II. Historical Survey

II. HISTORICAL SURVEY
The prophecies of the Book of Daniel (about 167 to 165 before Christ) had a profound influence upon the form of the Messianic idea. In the time of the affliction (עֵת צָרָה, 12:1), which had come upon Israel by reason of the insane measures of Antiochus Epiphanes, the prophet predicts the approaching deliverance. God will Himself sit in judgment on the kingdoms of this world, and will take from them power and dominion, and root up and destroy them for ever. But “the saints of the Most High” will receive the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever. All peoples and nations and tongues will serve them, and their kingdom will never be destroyed (7:9-27, 2:44). The righteous too who have fallen asleep will have their share in it; for they will awake from the dust of the earth to everlasting life, but the ungodly to everlasting contempt (12:2). Whether the author conceived of this kingdom of the saints of the Most High, as with a Messianic King at its head, cannot be made out, at any rate he makes no mention of him. For he, who appears in the form of a man (כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ, 7:13), is by no means the personal Messiah, but, as the author plainly and expressly says in the interpretation, the people of the saints of the Most High (7:18, 22, 27). As the kingdoms of the world are represented by beasts, which rise up out of the sea, so is the kingdom of the saints represented by a human form, which descends from the clouds of heaven. The coming up out of the sea, i.e. the abyss, points to the anti-divine origin of the former, the coming from heaven to the divine origin of the latter. Thus the core of Daniel’s Messianic hope is the universal dominion of the saints (see especially 2:44, 7:14, 27). And indeed the author does not, as might appear from chap. 7, conceive of this as brought about by a mere judicial sentence of God. On the contrary, he says expressly (2:44), that the kingdom of the saints shall “break in pieces and destroy,” i.e. conquer by force of arms the world-kingdoms, by the help indeed of God and according to His will. It is also deserving of attention, that in this book the hope in a resurrection of the body is for the first time plainly and decidedly expressed (12:2). Hence here as formerly, the Messianic hope is the hope of a glorious future for the nation, but with the double modification that the future kingdom of Israel is conceived of as a universal kingdom, and that all the saints who have died will share in it.
In the apocryphal books of the Old Testament[1825] the Messianic hope cannot, by reason of the historical or didactic nature of these books, be brought prominently forward. But it is by no means absent from them. Thus we find, in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, all the essential elements of the older Messianic hope, the expectation of penal judgment upon the heathen (Sir_32:18-19; Sir_33:1 sqq.), the deliverance of Israel from their troubles (Sir_50:24), the gathering of the dispersed (33:11), the everlasting duration of the nation (37:25, 40:13), nay, the everlasting duration of the Davidic dynasty (47:11). In the other apocryphal books too, we meet first one and then another element: that God will judge the heathen (Jdt_16:17), and gather the dispersed of Israel into one nation again (2Ma_2:18; Bar_2:27-35; Bar_4:36-37; Bar_5:5-9); that the people shall be established for ever (2Ma_14:15), and that the throne of David shall be an eternal one (1Ma_2:57). The author of the Book of Tobit hopes, not only that the righteous will be gathered, the nation of Israel exalted, and Jerusalem rebuilt in the most splendid manner with gold and precious stones (Tob_13:12-18; Tob_14:7), but also, in common with certain prophets of the Old Testament, that all the heathen will be converted to God (Tob_13:11; Tob_14:6-7). In the Hellenistic Wisdom of Solomon the national element is, as may be conceived, in the background, nay the author cannot, by reason of his Platonistic anthropology, expect true happiness for the soul till after death. With him therefore the important element is, that the righteous dead will one day sit in judgment upon the heathen (Wis_3:8; Wis_5:1; comp. 1 Corinthians 6:2 sq.). The explanation of the just man in Wis_2:12-20 as the Messiah, which is prevalent in older exegesis, is utterly unfounded.[1826]
[1825] Comp. De Wette, Biblische Dogmatik, p. 160 sq. Oehler in Herzog’s Real-Enc. vol. ix. pp. 422-425 (2nd ed. ix. pp. 653-655). Anger, Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Messianischen Idee, pp. 78 sq., 84 sq. Drummond, The Jewish Messiah, p. 196 sqq.
