The Times of the Gentiles and the Redemption of Jerusalem

How to cite this article: David Flusser, “The Times of the Gentiles and the Redemption of Jerusalem,” Jerusalem Perspective (2014) [https://www.jerusalemperspective.com/11517/].

Updated: 2 August 2022

When the Israeli soldiers captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War, many Christians regarded this event as the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy in the New Testament: “Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled,”^[56] (Luke 21:24).^[57] There is no need to wonder at this reaction within certain Christian circles, since there has always been a stream within Christianity which looks forward to a return to Zion at the end of days.^[58] Their hope is based both on the words of the Hebrew Scriptures and upon certain passages in the New Testament that reflect the hope for Israel’s national redemption. In the modern era there have been Christian movements to allow the Jews to return to their land even before the renewal of the Jewish resettlement of the Land of Israel.^[59] We have also seen that Jewish revival movements, whether secular or religious, have established their historical right to the Land of Israel by relying on the Scriptures and on Jewish beliefs and ideas that emerged after the Scriptures were written, and many of these movements consider the State of Israel to be “the beginning of the sprouting of redemption.”^[60]

Thus today we are met with parallel mentalities among Jews and Christians toward the return to Zion, mentalities that are nourished by the same roots.^[61] There is, of course, a key difference between the hopes of the Jews and the parallel hopes of the Christians: the Christians believe that the Messiah who will be revealed at the end of days will be none other than Jesus who has returned. Aside from this, the overwhelming majority of Christians who support Israel, even those who do not believe in the return to Zion at the end of days, believe that all Israel will accept faith in Jesus in the end.^[62] This belief in the Christian conversion of the majority of Israel is fed especially by Paul’s words that, in the end, “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26).^[63] We shall return to this statement again in the course of our discussion. Most of the Christians who believe in the return to Zion suppose that this will come prior to the second coming of Jesus and the conversion of the gathered exiles to Christianity,^[64] and therefore they regard the return to Zion, the founding of the State of Israel, and the liberation of Jerusalem as important signs of the approach of the end of days.

