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Josephus describes the temple omens as signs seen and heard by priests before Jerusalem fell. In tractate Yoma, Rabbinic tradition dates the same omens to forty years before the destruction and ends with Yohanan ben Zakkai addressing the temple doors.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Josephus The Jewish War 6.5.3
Classical
Besides these, a few days after that feast, on the one and twentieth day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared: I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable; were it not related by those that saw it; and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals. For, before sun setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost; as the priests were going by night into the inner [court of the] temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said, that in the first place they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise: and after that they heard a sound, as of a multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence.”
Date: 75 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Yoma 39b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
The Sages taught: During the tenure of Shimon HaTzaddik, the lot for God always arose in the High Priest’s right hand; after his death, it occurred only occasionally; but during the forty years prior to the destruction of the Second Temple, the lot for God did not arise in the High Priest’s right hand at all. So too, the strip of crimson wool that was tied to the head of the goat that was sent to Azazel did not turn white, and the westernmost lamp of the candelabrum did not burn continually. And the doors of the Sanctuary opened by themselves as a sign that they would soon be opened by enemies, until Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai scolded them. He said to the Sanctuary: Sanctuary, Sanctuary, why do you frighten yourself with these signs? I know about you that you will ultimately be destroyed, and Zechariah, son of Ido, has already prophesied concerning you: “Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars” (Zechariah 11:1), Lebanon being an appellation for the Temple.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
“... Josephus reports that on the eve of the destruction of the Second Temple there were visible, early signs of the approaching calamity. Among these, he mentions that the Nikanor Gate, the eastern gate of the inner court of the temple, which usually required twenty people to close it, suddenly opened of its own accord during the sixth hour of the night. This was taken as a sign that the security of the temple had been breached, and that it was about to be given over to its enemies. On the Festival of Pentecost, the priests, upon entering the inner part of the temple, “were conscious, first of a commotion and a din, and after of a voice as of a host, ‘We are departing hence’ ” (J.W. 6.293–300). According to Jewish tradition, as reflected in Josephus and in talmudic sources, the angelic entourage, a heavenly voice, or the Shekhinah, symbolizing the divine presence, abandoned the temple on the eve of its destruction as a concrete expression of the approaching destruction. [...] The story concerning the gates of the sanctuary opening by themselves already appears, as we have noted, in Josephus among the signs that preceded and heralded the approaching destruction, and it is mentioned in similar manner in the ancient Palestinian talmudic tradition: They taught: Forty years before the destruction of the temple the Western lamp [of the candelabrum] was extinguished, and the crimson-colored ribbon [placed on the head of the scape-goat on the Day of Atonement] turned red, and the lot for the Lord [on the Day of Atonement] came up in the left hand. And they would lock the gates of the Sanctuary in the evening, and wake up to find them open. Rabban Yohanan ben Zakkai said to them: “Sanctuary, why do you alarm us? We know that your end is to be destroyed, as said, ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars!’ ” (y. Yoma 6.3; 43c) The Babylonian Talmud (b. Yoma 39b) also brings this tradition and, notwithstanding various changes, deletions, and additions, it preserves the main elements of the ancient tradition. ...”
Nir, Rivḳah
The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Idea of Redemption in the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch
(pp. 79, 94-95) Society of Biblical Literature, 2002
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