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The concept of Messiah , the "Anointed One" of God who would one day come to redeem his people from oppression at the beginning of an era of World Peace has been the sustaining hope of the Jewish people for more generations than most other nations have even existed. The details about what this Messiah would do and when he would arise, however, have always been somewhat vague. Among the expectations of Messiah which seem universal are the following:
Beyond these "basics", conceptions of Messiah vary. Maimonides said Messiah would live long, but eventually die. He would be tested as a Warrior King, whom the world would follow into the ideal political state. He would be wiser than all men, and greater than all the prophets since Moses. There would be no change in the laws of nature, but society would be perfected.
Others saw Messiah as a miracle worker, who would reestablish Israel by supernatural power, and that his kingdom would be indestructible.
The ultimate source of all doctrines of Messiah is the Tanakh, especially the prophets and the book of Daniel, which in the Hebrew canon is classified as Ketubim or "writings." However, virtually every Biblical book is called upon by one sage or another to provide some insight about the Messiah. The Psalms and even Genesis, Numbers and Job are seen by some commentators as containing Messianic material. Distilling a clear, consistent picture out all of this material is a difficult task. On the one hand, Daniel 7:13 portrays Messiah as coming in great triumph "in the clouds," on the other hand, Zechariah 9:9 says he comes riding a donkey. In Daniel 7:14, he comes with power, in Isaiah 42:3 he does not even break a bruised reed. Sometimes it seems that Messiah is destined to rule the nations (Daniel 7:14), at other times it seems that God himself will rule (as in Isaiah 24:23). In one place he is presented as a man of peace, in another as a man of war.
Perhaps in attempt to make sense of such apparently contradictory Messianic images, the sages developed a "dual Messiah" concept. In this view there would be two Messiahs: Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. The prophets spoke of a time of great trouble before the final Redemption. This time of trouble became known as "birth pangs of the Messiah," or hevlei Meshiach. Before the triumphant Messiah ben David could come, the Messiah "ben Joseph" or "Son of Joseph," would lead the Jews in war and be killed in battle. Only after this would the Messiah ben David arise and take his place as ruler of Israel and the world. [Klausner, p. 485]
Messianic Contenders and Pretenders
At about the time of Herod the Great, Messianic expectations were running high. Not only was the nation oppressed by a foreign power, but according to Abba Hillel Silver, there was a widely held belief that the days of Messiah were at hand. [Silver , p. 9] Silver reports that, according to the popular chronology of that time, the world had attained the age of 5,000 years. As it was also widely believed the world would last only 6,000 years (1,000 years for each day of creation), and that the Messiah would reign for 1,000 years before the end of the world, it was evident that he was due at any minute. It was into this Messiah-hungry environment that Yeshua came with his version of Redemption, but before and after him were many others with their own ideas about deliverance. Some seem to have been well-meaning nationalists who were hailed as Messiahs by ardent admirers. Others may have been charlatans, fools, or mentally ill.
Judah the Galilean, about 10 BCE, is known to us from Josephus, who identifies him as Pharisaical in overall orientation, but with a strong emphasis on allegiance to God alone. He claimed it was shameful to pay tribute to Romans, and founded the movement known as the Zealots to oppose Roman domination. Josephus notes with admiration their determination and bravery, which indeed is legendary, yet it is evident from history that they did not usher in the Messianic age. [Jos., Ant. 18:23].
Theudas led a group of people to the Jordan River, claiming that he would miraculously part the waters before them. The group was intercepted by Roman authorities, and Theudas was beheaded. [Jos. Ant. 20-97ff]. A religious impostor of this name is also mentioned in the New Testament as an example of cult leaders who come and go. [See Acts 5:35-39].
Josephus also mentions a Jew from Egypt who led 30,000 men to the Mount of Olives, with the intent of forcibly taking Jerusalem from the Romans. He was intercepted by the forces of the Roman procurator, and Josephus reports that the Egyptian fled, leaving many of his unfortunate followers to be killed in battle. [Jos. Wars, 2:261ff]. [See also Acts 5:35-39].
Around 133 CE, Simon Bar-Kosiba arose as a champion of Jewish nationalism, and was heralded by Rabbi Akiva as the Messiah, who renamed him Simon Bar-Kochba, "Simon Son of the Star." Bar-Kochba led the Jews in a revolt against Rome after Hadrian forbade circumcision, Torah study and observance of the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The 3½ year rebellion cost many lives, and the Romans eventually won only by cutting off supplies to one stronghold after another until the Jews could no longer hold out. Bar-Kochba himself was finally taken with the last stronghold and Roman suspicion of the Jews and their religion was intensified, so the end result was a worsening of the Jewish condition.
