Mark 13:1-4

As Jesus left the Temple after his long and strenuous day of conflict, the disciples gazed admiringly at the magnificent building with all of its beauty and apparent strength. They said in effect, Look at those tremendous stones. (The historian Josephus records that some of them were sixty-five feet in length, eight feet broad, nine feet high.) What a marvelous building this must have been!

To the enthusiastic remarks of the disciples, Jeus replied, possibly with genuine pathos in his voice, Do you see all these buildings? Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down (Mark 13:2)

This statement was incredible.Yet, less than forty years later (70 A.D.), the marching armies of Rome, under the leadership of Titus, the son of the Emperor Vespasian, completely leveled the building and utterly destroyed the entire city of Jerusalem.

Josephus records: And truly the very view itself of the country was a melancholy thing, for those places which were before adorned with trees and pleasant gardens were now become a desolate country every way, and its trees were all cut down: nor could any foreigner that had formerly seen Judea and the most beautiful suburbs of the city, and now say it as a desert, but lament and mourn sadly at so great a change. Wars of the Jews p. 807

Apparently the startling prediction made by Jesus deeply disturbed the disciples, but they said nothing until they had reached the slopes of the Mount of Olives when, once again, the brilliant white facade of the Temple, overlaid lavishly with plates of gold, came into view. It was then that Peter, James, John, and Andrew drew Jesus aside and said to him: Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled? (Mark 13:4)