The Colosseum and Bible Prophecy

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN ITALY

AN ANCIENT inscription found in the Colosseum of Rome, Italy, may indirectly confirm a Bible prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem. The inscription evidently has to do with the building and inauguration of the Colosseum in 80 C.E. As reconstructed by Professor Géza Alföldy of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, the inscription reads: “The Emperor Titus Vespasian Caesar Augustus had the new amphitheater erected with the proceeds of the booty.” What booty?

“We are talking about the immense booty taken by Titus in the war against the Jews,” says Alföldy, “and in particular, the gold furnishings” of the temple in Jerusalem. This temple was destroyed in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. (Matthew 24:1, 2; Luke 21:5, 6) Alföldy concludes that the Colosseum—along with the famed Arch of Titus, which depicts the Roman victors loaded with the booty taken in the Jewish war—is a monument to this historic victory of the Romans.