Moses of Crete is a later figure who claimed he would lead the Jews of his island to the Holy Land without need of ships. A large number followed him to a cliff on the coast of Crete, where he commanded them to dive into the water, which was supposed to miraculously part before them. The sea was apparently not impressed by Moses, and refused to part. As a consequence a great many trusting souls met their death.
In the early middle ages, with the rise of Islam, (about 700 CE) one Abu 'Isa proclaimed himself Messiah and began to preach his own brand of Judaism, with a relaxation of the dietary laws, and the recognition of both Mohammed and Yeshua as prophets. He led his followers into a fateful battle in which he was killed, although some of his followers claimed he had merely disappeared into a hole in the side of the mountain. In any case he was never heard from again, and the lot of the Jews was not in any appreciable way improved.
In the later middle ages a new threat arose in the form of the Crusades. Ironically, the Crusades themselves were brought on at least in part by Messianic fervor within the church, which believed that with the coming of the new millennium on their calendar, the coming of Antichrist and the return of Christ must be imminent, and that it was therefore contingent upon Christ to seize control of the Holy Land, which had by that time been taken by the Muslims. In their zeal against the "infidels," the Crusaders also increased their persecution of the Jews, thereby intensifying Jewish yearning for a Messiah to deliver them from oppression.
Among the Messiah-mongers to come forth to "encourage" the people at this time was Moses Al-Dar'i. So certain was he that Messiah would come at Passover of the year 1127, that he encouraged the Jews of Morocco to heap up debts to their Muslim neighbors by agreeing to buy things at many times their actual value. When Messiah did not appear, Al-Dar'i's followers were left destitute.
During the Second Crusade, in the early 12th century, a magician/adventurer named David Alroy began an extensive propaganda campaign to rally a revolt against the King of Persia. He proclaimed himself Messiah to Babylonian Jewry, awing them with miraculous "signs." Legend has it that two Jews forged a letter from Alroy and sent it to the community of Baghdad, telling them to wait on the rooftops to be flown to Eretz Israel on the wings of angels. What ultimately became of Alroy is hard to say with certainty, owing to the lack of reliable documentation, but one report claims he was eventually assassinated by his father-in-law. In any event, Alroy, too, failed to usher in the "Messianic Age."
Maimonides reports that in 1172 a "Messiah" arose in Yemen. He told his followers to give all their wealth to the poor. When captured by the Arabs, who demanded he prove his claim, he told them that if they cut off his head, he would immediately come to life. The captors obliged, but the would-be Messiah failed to live up (so to speak) to his claims.
In the late 13th century, a Sicilian Kabbalist named Abulafia, or Abraham ben Samuel, began circulating apocalyptic literature. He prophesied Messiah would come in 1295, and considered himself either the Messiah or his messenger. He went as far as to call himself the Son of God (!), and in 1280 approached the Pope to ask his cooperation in restoring the Jews to their land. The Pope sentenced him to death instead. As the Pope died before the execution took place, Abulafia went free, but did Messiah come?.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was taken by many to be an eschatological portent, and many rumors of Messiah began to circulate.
Around 1500, Asher Lämmlin became the first Ashkenazic Messianic claimant. He supposedly showed "many signs and proofs" and won a large following, even among the learned. Men are reported to have smashed their matzo ovens in the firm conviction that they would be "next year in Jerusalem." When Messiah failed to appear by the end of 1502, many were so disillusioned they abandoned Judaism altogether.
David Reubeni was a man of charisma who believed he had a mission to restore the Jews to Eretz Israel. He denied that he was "the Messiah," but was nevertheless hailed as such by many admirers. Among his admirers was a proselyte who took the name Solomon Molko. These two joined forces, but were eventually arrested by the Inquisition. Molko was executed and Reubeni imprisoned.
The year 1666 was considered a Messianic Year by many at the time, and so the time was ripe for the most successful (in terms of followers) pseudo-Messiah to date. Shabbetai Tsevi was born in Smyrna in 1626. It so happened he was born on the 9th of Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the temple, which one tradition held should be the birth date of the Messiah. Shabbetai is reported to have been a brilliant student, but subject to extreme mood swings. Gershom Scholem believes he suffered from manic-depression. Shabbetai finished his studies at Yeshiva at the age of 15. From there he went on to study Kabballah. At one point, (apparently during one of his "manic" episodes), he claimed to have heard a voice declaring him Messiah. Shabbetai shocked many of his correligionists by uttering the Holy Name of God, as tradition said the Messiah would speak it again. Nevertheless, Tsevi gained a following, including Nathan of Gaza, who became his "Elijah." With Nathan's help, his following increased more and more, and many who at first had opposed him were eventually won over. In the climatic year 1666, the would-be-Messiah marched boldly into Constantinople, expecting the Turkish Sultan to be so overwhelmed by his presence that he would surrender the throne to him on sight. Instead, Shabbetai was arrested and detained in a fortress. Undaunted, he made his prison his castle, even holding court there for his still-loyal Jewish subjects. When audience was finally granted, the Sultan gave him an ultimatum: either prove his extravagant claim or die. Shabbetai not only backed down, but even consented to convert to Islam! The Jewish world was shocked. Many relinquished Shabbetianism at this point, but others accepted the explanation offered by Shabbetai's "court:" that the time was not right for redemption, and that in order for Shabbetai to save his people he must descend into the realm of Kelippah by accepting Islam! Shabbetai died on Yom Kippur, 1676, but there were still believers who had "kept the faith." Shabbateans who had followed their leader even into Islam were the forebears of the Dönmeh sect, which survives in Turkey to modern times.
