Destruction of the Second Temple (AD 70)

All three synoptic Gospels record Jesus predicting the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple with striking specificity: "Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6). The prediction was reportedly given around 30 AD.\n\nIn 66 AD, a Jewish revolt began; by 70 AD, Titus had besieged Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and tore down its structures. Josephus, an eyewitness, writes in Wars of the Jews 6.250 that the Temple was so thoroughly destroyed "that they who came to see it could not believe it had been inhabited." The Western Wall stones that remain are from the retaining wall of the Temple Mount platform — not from the Temple itself, which was dismantled for its gold and never rebuilt.\n\nLiberal scholarship often dates the synoptics after 70 AD partly because of this prophecy. However, conservative scholars note that Acts ends without the fall of Jerusalem or the deaths of Paul and Peter (mid-60s AD), suggesting Luke was written before 70 AD, and by extension so was at least one synoptic source. The Olivet Discourse also retains details (escape to the mountains, flight on the Sabbath) that fit Jewish-Christian concerns better than post-70 redaction. The prediction therefore retains significant evidential weight.