• ^[1] See H. Conzelmann, “Geschichte und Eschaton nach Mk. 13,” ZNW 50 (1959): 210-221; Lars Hartmann, Prophecy Interpreted—The Formation of Some Jewish Apocalyptic Texts of the Eschatological Discourse Mark 13 (Paris: Gleerup, 1966); Jan Lamprecht, Die Redaktion der Markus-Apokalypse—Literarische Analyse und Strukturuntersuchung (Analecta Biblica 28; Rome: Pontifical Biblical Institute, 1967). ↩
• ^[2] R. L. Lindsey, “A Modified Two-Document Theory of the Synoptic Dependence and Interdependence,” Novum Testamentum 6 (1963): 239-263; idem, "A New Two-Source Solution to the Synoptic Problem"; idem, A Hebrew Translation of the Gospel of Mark (Jerusalem: Dugith, 1969). See especially the aforementioned article in Novum Testamentum (p. 243), where a diagram which makes it possible to recognize the sources behind Mark 13 may be found. It is worth pointing out that Matthew removes the parallel statements in Luke 21:12-16 and Mark 13:9-12 from the prophecy in ch. 24 and places them earlier in Matt. 10:17-22. I want to thank Dr. Lindsey for the many important things he taught me while I was preparing this article. See also ד. פלוסר, ״היחס הספרותי בין שלושת האוונגליונים,״ יהדות ומקורות הנצרות; מחקרים ומסות (תל אביב: ספרית פועלים, תשל″ט)‏. ↩
• ^[3] Another example: According to Matthew, when Jesus spoke about the troubles to come he said, "Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath" (Matt. 24:20). Mark 13:18 omits any mention of the Sabbath, while Luke omits the entire sentence. ↩
• ^[4] So reads Luke 21:12. The hypothesis that Luke was familiar with the verse in its original form is proved by his statement in Acts 9:15. ↩
• ^[5] So Mark 13:9 and Matt. 10:18; Luke 21:12 reads "for my name’s sake." ↩
• ^[6] See Robert Lindsey's commentary on this passage in his article, "From Luke to Mark to Matthew: A Discussion of the Sources of Markan "Pick-ups" and the Use of a Basic Non-canonical Source by All the Synoptists" under the subheading "An Examination of the Editorial Activity of the First Reconstructor" (L34-49). ↩
• ^[7] [In other words, in Luke's version the disciples' words, and not the persecution itself, have become the testimony. That this is Luke's understanding of Jesus' prophecy is shown, for example, in Acts 26 where Paul testifies before King Agrippa II (cf. Acts 26:28)—JNT.] ↩
• ^[8] The language of this verse is influenced by Luke 21:9, 24. ↩
• ^[9] For a similar idea, but in relation to Mark 13, see Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan, 1957), 636-644. [See now David Flusser, “Additional Considerations: Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem” in Jesus (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2001), 238—JNT.] ↩
• ^[10] On this verse and on Matthew’s version which is closer to the original, see above n.12. ↩
• ^[11] This verse is taken from Luke 17:23. ↩
• ^[12] This is the only place in the Gospels where the Greek word ἀπολύτρωσις appears with the meaning “redemption.” It also appears in Paul’s epistles and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Nevertheless, the use of this particular Greek term for the redemption of Israel does not prove that this verse is Luke’s invention. We cannot discuss the Parable of the Fig Tree here (Matt. 24:32-36; Mark 13:28-32; Luke 21:29-33). After the parable we read: “So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place” (Mark 13:29-30, and similar to this in Matthew and Luke). In the place of “he is near, at the very gates,” Luke reads “the kingdom of God is near” (21:31). Even though this sentence, especially in Luke’s version, looks similar to Luke’s doublet in 21:28, evidently the original meaning was that the years of this generation will not pass by before the destruction comes. ↩
• ^[13] [Sic. It appears to the translator that Flusser intended to refer here to Genesis, rather than Leviticus. Elsewhere Flusser writes, "The oldest example of this paradigm is found in God's words to Abraham (Gen. 15:13-16). There the destruction is lacking, but Abraham's descendants will be strangers in a foreign country and will be enslaved and ill-treated; afterwards, however, they will come back," (Jesus [Jerusalem: Magnes, 2001], 241)—JNT.] ↩
• ^[14] This proximity is pointed out by Adolf Schlatter, Das Evangelium des Lukas (Stuttgart: Calwer, 1960), 2:418. See also the interpretation of Alfred Plummer, The Gospel According to St. Luke (ICC; New York: Scribners, 1920), 483. [See now David Flusser, “Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem” (above, n. 18), 241-242—JNT.] ↩
• ^[15] After which, the author describes things that will come in the future from his own point in history: the gathering of all the exiles, and the wondrous Jerusalem at the end of days. ↩
• ^[16] See also in the continuation line 10, “ובשלום הקץ” as well as the notes in Rabin’s published version. [Quotations of the DSS follow Florentino García Martínez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (2 vols.; Brill: Leiden, 1997-1998)—JNT.] ↩
• ^[17] We may also conjecture that this is the verbal root that the author of Tobit also employed. This book, too, has come to us only in Greek versions. ↩
• ^[18] Gen. 15:16: ἀναπεπλήρωνται αἱ ἁμαρτίαι; Luke 21:24: ἄχρι οὗ πληρωθῶσιν καιροὶ ἐθνῶν. ↩
• ^[19] This is the opinion of the majority of scholars. I intend to discuss the identity of this source elsewhere. [See now David Flusser, “Hystaspes and John of Patmos” in Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988), 390-453—JNT.] For our purposes the historiography of the author of 2 Maccabees is especially important. For him it is a sign of kindness that God brings troubles on the people of Israel, which he does in order to correct them, whereas for the rest of the peoples the LORD delays their punishment "until they have reached the full measure of their sins"/μέχρι τοῦ καταντήσαντας αὐτοὺς πρὸς ἐκπλήρωσιν ἁμαρτιῶν (2 Macc. 6:14). See also P. Félix-Marie Abel, Les Livres des Maccabées (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1949), 365. Aside from Gen. 15:16 and Deut. 8:20, Abel also mentions Matt. 23:32 and 1 Thess. 2:16.

