Epilogue

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Jude

Rusty's Notes

JUNE 29, 67 AD - Paul and Peter Are Martyred

• According to early church tradition, this is the day that Paul is beheaded.
• MAP – Paul Beheaded

December 69 AD

• Vespasian is officially proclaimed Emperor of Rome.

70 AD

• Vespasian is occupied in Alexandria.
• MAP – Vespasian in Alexandria
• While he is away from Rome, he puts his elder son, Titus, in charge of military affairs.
• His younger son, Domitian, is given authority to act as Ceasar to the Empire.
• Domitian exiles John, the apostle, to the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
• MAP – John on Patmos
• Because church tradition says that Domitian exiled John to the Island of Patmos, many scholars have dated the Book of Revelation to be during Domitian’s reign as Roman Emperor in the 90s.
• However, Domitian served temporarily as Emperor in A.D. 70 when his father was away from Rome.
• The little known fact of Domitian’s temporary reign complicates the dating of Revelation.
• John is sentenced to labor in the mines of the island. (The Island of Patmos is eight miles long and five miles wide and sits 50 miles southwest of Ephesus.)
• MAP - Ephesus

The Roman Siege of Jerusalem May-August 70

• The population of Jerusalem is now 600,000.
• MAP - Jerusalem
• Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasian, marches into Jerusalem with his troops and overtakes the city.
• The Roman army breaches the first and second walls of Jerusalem.
• Mass execution of the escapees begins.
• There are up to 500 crucifixions per day outside the city.
• According to Josephus, The Romans chopped down so many trees to make crosses that they completely stripped the hills of Jerusalem of the woods that covered them.
• Famine begins within Jerusalem.
• As the famine takes its toll, some of the Jews resort to infanticide and cannibalism to survive.
• The Romans destroy the Tower of Antonia and are shocked at the conditions inside the city, including the cannibalism.
• The Romans take the temple and the city.
• They enter the temple and set it afire by a reckless Roman torch.
• The temple is desecrated and utterly destroyed.
• Remembering Jesus’ warning in Luke 21:20-24, the Christians have already fled the city.
• Eusebius, the church historian wrote how the Christians were supernaturally warned by the Lord to flee Jerusalem before the bloodbath began.
• Many of them moved to the Greek city of Pella in the region of Perea, east of the Jordan River (the Transjordan).
• MAP – Pella in Perea
• No less than one million perish in the seige and over 90,000 are led into captivity.
• The Jerusalem church is dispersed again.
• The Jewish Christians are now forced to sit down and eat with their “unclean,” Law-free Gentile brethren in the Gentile churches that Paul and his coworkers have planted all throughout the Roman Empire.
• A few stubborn ones founded the Ebionite heresy, which rejected Paul’s writings, the virgin birth, Christ’s Divinity, and espoused that all followers of Jesus must follow the Law of Moses.

 
The Church After 70 AD

• John, the apostle, is released from his banishment on the Island of Patmos.
• He moves back to Ephesus where he lives out the rest of his life.
• John dies of natural causes in A.D. 98 at the age of 100.
• The apostasy that Paul and Peter prophecied about continues to flourish.
• Silas brings the gospel to the Island of Rhodes.
• MAP – Island of Rhodes
• He later moves to Northern Greece where he dies.
• Philip, one of the Twelve apostles, has a powerful ministry in Carthage, North Africa.
• MAP - Carthage
• He then travels to Asia Minor where he converts the wife of a Roman governor (proconsul).
• In retaliation, the governor has Philip arrested and cruelly put to death.
• Matthew (also called Levi), one of the Twelve, opens doors to the gospel in Persia, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
• MAP – Persia & Ethiopia
• He is killed with a spear in Nadabah, Ethiopia.
• Matthias, the apostle who replaced Judas Iscariot, preaches Christ in Asia Minor and Syria.
• MAP - Syria
• He is burned to death in Syria.
• Other traditions say he was stoned to death and beheaded in Jerusalem by the Jews, he was killed with a lance or axe by the Jews, or he was crucified by the Romans.
• Thomas (also called Didymus), one of the Twelve, brings the gospel to Syria and India.
• MAP - India
• He preaches to Parthians, Medes, and Persians.
• Thomas is stabbed to death by Brahman priests in Mylapore, India in A.D. 72.
• MAP – Parthians & Medes
• Barnabas is martyred in Salamis, Cyprus in 73 AD.
• MAP - Salamis
• Simon the Zealot and Judas (also called Thaddeus), two of the twelve apostles, bring the gospel to Great Britain.
• MAP – Great Britain
• They then go to Persia to proclaim Christ where they are torn apart by a Persian mob in 79 AD.
• James, the apostle and son of Alphaeus, also preaches the gospel in Persia where he is beaten and stoned to death by the Jews at the age of 94.
• In 96 AD, Titus dies on the Island of Crete.
• MAP - Crete
• Timothy dies a year later in Ephesus.
• He is stoned to death after protesting the festivities in honor of the pagan goddess Diana (Artemis).
• Following the death of the apostles and their coworkers, the light and glow of the first-century church begins to fade.
• Man-made systems and humanly-devised traditions slowly evolve to replace her glory and dim her light.
• Yet God does not give up on His eternal purpose.
• Throughout the centuries, the Lord progressively works toward restoring her pristine simplicity and glory… until the time that she—the ekklesia—the community of the King—the Bride of Christ, has made herself ready for her Bridegroom.[1]

[1] Viola, Frank. The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament. Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.