Posted on 06/24/2010 9:58:14 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Nine years, almost to the day, after Roman legionaries destroyed God’s house in Jerusalem, God destroyed the luxurious watering holes of the Roman elite.
Was this God’s revenge?
That’s not exactly the question I want to raise, however. Rather, did anyone at the time see it that way? Did anyone connect the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70? First the dates: The Romans destroyed the Second Temple (Herod’s Temple) on the same date that the Babylonians had destroyed the First Temple (Solomon’s Temple) in 586 B.C.E. But the exact date of the Babylonian destruction is uncertain.
Two different dates are given in the Hebrew Bible for the destruction of the First Temple. In 2 Kings 25:8 the date is the 7th of the Hebrew month of Av; Jeremiah 52:12 says it occurred on the 10th of Av. The rabbis compromised and chose the 9th of Av (Tisha b’Av). That is the date on which observant Jews, sitting on the floor of their synagogues, still mourn the destruction of the First Temple, Solomon’s Temple, in 586 B.C.E. and the Second Temple, Herod’s Temple, in 70 C.E.
The exact corresponding date in the Gregorian calendar is also a bit uncertain. According to the translator of the authoritative translation of Josephus, the ancient historian who gives us our most detailed (if sometimes unreliable; see sidebar) account of the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E., it occurred on August 29 or 30.1 Others place it earlier in the month. The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabia and other nearby sites occurred, according to most commentators, on August 24 or 25 in 79 C.E. According to Seneca, the quakes lasted for several days.
But the dates are close enough to raise the question: Were these two catastrophic events connected, at least in the mind of some observe.
The volcanic eruption of Vesuvius has been graphically described by Dio Cassius in his Roman History: The whole plain round about [Vesuvius] seethed and the summits leaped into the air. There were frequent rumblings, some of them subterranean, that resembled thunder, and some on the surface, that sounded like bellowings; the sea also joined in the roar and the sky re-echoed it.
Then suddenly a portentous crash was heard, as if the mountains were tumbling in ruins; and first huge stones were hurled aloft, rising as high as the very summits, then came a great quantity of fire and endless smoke, so that the whole atmosphere was obscured and the sun was entirely hidden, as if eclipsed. Thus day was turned into night and light into darkness … [Some] believed that the whole universe was being resolved into chaos or fire .
… While this was going on, an inconceivable quantity of ashes was blown out, which covered both sea and land and filled all the air … It buried two entire cities, Herculaneum and Pompeii … Indeed, the amount of dust, taken all together was so great that some of it reached Africa and Syria and Egypt, and it also reached Rome, filling the air overhead and darkening the sun. There, too, no little fear was occasioned, that lasted for several days, since the people did not know and could not imagine what had happened, but, like those close at hand, believed that the whole world was being turned upside down, that the sun was disappearing into the earth and that the earth was being lifted to the sky.2
The tone is plainly apocalyptic. And indeed Dio seems to have had this in mind. In the next paragraph he notes that the eruption consumed the temples of Serapis and Isis and Neptune and Jupiter Capitolinus, among others. It is almost as if some supreme God was at work. Seventeen-year-old Pliny the Younger was an eyewitness to the eruption and described it in terms similar to Dio’s. In two surviving letters to Tacitus, Pliny also gives an account of the death of his famous uncle Pliny the Elder, author of the renowned Historia Naturalis. Pliny the Elder was at Misenum in his capacity as commander of the Roman fleet when the eruption began. He set sail to save some boatloads of people nearer Vesuvius and headed toward Stabia—to no avail. All perished, including Pliny, as his nephew recounts:
...so, how does France figure? (;-)
Well, it had to have been some kind of cosmic justice.......that Richelieu guy was a pretty mean striker......
More like how the betting went in Sicily!
God frequently used foreign nations to punish Israel, then at a time of his choosing punished the foreign nations.
“God frequently used foreign nations to punish Israel, then at a time of his choosing punished the foreign nations.”
Yes, that’s what makes the Old testament so enlightening and inspirational.
You’ve missed my point entirely. With God, it is not an afterthought. It is all part of His plan.