  The latter arouses great interest: At the end of his career Paul determined that when the full number of Gentiles have entered "all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:25-26), but in the earliest of Paul’s surviving epistles he says that the Jews murdered the Lord Jesus and the prophets "and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all men by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins"/εἰς τὸ ἀναπληρῶσαι αὐτῶν τὰς ἁμαρτίας πάντοτε. "But God’s wrath has come upon them at last!" These statements by Paul concerning the Jews are likely to have relied, in their form and vocabulary, on Jesus’ statement about the Gentiles found in Luke 21:24. Also, these statements show Paul’s thoughts at the beginning of his career before he developed a new approach to the “Jewish Problem” on the basis of the broader Christian ideology.

  In addition, we should note that at the end of this verse from his earliest epistle (1 Thess. 2:16), Paul repeats the statement from the Testament of Levi (6:11) against the people of Shechem. ↩

• ^[20] This number is derived from Daniel 7:25; 12:7. ↩
• ^[21] For the same idea and vocabulary see Dan. 8:10-13. ↩
• ^[22] See my article “Jerusalem in Second Temple Literature” in David Flusser, Judaism of the Second Temple Period: The Jewish Sages and their Literature (trans. Azzan Yadin; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), 44-75. But see the important corrections to the English translation of this article noted in JP's blog post, “Corrections and Emendations to Flusser’s Judaism of the Second Temple Period.” ↩
• ^[23] It is true that in his answer as it is recorded in Luke Jesus speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and not about the destruction of the Temple, but it is clear that the destruction of the Temple is included in the city’s destruction. ↩
• ^[24] It seems highly probable that before the anonymous author composed the apocalyptic oracle, Jesus’ answer included only what appears in Luke 21:20-24, 28. According to this hypothesis, Jesus foretold the Roman camps surrounding Jerusalem as a sign of the destruction. See also Luke 19:41-43. ↩
• ^[25] There is no reason to doubt this interpretation. In this verse the Gentiles are twice mentioned: "the Gentiles will trample Jerusalem until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Clearly, then, the Gentiles who oppress Jerusalem and trample her are identical with the Gentiles whose time will one day come to an end. ↩
• ^[26] Or, “when the times are fulfilled they will belong to the Gentiles.” The meaning is the same. ↩
• ^[27] ἐκολόβωσεν κύριος τὰς ἡμέρας. For this special use of the Greek verb κολοβόω there is only one parallel. It is found in 3 (Greek Apocalypse of) Baruch, where it is explained that God punished the moon and cut short its days ἐκολόβωσεν τὰς ἡμέρας αὐτῆς. Cf. the edition edited by Jean-Claude Picard, "Apocalypsis Baruchi Graece" in Testamentum Iobi, Apocalypsis Baruchi Graece (PVTG 2; Leiden: Brill, 1967), 91. [Picard’s text can now be accessed online at The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha: http://ocp.tyndale.ca—JNT.] ↩
• ^[28] On this idea see especially Yigael Yadin, The Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness (trans. Batya Rabin and Chaim Rabin; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962), 261. ↩
• ^[29] See also the materials gathered by August Strobel, Untersuchungen zum eschatologischen Verzögerungsproblem (Leiden: Brill, 1961), 92. ↩
• ^[30] Similar vocabulary is found in Exod. 9:18; 11:6; Joel 2:2. ↩
• ^[31] We should add Ps. Philo’s Biblical Antiquities 19:13 and the Letter of Barnabas 4:3 to Yadin’s list of sources that mention the hastening of the end. ↩
• ^[32] See also the following passages from the War Scroll:

  כיא היאה עת צרה לישר[אל תעו]דת מלחמה בכל הגויים וגורל אל בפדות עולמים

  For this will be a time of suffering for Isra[el and a servi]ce of war against all the nations. For God’s lot there will be everlasting redemption. (1QM xv, 1)