[1826] Comp. Reusch. Is Wis_2:12-20 a Messianic prediction? (Tüb. Theol. Quartalschr. 1864, pp. 330-346).
The stream of Messianic prediction flows forth in copious abundance in the oldest Jewish Sibyllines, which appeared about 140 B.C. Sibyll. 3:286 sq. must not indeed be referred to these (Καὶ τότε δὴ θεὸς οὐρανόθεν πέμψει βασιλῆα, Κρινεῖ δʼ ἄνδρα ἕκαστον ἐν αἵματι καὶ πυρὸς αὐγῇ), where on the contrary Cyrus is spoken of.[1827] Nor can the υἱὸς θεοῖο, 3:775, be appealed to. For according to the correct supposition of Alexandre, we must read νηόν instead of υἱόν. And lastly, it is quite a mistake to understand by the κόρη, in whom, according to Sibyll. 3:748-786, God will dwell, the mother of Messiah (an explanation into which, following Langen,[1828] even Weiffenbach[1829] suffered himself to be seduced). For the κόρη, Hebr. בְּתוּלָה, is nothing else than Jerusalem. Still after the withdrawal of all these passages, it remains certain, that the whole section, Sibyll. 3:652-794, is of almost exclusively Messianic purport, although only a short mention of the Messianic King is made at the beginning. From the east (ἀπʼ ἠελίοιο), it is here said, will God send a king, who will put an end to all war upon earth, killing some, and fulfilling the promises to others. And he will do this not according to his own counsel, but in obedience to the commands of God.[1830] At his appearance (for this is certainly the meaning of the author), the kings of the heathen assemble once more for an attack upon the temple of God and the Holy Land. They offer their idolatrous sacrifices round about Jerusalem. But God will speak to them with a mighty voice, and they will all perish by the hand of the Immortal. The earth will quake and the mountains and hills be overturned, and Erebus will appear. The heathen nations will perish by war, sword and fire, because they lifted their spears against the temple (663-697). Then will the children of God live in peace and quietness, because the hand of the Holy One protects them (698-709). And the heathen nations seeing this will be encouraged to bless and praise God, to send gifts to His temple and to accept His law, because it is the most just in all the world (710-726). Peace will then prevail among all the kings of the earth (743-760). And God will set up an eternal kingdom over all men. Men will bring offerings to the temple of God from all parts of the earth. The prophets of God will lay down the sword, for they are judges of men and just kings. And God will dwell upon Zion and universal peace will prevail upon earth (766-794). The writer lays the chief stress, as we see, upon the circumstance, that the law of God will attain recognition and validity among all the nations of the earth, but he expects not this alone, but the setting up of a universal kingdom over all mankind (766-767: βασιλήϊον εἰς αἰῶνας πάντας ἐπʼ ἀνθρώπους) with Jerusalem as its theocratic centre. It is only at the beginning that he thinks of the king sent from God as the instrument for the establishment of the universal peace. But he is undoubtedly to be thought of as the intervening cause, when it is said, ver. 689, that God exterminates the attacking heathen by war and sword (πολέμῳ ἠδὲ μαχαίρῃ). And if the prophets of God (θεοῦ μεγάλοιο προφῆται, i.e. indeed the Israelites, the saints of the Most High as they are called in Daniel) are only generally spoken of as judges and kings (780-781), still a theocratic king at their head is at least not excluded by the words of the author. It is in any case worthy of remark, that even an Alexandrian, when painting the future, cannot dispense with the God-sent king.
[1827] As even Hilgenfeld now admits (Zeitschr. für w. Th. 1871, p. 36), after having formerly disputed it (Apokalyptik, p. 64; Zeitschr. 1860, p. 315).
[1828] Das Judenthum in Palästina, p. 401 sqq.
[1829] Quae Jesu in regno coelesti dignitas sit, p. 50 sq.
[1830] Sibyll. 3:652-656:—
Καὶ τότʼ ἀπʼ ἠελίοιο θεὸς πέμψει βασιλῆα,
Ὃς πᾶσαν γαῖαν παύσει πολέμοιο κακοῖο,
Οὓς μὲν ἄρα κτείνας, οἷς δʼ ὅρκια πιστὰ τελέσσας.
