Jewish Messiah claimants

The Messiah in Judaism has a number of interpretations, historical and eschatological, including any king chosen by God; a holy king who will lead the Israelites and Proselytes; and someone who will usher in a Messianic Era in the world to come. Some messianic movements later split from Judaism, including the followers of Jesus whose religion became Christianity and some of the followers of Sabbatai Zevi, who became the Dönmeh.

List of Jewish messiah claimants

In Judaism, messiah (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ; mashiach, mashiah, moshiach or moshiah, "anointed [one]") originally meant a divinely appointed king or "anointed one" and included Jewish priests, prophets and kings such as David, Cyrus the Great [1] or Alexander the Great.[2] Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BCE) and the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135 CE), the figure of the Jewish Messiah was one who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in an Olam HaBa ("world to come") or Messianic Age.

Some people were looking forward to a military leader who would defeat the Seleucid or Roman enemies and establish an independent Jewish kingdom. Others, like the author of the Psalms of Solomon, stated that the Messiah was a charismatic teacher who would give the correct interpretation of Mosaic law, restore Israel, and judge mankind.[3]

Before the Common Era

1st century

Jesus Christ

2nd century

5th century

7th century

The Khuzistan Chronicle records an otherwise-unknown Messianic claimant who arose alongside the Muslim conquest of Khuzistan. This Messiah led the Jews to destroying numerous Christian churches in Iraq and coastal Iran.[18]

8th century

The pseudo-Messiahs that followed played their roles in the Orient, and were at the same time religious reformers whose work influenced Karaism. Appearing at the first part of the 8th century in Persia:

12th century

Under the influence of the Crusades the number of Messiahs increased, and the 12th century records many of them;

13th century

15th century

16th century

17th century

Shabbatai Tzvi in 1665
Main article: Sabbateans

18th century

19th century

20th century

See also

References

  1. Jewish Encyclopedia: Messiah: "In Isa. xlv. 1 Cyrus is called "God's anointed one," ...:
  2. "Messiah: Alexander as Messiah". Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  3. Messiah (overview) on livius.org
  4. "The people were hoping for the Messiah, conceived as another Judah Maccabee, who would be raised up to vanquish the heathen occupation forces." "Hanukkah and Jesus"
  5. "John Gill's Exposition of the Bible entry on Daniel 8:14
  6. Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 17.278-284
  7. (JA 17.10.7)
  8. "Compilation of many sources at". Adherents.com. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
  9. Judas the Galilean (6 CE) on livius.org
  10. Josephus B.J. 2.441-2
  11. B.J. 2.447-8
  12. Jona Lendering. "Theudas". Livius. Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  13. "What more than all else incited them [the Jews] to the [1st Roman] war was an ambiguous oracle ... found in their sacred scriptures, to the effect that at that time one from their country would become ruler of the world. This they understood to mean someone of their own race, and many of their wise men went astray in their interpretation of it. The oracle, however, in reality signified the sovereignty of Vespasian who was proclaimed Emperor on Jewish soil" — Josephus' Jewish War 6.312-13 in Crossan's Who Killed Jesus?, page 44, ISBN 0-06-061479-X
  14. Josephus (c. 75). "Book VII". The Jewish War. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. Lukuas (115 CE) on livius.org
  16. (Socrates, "Historia Ecclesiastica," vii. 38; Grätz, "Gesch." 3d ed., iv. 354-355)
  17. (John of Nikiu, "Chronicle," LXXXVI.1-11)
  18. Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It (Princeton: Darwin Press, 1997), 28
  19. for other forms of his name and for his sect see "J. Q. R." xvi. 768, 770, 771; Grätz, l.c. v., notes 15 and 17
  20. This is the dating of the Muslim heresiologist Shahrastani. As of 1997, there was an alternate dating ascribed to the Karaite Qirqisani: Robert Hoyland, 28. Note 60 cites: L. Nemoy, "Al-Qirqisani's Account of the Jewish Sects", Hebrew Union College Annual 7 (1930), 317-97; 328. Stephen M. Wasserstrom, "The Isawiyya Revisited", Studia Islamica 75 (1992), 57-80; EIr, "Abu Isa Esfahani", Yoram Erder, "The Doctrine of Abu Isa al-Isfahani and its Sources", JSAI 20 (1996), 162-199. To that we may now add Halil Ibrahim Bulut, "ISEVIYYE (Islam Dunyasinda Ortaya Cikan Ilk Yahudi Mezhebi)", Ekev Academic Review, 8.18 (Jan. 2004) 297-318; 300-1.
  21. Hoyland, ibid.
  22. Hoyland, 654. Also Theophanes, trans. Harry Turtledove (U. of Penn. Press, 1982), 93 but without naming him.
  23. Hoyland, 28; on the publications of this Chronicle up to 1997: Hoyland, 739.
  24. Zuqnin Chronicle apud Hoyland.
  25. Jewish Encyclopedia 1901-5. Hoyland cites instead Leo III's forced baptism of Jews, but if that were the case then Serene should have been agitating against Constantinople rather than against the Muslim amirate.
  26. Jewish Encyclopedia
  27. Hoyland, citing Theophilus. This must be from the synopsis between Agapius, the 1234 Chronicle, and Michael the Syrian. Theophanes says only that he "deceived" them.
  28. Heinrich Grätz, Geschichte der Juden, l.c. note 14. This is the source of the 1901-6 Jewish Encyclopedia;, Grätz had this information from Natronai's Gaonic Responsa [Moda'i]
  29. Theophilus in Hoyland, 654, just says that Yazid had him executed.
  30. Hoyland 28 n. 59 cites Gaonic Responsa 3.V.10.
  31. Moses al-Dar'i (c.1127) on livius.org
  32. The Yemenite Messiah (c.1172) on livius.org
  33. Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1973 ISBN 0-7100-7703-3, American Edition, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973 ISBN 0-691-09916-2 (hardcover edn.); Gershom Scholem, "Shabbetai Zevi," in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Farmington Hills, Michigan, 2007, vol. 18, pp. 340–359. ISBN 978-0-02-865946-6.
  34. Moses Guibbory on livius.org
  35. Susan Handelman, The Lubavitcher Rebbe Died 20 Years Ago Today. Who Was He?, Tablet Magazine
  36. Adin Steinsaltz, My Rebbe. Maggid Books, page 24
  37. Dara Horn, June 13, 2014 "Rebbe of Rebbe's". The Wall Street Journal.
  38. Aharon Lichtenstein, Euligy for the Rebbe. June 16, 1994.
  39. The New York Times, Statement From Agudas Chasidei Chabad, Feb 9, 1996.
  40. Famed Posek Rabbi Menashe Klein: Messianic Group Within Chabad Are Apikorsim
  41. On Chabad
  42. Public Responsa from Rabbi Aharon Feldman on the matter of Chabad messiansim (Hebrew), 23 Sivan, 5763 - http://moshiachtalk.tripod.com/feldman.pdf. See also Rabbi Feldman's letter to David Beger: http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/feldman_berger_sm_2.jpg
  43. Berger, David (April 1, 2008). The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference. Littman Library Of Jewish Civilization. ISBN 978-1904113751.

Bibliography

External links

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