  ומעז לוא נהיתה כמוהה

  From of old there has not been anything similar. (1QM xviii, 10)

  ↩

• ^[33] On this see my “Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes in Pesher Nahum” in Judaism of the Second Temple Period: Qumran and Apocalypticism (trans. Azzan Yadin; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 214-257. In the War Scroll the relationship of the sect toward the rest of Israel is closer than in the other Dead Sea Scrolls. ↩
• ^[34] A slightly similar use can be found in Luke 18:7. There is no connection between Matt. 22:14 and the use in our chapter. On the use of the title “the elect” for the Christian congregation in the rest of the New Testament, see Taylor, Mark (above, n. 18), 514-515. ↩
• ^[35] The beginning of this passage is based on the saying in Luke 17:23. This passage is nothing other than a free paraphrase of what is written in Mark 13:5-6; Luke 21:8; Matt. 24:4-5; and the same is also true for Luke 17:20-21; Matt. 24:11. ↩
• ^[36] [Quotations of the Didache follow Huub van de Sandt and David Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity (CRINT III.5; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002)—JNT.] ↩
• ^[37] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 80 [cf. ch. 139—JNT]. ↩
• ^[38] Adolf von Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 1931), 1:614-620. ↩
• ^[39] [See now David Flusser, “Matthew’s Verus Israel” in Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988), 568ff.—JNT.] ↩
• ^[40] Günther Bornkamm, Paulus (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1969), 68-78. ↩
• ^[41] Munck, Christus und Israel (above, n. 8). ↩
• ^[42] It is true that the sources permit us to suppose that not all of the Jewish-Christians believed in Jesus’ messiahship, but as far as our interests are concerned this fact is of no importance. ↩
• ^[43] It is interesting that, of all the Gospel writers, it was only Luke, a Gentile, who preserved in three places mention of the hope of the first Christians (who were Jews) for the redemption of their people. The first place is the passage in Jesus’ prophetic oracle (Luke 21:23-28), where to all appearances the statements reflect the authentic words of Jesus. The second place is the description of Jesus’ appearance in Emmaus where the disciples speak of Jesus as the one who would redeem Israel in the future (Luke 24:21). The third place is in Acts 1:6-8. In these three places where Israel’s national redemption is discussed there is no distinction made between those who believe in Jesus and the rest of Israel. Aside from these three places, all of which are found in Luke’s compositions, there is only one allusion to Israel’s salvation at the end of days. This is Paul’s statement in Romans that “all Israel will be saved,” even though this statement does not have a political meaning since the salvation comes to Israel as a result of accepting faith in Jesus. ↩
• ^[44] Clearly for Luke this story serves as an opportunity to record a kind of program for his second book, the Acts of the Apostles. The statement “you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” is nothing other than a description of the way the Christian faith spread as it is depicted by Luke in Acts. It is interesting that for Luke it was important that the new teaching should go out from Jerusalem. This does not derive from actual historical circumstances, but rather from the missionary ideology which comes to expression, for instance, in Paul’s mention of Jerusalem in Romans 15:19 even though Paul did not begin his missionary activities in Jerusalem! We learn from this that the missionary ideology originated prior to Paul. ↩
• ^[45] Georg Strecker, Das Judenchristentum in den Pseudoklementinen (Berlin: Akademie, 1958), 187. ↩
• ^[46] Shlomo Pines, “The Jewish Christians of the Early Centuries According to a New Source,” Proceedings of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities 2 (1968): 253-254, 256-257. ↩
• ^[47] On the original form of this saying see my article, “The Conclusion of Matthew in a New Jewish Christian Source,” Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute 5 (1966-1967): 110-120. ↩
• ^[48] See also the additional ending of Mark 16:15-17. ↩
