Times of the Gentiles: A 1st-century Phenomenon

Below is the 19th of multiple excerpts of commentary on the Book of Revelation from The Parousia, the late 19th-century masterpiece on the Second Coming by James Stuart Russell: 

[The Times of the Gentiles; continued from previous excerpt, the Measurement of the Temple]

[CHAP. xi. 1, 2 [Rev. 11:1-2].---‘And there was given to me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without [outside] the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.’]

"It will be remarked that one portion of the temple precincts, ‘the court which is without [outside] the temple,’ is excepted from the measurement: and for this a reason is assigned,---‘for it is given unto the Gentiles.’ ...We know that there was a portion of the temple precincts called ‘the court of the Gentiles;’ but that can hardly be the place alluded to here, for it would be strange to speak of the court of the Gentiles being given to the Gentiles. It is evident also that this abandonment of the outer court to the Gentiles is referred to as something sacrilegious, being coupled with the statement, ‘And the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.’ The reason, therefore, for the exemption of the outer court from measurement may probably be that the place was already desecrated; it was therefore ‘cast out,’ rejected, as being no longer a holy place; it was profane and unclean, being in the hands, and even under the feet, of the Gentiles.

"Is there anything answering to these facts in the history of the last days of Jerusalem? For that is the true problem which we have to solve. Here the [1st-century] Jewish historian [Josephus] throws a vivid light upon the whole scene described in the vision. Josephus tells us how, on the breaking out of the Jewish[-Roman] war, the temple became the citadel and fortress of the insurgents; how the different factions struggled for the possession of this vantage ground; and how John, one of the rebel chiefs, held the temple with his crew of brigands called the Zealots, while Simon, another and rival leader, occupied the city. He tells us also how the Idumean [Edomite] force, which may properly be regarded as belonging to the Gentiles, effected an entrance into the city under cover of night, during the distraction caused by a terrific storm, and were admitted by the Zealots, their confederates, within the sacred precincts of the temple. It would appear that all through the period of the siege the city and temple courts were in the possession of these wild and lawless men of Edom, who carried rapine and bloodshed wherever they came. It was by them, and on this occasion, that Ananus and Joshua, two of the most eminent and venerable among the high priests, were foully murdered, a crime to which Josephus ascribes the subsequent capture of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish commonwealth. (See Traill’s Josephus, bk. iv. chap. v. sec. 2.)

"Have we not here all the conditions of the problem fully satisfied? The violent and sacrilegious invasion of the temple by the Zealots and Idumeans, and the masterful occupation of the city by these banditti, who trode it down under their feet during the period of the siege, seems to us precisely to meet the requirements of the description. ...

"The passage which we are now considering throws light also upon our Lord’s prediction in Luke xxi. 24 [Luke 21:24]: ‘...And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled.’ Our Lord, it is to be observed, is here speaking of the siege and capture of Jerusalem, the very theme of the apocalyptic vision [of John]. It cannot be questioned that our Lord’s reference to Jerusalem being trodden down by the Gentiles is identical in meaning with the language in the vision,---‘The holy city shall they (the Gentiles) tread under foot [Rev. 11:2].’ Both passages must refer to the same act and the same time: whatever is meant by the one is meant by the other. Since, then, the allusion in the Apocalypse [Revelation] is to the violent and sacrilegious occupation of Jerusalem and the temple by the hordes of Zealots and Edomites, we conclude that our Lord, in His prediction, alludes to the same historical fact.

"But if so, what are we to understand by ‘the times of the Gentiles’ in our Saviour’s prediction? It has been generally supposed that this expression refers to some mystic period of unknown duration, extending, it may be, over centuries and aeons, and still rolling on its uncompleted course. ...Surely, it is much more respectful to the Word of God to understand its language as having some definite meaning. What, then, if ‘forty and two months’ should really mean forty-two months, and nothing more? The times of the Gentiles can only mean the time during which Jerusalem is in their occupation. That time is distinctly specified in the Apocalypse [Revelation] as forty-two months. Now this is a period repeatedly spoken of in this book under different designations. It is the ‘thousand two hundred and sixty days’ of the next verse [Rev. 11:3], and the ‘time, times and half a time’ of chap. xii. 14 [Rev. 12:14], that is to say, three years and a half. Now it is evident that such a space of time in the history of nations would be an insignificant point; but for a tumultuous and lawless rabble to domineer over a great city for such a period would be something portentous and terrible. The occupation of such a city by an armed mob is not likely to continue over ages and centuries: it is an abnormal state of things which must speedily terminate. Now this is exactly what happened in the last days of Jerusalem. During the three years and an half which represent with sufficient accuracy the duration of the Jewish[-Roman] war, Jerusalem was actually in the hands and under the feet of a horde of ruffians, whom their own countryman [Josephus] describes as ‘slaves, and the very dregs of society, the spurious and polluted spawn of the nation.’ The last fatal struggle may be said to have begun when [Roman military leader] Vespasian was sent by [emperor] Nero, at the head of sixty thousand men, to put down the rebellion. This was early in the year A.D. 67, and in August A.D. 70 the city and the temple were a heap of smoking ashes."

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