Οὐδέ γε ταῖς ἰδίαις βουλαῖς τάδε πάντα ποιήσει,
Ἀλλὰ θεοῦ μεγάλοιο πιθήσας δόγμασιν ἐσθλοῖς.
The original portion of the Book of Enoch (in the last third of the 2nd century before Christ) contains comparatively little that is Messianic. It is the conclusion of the vision of Judgment (c. 90:16-38), which is here chiefly to be considered. The author expects in the first place a last powerful attack of the heathen (here chiefly the Syrian) power, which is however rendered vain by the miraculous intervention of God (90:16-19). A throne is then erected in the delightful land and God sits in judgment. First the fallen angels and then the apostate Jews are cast into the fiery pit (90:20-27). Then the old Jerusalem (for the “house” is Jerusalem) is done away with, and God brings a new Jerusalem and places it on the spot where the old one stood (90:28-29). In this new Jerusalem dwell the pious Jews, and the heathen do them homage (90:30). Hereupon the Messiah appears (under the image of a white bullock), and all the heathen pray to Him and are converted to God (90:37-38). The transcendent character of the later Messianic idea here comes forward: the new Jerusalem has nothing in common with the old, but is brought from heaven in a miraculous manner.
We meet with the Messianic King depicted in sharper outlines and fuller colours in the Psalterium Salomonis, composed in the time of Pompey (63-48 B.C.). These Psalms are instructive, if only because their author dwells both upon God Himself being the King of Israel (17:1), and David’s house never becoming extinct before God (17:5). Hence it must not be concluded, without further ceremony, that when the former takes place, the latter is excluded. The longing for the Davidic king is especially ardent in the author, for Jerusalem had, in his time, fallen under the heathen rule of the Romans, and no hope for the future could be built upon the Sadducean-minded dynasty of the Asmonaeans. Hence he hopes, that God will raise up a prince of the house of David to rule over Israel, to crush their enemies, and to cleanse Jerusalem from the heathen (17:23-27). He will gather a holy people, and will judge the tribes of the nation, and not suffer unrighteousness in their midst, he will divide them in the land according to their tribes, and no stranger shall dwell among them (17:28-31). The heathen nations will serve him and will come to Jerusalem, to bring the wearied children of Israel as gifts and to see the glory of the Lord. He is a righteous king and one taught of God (17:32-35). And there is no unrighteousness in his days, for all are saints. And their king is the Lord’s anointed.[1831] He will not place his trust in horse or rider. For the Lord Himself is his King. And he will strike the earth with the word of his mouth for ever (17:36-39). He will bless the people of the Lord with wisdom; and he is pure from sin; and he will rule over a great people and not be weak. For God makes him strong by His Holy Spirit. He will lead them all in holiness, and there is no pride among them (17:40-46). This is the beauty of the king of Israel. Happy are they, who are born in his days (17:47-51). The writer expects, as it appears, not godly kings in general of David’s house, but a single Messiah endowed by God with miraculous powers, pure from sin and holy (17:41, 46), whom God has made powerful and wise by the Holy Spirit (17:2), and who therefore strikes his enemies not with external weapons, but with the word of his mouth (17:39 after Isaiah 11:4). He is however, notwithstanding such idealism, represented as quite a worldly ruler, as an actual king of Israel. Comp. generally, Psalms 18:6-10, and especially Psalms 11 : (the gathering of the dispersed) and 3:16, 14:2 sqq. (the resurrection of the just).
[1831] Χριστὸς κύριος, 17:36, like Lamentations 4:20, is a wrong translation for מְשִׁיחַ יְהוָֹה. The correct Χριστὸς κυρίου is found 18:8. Comp. also 18:6.
As the oppression of the Pompeian period was the occasion of the Psalter of Solomon, so also was the despotism of Antony and Cleopatra that of a more recent Sibylline piece (Orac. Sibyll. 3:36-92). When Rome had then obtained dominion over Egypt also, the Sibyllist expected the appearance of the kingdom of God on earth and the coming of a holy king to rule for ever over every land. The passage in question (3:46-50) is as follows:—
Αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ Ῥώμη καὶ Αἰγύπτου βασιλεύσει,
Εἰς ἓν ἰθύνουσα, τότε δὴ βασιλεία μεγίστη
Ἀθανάτου βασιλῆος ἐπʼ ἀνθρώποισι φανεῖται.
