20. Since the disciples were to flee from Judea, why were the details of Jesus’ instructions to them fitting?

²⁰ Jesus here definitely mentions the province of Judea. He instructs his disciples to flee out of it, a thing that would necessarily include fleeing out of Jerusalem, the city holy to the Jews.

Then let those in Judea begin fleeing to the mountains, and let those in the midst of her withdraw, and let those in the country places not enter into her;

So from the retreat of the armies of General Gallus in November of 66 to early spring of 70 C.E. there was an interval of more than three years and five months. During that favorable interval the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem and Judea seized the opportunity to flee out, to the “mountains” outside that doomed province, for now they knew, from what Jesus said, that Jerusalem’s desolation had drawn near. Thus these Christian “chosen ones” escaped.