Titus

The Roman emperor Titus should not be confused with Titus, Paul's fellow worker in the New Testament. The two share the same Latin name, but Korean churches distinguish them in Korean by rendering the biblical figure as Dido (디도) and the Roman emperor as Tituseu (티투스).

Life

Titus was the eldest son of Emperor Vespasian, founder of the Flavian dynasty. When the Jewish revolt against Rome, known as the First Jewish–Roman War, broke out in Judea in 66, he accompanied his father to suppress it. After Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in 69 and departed for Rome, Titus assumed command of the Judean campaign. He became emperor upon his father's death in 79 but died of illness in 81, a little more than two years later, and was succeeded by his younger brother Domitian.

Career and Achievements

The fall of Jerusalem. Titus laid siege to Jerusalem in the spring of 70 and captured the city that summer. During the conquest, the Jerusalem temple, as enlarged by Herod, was burned and destroyed. The Jewish historian Josephus, who stayed in Titus's camp and witnessed the war, later recorded it in The Jewish War. Josephus wrote that 1.1 million people died in the city, a figure that many scholars consider exaggerated.

Triumph and monuments. Sacred objects seized from the temple, such as the lampstand (menorah) and the table of showbread, were carried to Rome and displayed in the triumphal procession. The Arch of Titus, erected near the Roman Forum after his death, depicts this scene in relief.

Reign as emperor. His brief reign saw the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79, which buried Pompeii, and a great fire in Rome in 80. In the same year he completed and dedicated the amphitheater (the Colosseum) that his father had begun. He is known to have had a romantic relationship with Bernice (Berenice), who appears with King Agrippa in Acts 25.

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean church, Titus is frequently mentioned as historical background when explaining Jesus' prediction of the temple's destruction (Matthew 24:1–2; Luke 19:41–44; Luke 21:20–24). Many churches and commentaries present the fall of Jerusalem in 70 as the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Interpretations differ regarding Daniel 9:26: "and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary." Many Reformed commentators connect this verse with the destruction of the temple by Titus's Roman army. Dispensationalist interpretation holds that "the people" are the Romans but that "the prince that shall come" is the Antichrist of the end times.

The fall of Jerusalem also serves as a reference point in discussions of whether the New Testament documents were written before or after 70. Visits to the Arch of Titus are commonly included in pilgrimage itineraries to Rome.

Assessment

The Roman historian Suetonius called Titus "the darling and delight of the human race" and portrayed him as a generous emperor. Josephus recorded that Titus sought to preserve the temple but that his soldiers set it on fire. By contrast, the fourth-century Christian writer Sulpicius Severus reports that Titus himself decided to destroy the temple; this account is thought to derive from a lost work of Tacitus. The Talmud, a body of rabbinic literature, calls him "Titus the wicked" and remembers him as the one who desecrated the temple. Assessments of Titus thus vary widely among Roman, Jewish, and Christian traditions.