As we know, Jerusalem was at one time home to the Temple, the edifice that was the heartbeat of Judaism from the days of King Solomon until the latter part of the first century AD.

There were actually two temples. The First Temple, constructed by King Solomon in the tenth century BC, was demolished when the Babylonians took the Jewish people into exile.

The Second Temple was rebuilt after many of the exiles returned to Judah but was later greatly enlarged and ornamented by King Herod, so that by the first century, it was a truly magnificent structure. It too was destroyed—this time by the Romans at the end of the First Jewish Revolt against Rome (AD 66–70). The fast day of Tisha B’Av commemorates both destructions.

Our prophets tell us that the First Temple was destroyed because we fell into pagan idolatry, which led to all kinds of social evils.

And the Second Temple? Why was it destroyed? Interestingly, the rabbis and Jesus had similar things to say about this.

What the Rabbis Said

The Talmud was compiled several centuries after the time of Jesus and the Second Temple. Within its pages, we find a reason for the destruction and subsequent loss of Jewish sovereignty over the land. That reason is given as sinat hinam—“baseless hatred”1—that is, baseless hatred between Jew and fellow Jew.

Some translate the phrase as “wanton” hatred or explain it as hatred based on selfishness. The generation prior to the Temple’s destruction was said to be guilty of this sin, a sin severe enough to warrant God’s allowing—or even causing—the Temple to be razed.

What Jesus Said

Jesus lived in the era preceding the Second Temple’s destruction. And what he had to say about his generation was perhaps even more pointed than the rabbis, because he was saying it to his own generation, warning them away from the path they were choosing.

There will not be left here one stone upon another.

Jesus and his disciples frequently found themselves in the Temple precincts, and there he predicted its coming destruction. One time,

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”2

Another time, seated on the hill across from the Temple, Jesus adopted a more dystopian tone.

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and wrath against this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.3

Why did Jesus predict that the Temple, and consequently the entire city of Jerusalem, would undergo destruction and devastation? Here, the Talmudic rabbis and Jesus were in sync because Jesus also said similar things about his own generation.

For Example

But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.”

For John [John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner] came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man [Jesus’ term for himself] came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.

Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.4

In other words, Jesus was saying it was “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” On one day, people complained that Jesus’ followers were too conservative; on another day, they complained that Jesus was too liberal. But the real issue was that people did not want to repent of their sins.

Just to make it clear, at another time, some asked Jesus to show them a “sign” that he really was who he claimed to be.

But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”5

“An evil and adulterous generation”? Perhaps, a generation that displayed sinat hinam? For them, Jesus said, the only “sign” they would see would be his resurrection from the dead, something he alluded to frequently. Nineveh repented, Jesus says, when Jonah visited them (a story read yearly at Yom Kippur). And the queen of the South, possibly the queen of Sheba, shlepped from Arabia to Jerusalem to hear King Solomon.

And now, Jesus says, there is “something greater” than both Jonah and Solomon, namely, the Messiah himself, who can be identified by his teaching and his deeds. But this generation is too evil to recognize that.

If you want to hear even stronger words, go no further than these:

Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.6

What Do We Say?

So, what are we to make of Jesus’ predictions of the destruction and his harsh words for his own generation?

Some have concluded that Jesus was an antisemite.7 He was a self-hating Jew who laid the foundations for later forms of antisemitism. No Jewish person should listen to such vitriol.

But if we understand Jesus in terms of his own moment in history, we will see that his point was to warn his people away from their path to destruction. Jesus believed that our sin has consequences—all the more so because, as Jews, we are bound in a covenant relationship with God that comes with obligations and responsibilities.

Jesus was not glad to see the Temple destroyed and Jerusalem razed.

In this way, Jesus was following in the footsteps of the prophets of the Tanakh, who also had harsh words meant to move the people to repentance. And he anticipated the rabbinic view that sinat hinam was the cause of the Temple’s destruction.

Jesus was not glad to see the Temple destroyed and Jerusalem razed—no more than were the rabbis who spoke of sinat hinam. At one point, he laments,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”8

What do you think? Is there sinat hinam in your life? Does it have consequences? What do you think Jesus wanted from his fellow Jews?

Endnotes

1. See “What Is Sinat Chinam, or Baseless Hatred?” and the embedded video, with a link to part 2 of the video as well, My Jewish Learning, accessed September 25, 2024. Also, this article by R. Mois Navon, “Gratuitous Hatred | What Is It And Why Is It So Bad?”

2. Matthew 24:1–2.

3. Luke 21:20–24. In many of these passages, Jesus blends in the events of AD 70 with those of the end of history, as though the first was a foretaste of the latter.

4. Matthew 11:16–20 (emphasis added).

5. Matthew 12:39–42 (emphasis added).

6. Matthew 23:34–36 (emphasis added).

7. Or, some would say, the writer of the gospel who put these words in Jesus’ mouth. Our position is that Jesus really did say these things.

8. Luke 13:34–35.