A HISTORY OF MESSIANIC SPECULATION IN

ISRAEL

CHAPTER I

THE TALMUDIC PERIOD

A. BEFORE 70 c. E.

The pathetic eagerness to read the riddle of Redemption and to discover the exact hour of the Messiah's advent was shared in common by Jews in Palestine and throughout the Diaspora, and continuously from the time of the loss of their national independence. In spite of rabbinic injunction and the admonitions of the more discerning among them, the quest proceeded with varying intensity clear down the ages. At times it seems to be the idle speculation of leisure minds, intrigued by the mystery; at other times it is the desperate search of men in great tribulation. Saadia, analyzing the locus classicus of Messianic prophecy-the Book of Daniel-appears in the rôle of a pious exegete, mystically biased, attempting to unravel a knotty problem. Isaac Abarbanel, an exile, crushed by the tragedy of the Spanish expulsion, seeks refuge and hope for himself and his afflicted brethren in the selfsame field of adventism.

The critical events in the history of the world which affected Jewish life invariably stimulated interest in such speculation. Great political changes, boding weal or woe for Israel, accelerated the tempo of expectancy. Wars, invasions, migrations of peoples, the rise and fall of dynasties were fraught with significance for the scattered Jewish communities, and the rich fancy of the people, stirred by the impact of these great events, sought to find in them intimations of the Great Fulfilment. The

Maccabean wars, the struggle with Rome, the fall of the Temple, the Bar Kochba uprising, the Perso-Roman wars, the fall of Rome, the rise of Islam, the Crusades, the coming of the Tartars, the expulsions, the Ottoman conquests, the religious wars of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, the Cossack rebellion of 1648, and many other momentous occurrences intensified, each in its time, the Messianic hope among the people and precipitated adventist speculations and movements in Israel.

That successive calculations proved false and seemingly certain forecasts never materialized did not at all discourage renewed essays in the field. The troubled heart would not surrender this precious enterprise. In dark hours the Messianic promise was the one prop and stay of suffering Israel, and the desperate wish for Redemption expressed itself in Messianic prognostications, even as desires often fulfil themselves in dreams. The forecasts were, of course, doomed to non-fulfilment, and the people in consequence suffered from disillusionments commensurate with the ardor of their expectations. Leaders in Israel, aware of the demoralizing effects of such frustrated hopes, attempted to dissuade the people from continuing their efforts to solve the mystery, but without avail. The dire urgencies of their life forced them to seek surcease from despair in apocalyptic fancies and Messianic romanticism.

These calculators sought, and apparently found, support in the Bible. The Bible seemed to offer precedent and warrant for such an occupation. The Book of Daniel, the one canonized apocalyptic tract out of the many which were widely circulated and held in high regard by the people, dwelt upon the mystery of the "end of days" and seemingly gave a clue to its solution. There were many other Biblical passages which seemed to point to the Messiah, and which, if properly interpreted, could be made to yield up the secret of his coming. All the ingenuity of rabbinic method in hermeneutics and homiletics was therefore brought into play, and words, phrases and letters, vowels, accents and tropes, and all the mystic

science of letter and numeral were marshaled into service. Prior to the first century the Messianic interest was not excessive, although such great historical events as the conquest of Persia by Alexander, the rule of the Ptolemies and the Seleucides, the persecutions under Antiochus, the revolt of the Maccabees, and the Roman aggression find their mystic-Messianic echo in the apocalyptic writings of the first two pre-Christian centuries. Calculations, however, as to the exact hour of the Messiah's appearance are wanting. Mention of the Messiah is made in some of the books of the Apocrypha, e.g., in Enoch (2 c. B. C. E.), in the Psalms of Solomon (1 c. B. C. E.) and at times in a well-defined technical sense; but it is significant that such books as Tobit (3 c. B. C. E.) which, through Persian influence, contains a rather well-developed eschatology and angelology, Ben Sirach (3 c. B. C. E.) and the Wisdom of Solomon (1 c. B. C. E.) make no mention whatever of the Messiah. Even in the apocalyptic Book of Jubilees (2 c. B. C. E.) he is mentioned only once.

