Among legends related to Johanan ben Zakkai and his escape from the Roman siege of Jerusalem is a claim that he forecasted that Vespasian would rise to the status of emperor and destroy the temple. The Talmud contains the following record of an exchange that took place after Johanan b. Zakkai addressed Vespasian as a king:
He said to him, “You deserve death on two [counts]. First, I am not a king. Second, if I am a king, why did you not come to me until now?”
He said to him, “As for what you said, ‘I am not a king,’ in truth you are a king. For if you were not a king, Jerusalem would not be delivered into your hands, for it says, Lebanon shall fall to the mighty one (Isa. 10:34) and ‘mighty one’ refers to a king, as it says, His mighty one shall come from his midst (Jer. 30:21), and ‘Lebanon’ refers to the temple , as it says, That good hill country and the Lebanon (Deut. 3:25). And as for what you said, ‘If I am a king, why did you not come to me?’ – the thugs among us would not let me.”
(Trans. by Rubenstein, Rabbinic Stories, p. 44. A later rabbinic work Avot d’Rabbi Natan 4 notes that within three days time the previous emperor died and Vespasian was promoted to the position.)
Mention of "Lebanon" with reference to the temple is similar to Johanan's citation of Zechariah 11:1 included in b. Yoma 39 (see previous post). Although the Talmud was compiled long after 70 ad, the tradition that relays Johanan's views may date back to the first century. Johanan may have anticipated the destruction of the Second Temple in accord with the material recorded after the fact.
Meanwhile, the story suggests that Johanan received favor from Vespasian after the latter gained further status. Eventually Vespasian extended a favor to the Jewish dignitary, so Johanan requested Yavneh and the sages of Israel. As the city and temple were toppled by Rome, two of Johanan's students then delivered him from the wartime chaos by carting him out of Jerusalem in a casket. His rescue gave birth to an academy of religious Jewish learning at a town called Yavneh and--as some claim--rabbinic Judaism. The larger narrative is contained in the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 55b-57a).
[Note: Toward the end of the text one recognizes that Titus, Balaam, and Jesus are all described as subject to shameful torturous fates. The description of Titus isn't difficult to account for as the representative of Rome. Balaam attempted to curse Israel. Possibly Jesus is associated with the villains in part due to his accurate prediction of the demise of the Second Temple as well as his having pointed out why the temple was to be demolished.]
Interestingly, Josephus appears to have also predicted Vespasian's rise to power (cf. Wars 3.1-8).