Important Dates in the Lives of Jesus and Mary 
A.D.
 55 and they would have been unwilling to add an extra month in the spring of 
A.D.
 56, during the war 
and the Sabbatical year. So, if we reconstruct the Jewish calendar of this time period, as it ought to have been 
arranged, the month the Temple burned down would have been Av (if the leap years had been arranged 
correctly. But, as the above analysis of Josephus' eyewitness account shows, the calendar was not arranged 
according to custom and tradition (due to the war). Thus the Temple actually burned down in the month of 
Elul. 
    Rabbinic tradition holds that the Temple burned in the month of Av because a proper reconstruction of the 
calendar, in accord with the usual way the calendar would be arranged, would call that month Av. Another 
reason is that the month in which the Temple burned, the Macedonian month of Loos, is usually equivalent to 
the Jewish month of Av. Also, the First Temple of Jerusalem was burned down in the month of Av (2 Kings 
25:8; Jer 52:12).
1125
 The parallel between those two events is given greater emphasis by considering the month 
of the burning of the Second Temple to be the same month, the month of Av.
1126
 One can truly say that the 
Temple burned down in the month of Av, because that is the way the calendar should have been arranged. 
However, the month in which the Temple burned down was most likely observed as the month of Elul. 
The Sabbatical Year 
    Every seventh year in the Jewish calendar is a Sabbatical year, a year like the seventh day, a Sabbath like 
year. There are two prevalent theories about which years were Sabbatical years, one proposed by Ben Zion 
Wacholder, the other proposed by Benedict Zuckermann and Donald Blosser. These two competing theories 
differ from one another by only one year. Wacholder has the Sabbatical years as one year later than 
Zuckermann/Blosser. 
    My revised chronology places the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 
A.D.
 56, a Sabbatical 
year (
A.D.
 55/56) according to Wacholder. The usual chronology places the destruction of the Temple 14 
years later, in 
A.D.
 70, which was also a Sabbatical year (per Wacholder), or the year after a Sabbatical year 
(per Zuckermann). 
    Ancient Rabbinical tradition holds that the first and second Temples of Jerusalem were destroyed on the 
same month and day, Av 9.
1127
 Sacred Scripture states that the First Temple was destroyed on the tenth day of 
the fifth month (Jer 52:12), which is Av 10. Josephus gives the date for the destruction of the Second Temple 
as also the tenth day of the fifth month:  and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; 
it was the tenth day of the month Loos, upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon . 
1128
 The 
month of Loos is the fifth month (Xanthicus, Artemisius, Daisios, Panemus, Loos ), though in a leap year 
the month of Artemisius is repeated. Josephus is able to correlate the timing of the destruction of the First and 
Second Temples by not counting the leap month of second Artemisius (which would make Loos the sixth 
month in a leap year). Thus the destruction of each Temple occurred in the fifth calendar month. 
    The apparent disagreement, as to whether the Second Temple was burnt on Loos 9 or 10, is resolved by the 
detailed description given by Josephus of the burning of the Temple. He explains that the fire started on Loos 
8, beginning with the gates to the Temple.
1129
 On the next day, Loos 9, though the Roman soldiers had been 
setting on fire the buildings around the Sanctuary of the Temple, such as the cloisters, Titus commanded his 
soldiers to put out the fire.
1130
 Then, on Loos 10, a soldier set a window leading to the Sanctuary of the Temple 
(the  holy house ) on fire and it spread to the Sanctuary. Titus then sent soldiers to stop the fire and went into 
the Sanctuary himself to order the soldiers to put out the fire, but they would not all follow his orders. The 
Temple then burnt to the ground.
1131
 The Temple fire started on Loos 8 at the gates, spread on Loos 9 to the 
outer buildings of the Temple, and reached the Sanctuary of the Temple on Loos 10. That is why Rabbinical 
tradition counts the Temple as burning down on Loos 9, but Josephus counts the day as Loos 10. Of course, 
the Rabbinical tradition is that Loos coincided with the Jewish month of Av, whereas this revised chronology 
shows that Loos coincided with Elul. 
    Rabbinical tradition also states that Loos 9, the day the Temple burned down, was  immediately after the 
Sabbath,  and  immediately after the Sabbatical year. 
1132
 The description given by Josephus fits this idea that 
Loos 8 was the Sabbath (Sat.). The Romans completed building the works they used to assault the Temple 
walls:  two of the legions had completed their banks on the eighth day of the month Loos. 
1133
 Earlier in this 
same work, Josephus explains that the Jews would not make an attack on the Sabbath, but they would repel an 
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