The first century, however, especially the generation before the destruction, witnessed a remarkable outburst of Messianic emotionalism. This is to be attributed, as we shall see, not to an intensification of Roman persecution but to the prevalent belief induced by the popular chronology of that day that the age was on the threshold of the Millennium.

In the procuratorship of Cuspius Fadus (44 c. E.) the false prophet Theudas appeared, "and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus did not permit them to make any advantage of his wild attempt but sent a troop of horsemen out against them, who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive and cut off his head and carried it to Jerusalem." The Romans' severity was undoubtedly due to the fact that Theudas either enter

1 Unless Josephus' account of the predictions of the Pharisees in the case of Herod's brother Pheroras, and the eunuch Bagoas, implies such a calculation (Antiquities XVII. 2. 4. See also Schürer, Geschichte, II., p. 599). 2 Josephus, op. cit., XX. 5.1.

tained Messianic notions himself or announced himself as the Messiah. The Messianic hope, of course, always implied the overthrow of the Roman power in Palestine.

The movement gained headway under the procuratorship of Felix (52-60 c. E.). Numerous outbreaks are reported. "There were such men as deceived and deluded the people under the pretense of divine inspiration, but were for procuring innovations and changes of the government; and these prevailed with the multitude to act like madmen, and went before them into the wilderness, as pretending that God would there show them the signals of liberty; but Felix thought the procedure was to be the beginnings of a revolt; so he sent some horsemen and footmen, both armed, who destroyed a great number of them."3 An Egyptian prophet, undoubtedly an Egyptian Jew, now appears on the scene, whose short Messianic career brought sharp reprisals upon the Jews."

When Jesus came into Galilee, "spreading the gospel of the Kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfiled and the kingdom of God is at hand," he was voicing the opinion universally held that the year 5000 in the Creation calendar, which is to usher in the sixth millennium-the age of the Kingdom of God—was at hand. It was this chronologic fact which inflamed the Messianic hope of the people rather than Roman persecutions. There is no evidence anywhere to show that the political fortunes of the people in the second quarter of the first century of the common era-the period of many Messianic movements—were in any degree lower than those in the first quarter, in which no Messianic movements are recorded.

Jesus appeared in the procuratorship of Pontius Pilate (26-36 c. E.). The first mention of the appearance of a Messiah in Josephus is in connection with the disturbances during the term of office of the procurator Cuspius Fadus (c. 44 c. E.). It seems likely, therefore, that in the minds

3 Josephus Wars II. 13.4; Ant. XX, 8.6.

4 Ibid. The Egyptian prophet is also mentioned in Acts 21. 38.

5 Mk. 1.14-15.

See also Mk. 9.1, 13.30; Matt. 10.23. See infra, pp. 16 ff.

of the people the Millennium was to begin around the year 30 c. E.

Be it remembered that it is not the Messiah who brings about the Millennium; it is the inevitable advent of the Millennium which carries along with it the Messiah and his appointed activities. The Messiah was expected around the second quarter of the first century c. E., because the Millennium was at hand. Prior to that time he was not expected, because according to the chronology of the day the Millennium was still considerably removed.

The central theme of the preachment of Jesus and of John the Baptist, whom Jesus hailed as the Elijah who was to announce the advent of the Millennium," as well as of the disciples of Jesus, was repentance. The day of repentance will precede the actual Millennium. Thus The Assumption of Moses, which was probably written during the very lifetime of Jesus, states: "And receive thou this writing that thou mayest know how to preserve the books... until the day of repentance in the visitation wherewith the Lord will visit them in the consummation of the end of the days." (1.17-18). Only those who would repent would be spared the purging and cleansing process antecedent to the Millennium-"the wrath that is to come."8

Jesus' essential mission was apocalyptic, not prophetic. He was more of the mystic than the moralist. His impassioned concern was not to reconstruct society but to save it from the winnowing and retributive judgment which was imminent in the van of the approaching Millennium. He sought to save men from the birth-throes of the Messianic times. The ethical counsel which he gave to his followers was for a world in extremis. It was to help them survive the terrors to come and to be worthy of the perfect Kingdom, the new order of existence which the Millennium would usher in. The Kingdom will be not the moral achievement of men but the pre-ordained act of divinity. The whole epic of Jesus must be read in the light

'Mal. 3.23; Matt. 11.11-15.

8 Matt. 3.7.