change her ways and fulfill her vocation as the light of the world, she would die at the hands of her enemies. In the next post, we’ll see how Jesus was vindicated in his predictions.
Part 3 (next week): son of man’s vindication
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[1] Deut. 30:2, 8; Isa. 44:22; 45:22; 46:8; 55:7; Jer. 3:10, 12, 14, 22; 4:1; 15:19; 24:7; Ezek. 14:6; 18:30, 32; Hos. 3:5; 14:1-2; Joel 2:12-13; cf. Bar. 2:32-34; Tob. 13:5-6; Ps. Sol. 18:4-7; Jub. 1:14-22; 23:26; Philo, Praem. 162-172.
[2] Isa. 40:1-2; 43:25-44:2; 53:11-54:10; Jer. 31:31-34; 33:4-11; Lam. 4:22; Ezek. 36:24-26, 33; 37:21-23; Dan. 9:16-19; Ez. 9:6-15; Neh. 9:6-37; cf. Bar. 1:15-3:8; 1QS 11.11-14.
[3] Luke draws together several disparate ‘judgment’ sayings of Jesus here into a single discourse (cf. Matt. 5:25-26; 6:19-23, 25-34; 7:13-14, 21-23; 8:11-12; 10:28-36; 12:22-45; 13:31-33; 16:1-6; 23:13-39; 24:42-51). His purpose isn’t to give a historically precise account of how and when Jesus said these things, but to thematically bring together most of his warnings to his contemporary generation.
[4] From a critical perspective, these sayings are almost certainly true to the historical Jesus, because these three cities weren’t especially destroyed by the Romans. In fact, we only have a record of Bethsaida being destroyed (Josephus, Wars 4.7.6). There would be no reason for the early church to ‘invent’ an apparently unfulfilled judgment saying.
[5] Cecil Roth, “The Cleansing of the Temple and Zechariah XIV 21,” Novum Testamentum 4, no. 3 (Oct 1960): 174-181.
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