That’s funny because I found the OLD Testament both enlightening and inspirational.
|
|
|||
Gods |
Thanks Pharmboy!Nine years, almost to the day, after Roman legionaries destroyed God's house in Jerusalem, God destroyed the luxurious watering holes of the Roman elite. Was this God's revenge? ...Rather, did anyone at the time see it that way? Did anyone connect the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. with the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70?According to Michael Grant, writing in "Jews in the Roman World", the Jews did. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · Archaeology · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see the connection with Jerusalem. It think it was punishment for the Romans building so close to a very active volcano. And they’re doing it again.
I have been to Pompeii on different occasions. A visitor cannot help but be captivated by being immersed into such a long lost decadent city. The more graphic sexual images are covered with a locked box. For a few lira, the tour guide willingly opens the box to reveal the image.
Personally, I do not believe there is a link between the fall of Jerusalem and the collapse of the Pompeiian society.
The sadest thing at the Pompeii exhibition were the casts of the people and animals that died after the explosion of Vesuvius. Especially the cast of the dog (at right) and of the slave who was still in his shackles.
In biomedical statistics, we have a similar rule (as I'm sure you're aware) regarding associations of two or more variables over time: they do not mean causation.
I believe that there the volcano that erupted was named Zumo . I blew out the wall that separated Zumo and Vesuvius and that action created one volcano. This is according to the things that I have read and living there in Naples for 5 years.
There was one of a mother and child as well.
Boiling brainsAlberto Incoronato of the University of Naples Federico II studied 80 skeletons of people who hid in chambers in the coastal cliff face at the foot of the volcano, near Herculaneum. All were found in relaxed poses. This indicates they did not die from choking on the pyroclastic flow of ash and gas that exploded from Vesuvius, says Incoronato. Instead, the intense heat of the flow killed them... Within about one second of the heat wave striking, the victims' vital organs were stopped, their hands, feet and spines contracted and their soft tissues were vaporised, he says.
1900 GMT, 11 April 2001
Nola: A Prehistoric "Pompeii"To date, five Bronze Age villages have been found near Vesuvius. "Obviously there were more," said Stefano de Caro, director of the Naples Archaeological Museum. "This shows how densely settled the area was even in prehistoric times." But de Caro also noted that the Nola site is by far the most complete Bronze Age village yet found: "This is the first time [in Italy] we have found everything together: the dead, dwellings, crafts, customs, food."
by Judith HarrisBronze-Age VeniceThere is evidence of stilt houses and drainage systems, and the settlements' small islets are separated by artificial canals whose edges were strengthened with vertical logs later replaced by squared timbers... The islets, joined by bridges, may have eventually been home to as many as 2,000 people and were enlarged several times over the centuries to accommodate the community's growing population. The remains of wooden huts, stands for dugout canoes, furnishings, as well as evidence of bronze and perhaps amber working, have also been found. The site was abandoned during sixth-century floods and mudslides, and scholars say it is possible that the deserters of Poggiomarino were, in fact, the founders of Pompeii.
by Jarrett A. Lobell
July/August 2002Move Over, Pompeii"Since Nola is only 7.5 miles from the volcano, people probably did not have time to pack before the eruption, and left behind cooking utensils, drinking cups, hunting tools, a hat decorated with wild boars' teeth, and a pot waiting to be fired in the kiln... So far no human remains have been found at Nola -- only several footprints preserved in the mud -- but scholars believe the skeletons of a Bronze Age man and woman discovered nearby about five years ago may be associated with the prehistoric eruption as well."
by Jarrett A. Lobell
Archaeology
March/April 2002
Volume 55 Number 2Bronze Age VillageA prehistoric village has been uncovered near Pompeii, more than 3,500 years after it was buried by Mount Vesuvius as the Roman city was centuries later. Experts called the find at Nola, near Naples, "sensational" and said the site could be the world's best preserved early Bronze Age village. The site is north of both Pompeii and Vesuvius, and suggests that the community was thriving when it was surprised by the eruption. Wooden structures in the village were destroyed by the heat but the mud that filled the buildings created a natural mould of everything they contained. Archaeologists believe that a man and a woman whose skeletons were dug up five years ago had been trying to escape from the village during the eruption.
Thursday 29 November 2001
I would expect a BIBLICAL publication to use the correct sufffix for the year
79 A.D. (ANNO DOMINI)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.