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Abstract
This chapter takes recent historical reconsiderations of 70 CE as a significant but not ultimately or universally disruptive event as a basis from which to reconsider the rhetorical crafting of the destruction of the Temple/Jerusalem as the event that "made all the difference." It argues that such a recrafting began among early Christians primarily in the wake of the Bar Kochba revolt. Justin Martyr, in particular, seems to have taken the lead in using a range of biblical texts to cast the events of 70, in conjunction with the aftermath of the Bar Kochba revolt, as a direct consequence of Jesus' crucifixion. The chapter suggests that the Christian construction of 70 becomes a shadow partner of the producers of the Mishnah and later rabbinic literature in conceptualizing what it means for Jews to be God's people.