According to Jewish messianic prophecy (Eze 43), the Messiah king would rebuild the temple during the messianic age, and there would be peace and understanding of God by the whole world.
Very likely, the Romans knew about this prophetic belief of the Jews and they also knew that if they were to allow the temple to be rebuilt, according to this common belief among the Jews, a messiah who would also be a king might rise up and and lead an insurrection against Rome, who were the greatest enemies of the Jews at that time. This messiah king was prophesied to save God’s people from “their enemies and those that hated them” — he was to be the prophesied messiah king of the Jews. To the Jews, Messiah was to be a great king like king David of whom Messiah was to be a flesh and blood descendant.
The Temple that was Never Rebuilt
Consequently, this is the most likely reason the Romans not only destroyed the temple, but threw down every stone to make it impossible for the Jews to rebuild it, blocking the way for a Jewish messiah king to arise.
Jesus, who was believed by many, to be the prophesied messiah king, NEVER SAW the temple rebuilt at his coming, which disqualified Jesus to be the Messiah king. On the contrary, he was executed by the Romans, instead of ousting the enemies of the Jews as the Messiah king was prophesied to do.
The Gospel according to Matthew, has Jesus prophesying about the very thing that the Romans actually did:
See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Mat 24:2)
Was this a fulfillment of prophecy or the insertion of an actual event as a forgery that already happened?
Since there are no manuscripts of the 4 Gospels from the first century, when this gospel was assumed to be written, there is no way to know for sure if these words were actually spoken by Jesus, or not. The earliest manuscripts we have of the gospels are from the fourth century. Did Jesus really say these words? No one really knows.
A Forgery?
Knowing that the Romans had already completely destroyed the temple, and Jesus failed at saving the Jews from the Romans as the messiah king was prophesied to do when Jesus was executed for being a king, the writers may have added a few words to make it look like Jesus was making a prophecy, when in fact that event had already occurred. (these writers, who are unknown, have inserted many provable forgeries in the New Testament)
Fast forward, to more recent times… Christian scholars assume that the gospels are from the first century around 70 AD, because of Jesus’ prophecy that was assumed to be “fulfilled” in 70 AD when the Romans completely destroyed the temple and “threw down” every stone according to the author of Matthew 24.
So now what we have is the temple NOT being rebuilt, that was supposed to herald in the messianic age; possible forgeries that make Jesus look like a prophet after he failed as the Jews’ messiah king; and the assumption that the Greek gospels were written in the first century based on a questionable “fulfilled” prophecy in Matthew 24.
Since Jesus left the scene after his execution, other wannabe messiah kings arose trying to fill the void Jesus left, and ultimately failed also. These rebellions against the Roman occupiers ultimately culminated into the Jewish Roman wars in which thousands of Jews died and were executed for insurrection.
Gradually, the Christianity of Paul won out in the end and ironically became the official religion of Rome, of whose central figure and founder was Jesus the very man the Romans executed falsely for leading an insurrection against the Roman empire.
Nevertheless, though Jesus did not meet the requirements of the Messiah king prophesied in Jewish scriptures, he was the greatest Master to ever walk the Earth. The question of this writing is not who was Jesus, but just how valid is the information is the information that has been passed down to us through the centuries?
Explain Away Anything that doesn’t Coincide with their Interpretations
To get around the fact that the Temple was never rebuilt at the coming of Jesus, scholars explain it away by saying that the real temple was “those who believe in him”. The temple that Jesus rebuilt was not a literal temple. Moreover, to explain away that their messiah wasn’t a king, they say he really was a king, but not a literal king — as he “said” his kingdom is not of this world.
Conclusion:
It is incorrect for scholars to assume that the first Greek gospel was written around 70 AD as that was the time that the Romans destroyed the temple which was an “apparent” fulfillment of a prophecy by Jesus, because no one really knows what the original gospel according to Matthew actually said. Since we have no original first manuscripts to verify the actual words that were spoken by Jesus, it is impossible to know if those words were really spoken by him. For all we know, the 4 gospels may have been written in the second century.