Secular writers describing the period support the biblical record: “And as to earthquakes, many are mentioned by writers during a period just previous to 70 A.D. There were earthquakes in Crete, Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, Laodicea, Hierapolis, Colosse, Campania, Rome, and Judea. It is interesting to note that the city of Pompeii was much damaged by an earthquake occurring on February 5, 63 A.D."2 The number of earthquakes that were recorded during that first-century generation is staggering given the shortness of the time period. Josephus describes an earthquake in Judea of such magnitude “that the constitution of the universe was confounded for the destruction of men,’3 the same language that is being used to describe this most recent earthquake. He goes on to write that this earthquake was "no common" calamity, indicating that God Himself had brought it about for a special purpose. One commentator writes: "Perhaps no period in the world's history has ever been so marked by these convulsions as that which intervenes between the Crucifixion and the destruction of Jerusalem."
Threaded Mode