Jacob Frank was one of several who claimed to be the reincarnation of Shabbetai Tsevi. He preached that the Redemption had not come in 1666 because the Jews were not fully repentant. Frank reasoned (if you can call it reason), that the people had not been repentant because their sinful appetites were not yet satisfied! Frank's "solution" was to indulge every impulse until it was no longer attractive; only then would men be ready to repent! This bizarre theology attracted many followers, but did not convince the Rabbis, who excommunicated Frank in 1765.
In modern times, the Lubavitcher Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn has been proclaimed Messiah by certain members of the Chabad movement. Schneersohn was born in 1902, and later married the daughter of the Lubavitcher Rabbi at the time. He emigrated from Berlin to New York in 1941, narrowly escaping the Holocaust, in which most of the rest of his family was killed. When his father-in-law died in 1951, Schneersohn became the new Lubavitcher Rabbi. Under his direction, Chabad rabbis have gone out trying to reach non-Orthodox Jews to bring them back into Jewish tradition. This active outreach mentality seems to be a key in ascribing Messiahship to Schneersohn, yet it is only a minority within Chabad that actively proclaim him. According to Allen S. Maller, most orthodox Jews would not commit to him unless he succeeds in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. (Zech 6:13)
Attitudes
In different times and places there have been varying attitudes about the day-to-day pragmatics of Messianic belief. At one extreme is the entirely passive attitude that God will bring Messiah in his own good time, and nothing can be done to either hasten or delay it. At the other extreme is the entirely secularist attitude that the Jewish people must be their own "Messiah," and bring about the age of Peace through their own efforts to alter political and social realities. Other views fall somewhere in between -- God will haste the day if Israel repents, or God inspires his people to do the works that will lead to the establishment of the age envisioned by the prophets.
Conclusion.
We have seen that Messianic hopes can sustain a people through times of trouble, but false hopes can lead to disillusionment, and misdirected faith can lead to disaster. Attempts to calculate the time of Messiah are apt to lead to disillusionment. Rabbi Jonathan saw the danger of raising false hopes as early as the second century, when he warned "Perish all those who calculate the end, for men will say, since the predicted end is here and the Messiah has not come, he will never come." [Sanhedrin 97b]. Maimonides similarly warned, "Nor should a man calculate the end. He should wait and believe in the essential fact (of his coming, alone)." [as quoted by Silver, p. 214 (parentheses added by Silver)]
Let us be careful not be deceived by Messiahs who are not Messiahs. Let us pray that God will send him when the time is right, and that if that time is our own may we recognize him, and until then may we work to give the world a taste of that Day, until it comes in fullness.
Are there any other past contenders for the role of Messiah worthy of a second look? According to the Brit ha-Hadashah, there arose in the days of the Second Temple a certain teacher called Yeshua -- of the Line of David but raised in the Galil. This man accepted the title of Messiah, but did not emphasize the term in presenting himself to the public. Perhaps this was because he realized the disparity between his own idea of what Messiah must do and popular expectations associated with "the Messiah." Yeshua apparently understood the "dying Messiah" passages alluded to earlier as referring not to an abortive Messiah who would be killed in battle, but to one who would die with divine purpose. He believed his death would in itself be somehow essential in effecting the spiritual salvation of Man as a prerequisite to the political and material redemption of Israel and the world. Although the number of Jews who believed in him was significant, the larger part of Jewry, noting that the Nazarene had not initiated the "Messianic Age" as painted by the prophets, wrote him off as an impostor. He was betrayed by one of his own circle and given up for execution by the Roman government on trumped-up charges of insurrection.
With most "Messiahs" that would have been the end of the story, but the great teacher's students claimed that he had risen from the dead, and that they had seen him alive and well on numerous occasions, that he had spoken with them and even eaten with them. They were sufficiently emboldened by this experience that they endured great persecution in order to proclaim the good news that God was indeed working a miracle of redemption not only for Israel but for all the world.
See Also The Messiah of Prophecy and What Do You Make of Yeshua?
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