That is your response about prophecy after the fact? wow.
As I wrote previously, the gospels (especially of Matthew, Luke & John) were definitely written after 70 CE. While the gospel of Mark was composed between 65 and 75 CE. The exact dates of composition are only estimated, but the gospels were definitely not written at the time of Jesus’ ministry and/or the time of death/resurrection in 33 CE.
Older than the gospel of Mark, are most of the Pauline letters (some of the letters attributed to Paul were written after his death).
By then the Jewish rebellion (or the Roman-Jewish War), the war itself, have already started in 66 CE. But the tensions between Jews and Romans have been brewing for decades. So there were no surprises at all, by the time whoever wrote these gospels.
And like
@ChristineM said, gospel prophecies written after 70 CE, aren’t prophecies.
The problems with the New Testament, is that nothing pertaining to the NT writings are reliable. The historicity of the NT is very sparse. Like that of Jesus’ birth in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, regarding to Roman practices, eg the census.
According to gospel of Luke, the Roman census took place in Herod’s reign. But Roman census are only carried out in Roman provinces. Herod was still king of Judaea, and Judaea was a vassal kingdom to Rome, but it wasn’t made a. Roman province till 6 CE, which was 10 years after Herod’s death (in 4 BCE).
Augustus annexed Judaea, after he banished Herod’s son, Herod Archelaus, from Judaea in 6 CE.
Publius Sulpicius Quirinius was indeed appointed legate of Syria and to carry out the census in Judaea, but that occurred after Archelaus exile and Judaea was made a province in the Roman Empire. He was governor of Syria between 6 CE and 12 CE.
Even Josephus agree with the Roman records as to when Judaea was made a province, when Quirinius was in Syria and when the census occurred.
At the time of Herod was still alive, Quirinius was legate of Galatea, from 12 to 1 BCE, commanding army to quell a rebellion in Cilicia.
The governors of Syria at the time before Herod’s death were Gaius Sentius Saturninus (9 – 7/6 BCE) and Publius Quinctilius Varus (7/6 – 4 BCE). No census were carried out in Judaea, while Saturninus and Varus were serving in Syria. Josephus have also clearly stated Saturninus and Varus in his Antiquities of the Jews.
More importantly, Varys was a very prominent Roman, since he was a son-in-law of famous Marcus Agrippa, Augustus’ long time friend, ally and son-in-law of Augustus. Agrippa was largely responsible for Augustus’ victories over Mark Antony.
Another thing is that Roman census are carried out for where people lived, not at the ancestral home, like the gospel claimed.
If Joseph was resident of Nazareth in Galilee, then he didn’t need to travel and register at Bethlehem, since Joseph didn’t live there.
So that’s another thing the gospel of Luke got wrong, when it concern history.
The gospel of Luke was wrong about who was governor of Syria in the last years before Herod’s death, and everything about the census (when it was carried out and by whom was carrying it out, and how the system works). It just show how inaccurate the gospel of Luke is.
Note that while I considered Josephus as an ordinary historian, he was friend of Titus, so Josephus have had Roman sources to rely on, eg Roman annals, official records. Josephus even took part in the rebellion, before he became prisoner and hostage, before he befriended the future Roman emperor.