• ^[49] Hugo Gratius was already aware of how close this statement is to m. Sanh. 10:1. ↩
• ^[50] In Acts the disciples ask Jesus whether he will now restore the kingdom to Israel. From the vocabulary in the two places where Israel’s redemption is mentioned in Luke (21:24-28; 24:21) it becomes clear that in these places, too, it is the political redemption of Israel that is intended. ↩
• ^[51] The Christian religious meaning of the concept of salvation that is found in Romans 11:26 emerges, among other places, from the statement "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9), and also in Rom. 11:11. ↩
• ^[52] The expression is based on a midrash of Deut. 32:21: "I will stir them to jealousy with those who are no people," a verse Paul had already made use of in Rom. 10:19. ↩
• ^[53] See Michel, Der Brief an die Römer (above, n. 8), 271. ↩
• ^[54] See above, n. 60. ↩
• ^[55] See צ′ לרינמן, אוצר אמרי אבות , א′, (ירושלים, 1959), עמ′ 372-371. ↩
• ^[56] Hans Bietenhard, Das tausendjährige Reich (Zürich: Buchdruckererei F. Graf-Lehmann, 1955), 96-98, 108-111, 114-116. Bietenhard approaches the prophecy not only as a scholar, but also as a believing Christian who endeavors to learn from the New Testament the correct relationship of the Church to Israel and its future. ↩
• ^[57] [Scriptural quotations follow the RSV, occasionally with slight adaptations—JNT.] ↩
• ^[58] On this stream which has existed in Christianity since the time of the early Church Fathers, see Bietenhard, Das tausendjährige Reich, 90-94. Bietenhard is correct in his statement that an exhaustive study of Christian Zionism has yet to be written. ↩
• ^[59] See, for example, מ. ורטה, רעיון שיבת ציון במחשבה הפרוטסטאנטית באנגליה בשנים ציון לג (תשכ″ח) עמ′ 179-145. ↩
• ^[60] National Prayer for Peace. It would be desirable to conduct a philological study of the differences that have appeared in this prayer over time until it reached its present accepted form. ↩
• ^[61] On the beliefs of the Sages and their opinions regarding the redemption, see especially Ephraim E. Urbach, The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs (trans. I. Abrahams; Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975), 1:649-690. ↩
• ^[62] On Jerome’s stance, see Bietenhard, Das tausendjährige Reich, 91-92. For Augustine’s statement (on the basis of the conclusion of Malachi) that this will be accomplished by the prophet Elijah who will “return” Israel to the Christian faith, see Civ. XX, 29, 30:3-5. ↩
• ^[63] It is interesting that, in his commentary, Calvin admits that in the opinion of many the name “Israel” is understood to refer to the Jewish people, but he himself believes that “Israel” refers here to the Church composed of Jews and Gentiles. See Ioannis Calvini, Novum Testamenum Commentarii (ed. August Tholuck; Berlin: Apud Gustavum Eichler, 1831), 5:179-180. [For an English translation see, John Calvin, Commentary upon the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans (trans. Henry Beveridge; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1844), 330—JNT.] Hugo Grotius came close to this interpretation, even though he was aware of the statement in the Mishnah that “All Israel has a portion in the world to come,” (m. Sanh. 10:1). Grotius believed that Paul’s prophecy was fulfilled after the destruction of the Temple when many Jews converted to Christianity. See also Otto Michel, Der Brief an die Römer (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963), 281-282; Johannes Munck, Christus und Israel—Eine Auslegung von Röm. 9-11 (Kobenhavn: Ejnar Munksgaard, 1956), 24, 101ff. ↩
• ^[64] The theory that this will be the order of events, and its wide acceptance within the apocalyptic stream of modern Christianity, obviously warrants further study. In any case, it already appears in an article by the Jesuits of Chile written in 1790: Manuel Lacunza, La Venida del Mesías en Gloria y Majestad (I found this author in a publication prepared by Mario Gongora which appeared in 1969 in the series Escridores coloniales de Chile, Editorial Universitaria SA). The article was published in English in 1827 and 1833 by Edward Irving (1792-1834), the Scottish priest who founded the sect known as the Catholic Apostolic Church. ↩