Ἥξει δʼ ἀγνὸς ἄναξ, πάσης γῆς σκῆπτρα κρατήσων
Εἰς αἰῶνας πάντας, ἐπειγομένοιο χρόνοιο.
The immortal King, whose kingdom is to appear among men, is of course God Himself. On the other hand, none other than the Messiah can be meant by the ἁγνὸς ἄναξ, who is to possess the sceptre of every kingdom. Here too, as in the Psalter of Solomon, we find the personal Messiah and the idea of the kingdom of God in direct combination.
If in the Psalter of Solomon the form of the Messianic King is already one far surpassing the ordinary human form, this feature comes out more strikingly in the figurative discourses of the Book of Enoch (chap. 37-71). The image of the Messiah is here chiefly drawn, in continuation of the Book of Daniel, by “the Son of man” being understood of the person of Messiah, and the coming from heaven taken literally; pre-existence being therefore ascribed to the Messiah. But unfortunately the date of the composition of this book is so uncertain, that we must renounce its insertion in the historical development. Use can only be made of it for the systematic survey.
The Assumptio Mosis, of about the beginning of the Christian era, predicts in words of beautiful aspiration the approach of the kingdom of God. The author, after bringing into view a time of tribulation such as that under Antiochus Epiphanes, continues, chap. 10.: “Then will his kingdom appear among all creatures, and the devil will have an end, and sorrow will disappear with him. Then will the Heavenly One arise from the seat of his kingdom and will come from his holy habitation with wrath and anger for his children’s sake, and the earth will tremble to its ends, and the high mountains be lowered, and the hills fall. The sun will give no light, and the moon be changed into blood (comp. Joel 3:4), and the stars fall into confusion. And the sea Will retreat to the abyss, and the water-springs fail, and the rivers be dried up. Then will the most High God, the alone Eternal, come forth to chastise the heathen and destroy all idols. Then wilt thou be happy, O Israel, and wilt tread upon the neck and wings of the eagle. And God will exalt thee and make thee soar to the firmament, and thou wilt thence look down upon thine enemies on earth, and shalt see them and rejoice, and give thanks and acknowledge thy Creator.” That in this magnificent picture of the future there should be no mention of the Messianic King, is certainly not accidental, if it is the case that the author belonged to the party of the Zealots (see below, § 32). This circumstance would then, as Wieseler justly remarks,[1832] be explained by the fact, that the author’s ideal would be, not a monarchic, but, if we may use the expression, a democratically constituted kingdom of God.
[1832] Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, 1868, p. 645.
Equally without mention of a Messianic King, and on the whole in merely general outlines, does the Book of Jubilees describe the time of joy and delight, which will appear for Israel on their repentance.[1833] “The days will begin to increase, and the children of men will be older from generation to generation and from day to day, till the length of their life approaches a thousand years. And there will be none old or weary of life, but they will all be like children and youths, and will pass and live all their days in peace and joy, without there being any Satan or other evil spoiler; for all their days will be days of blessing and healing. At that time will the Lord heal His servants, and they will arise and see ever deeper peace and pursue again their enemies. And they will see it and give thanks, and rejoice for evermore. And they will see all the judgments and all the curse of their enemies. Their bones will indeed rest in the earth, but their spirits will have many joys, and they will perceive, that it is the Lord who sits in judgment and shows grace to hundreds and thousands and to all who love Him.” While it is here said only in general, that the servants of the Lord “will again pursue their enemies,” in another passage the dominion of the world is promised to the seed of Jacob.[1834] God said to Jacob: “I am the Lord thy God, who made heaven and earth. I will cause thee to grow and will greatly increase thee; and kings shall proceed from thee and shall rule everywhere, even wherever the foot of the children of men shall tread. And I will give to thy seed the whole earth, which is under heaven, and they shall rule according to their choice over all nations; and afterwards they shall draw the whole earth to themselves and inherit it to eternity.”
[1833] Ewald’s Jahrbücher der Biblischen Wissenschaft, 3rd year, p. 24.
[1834] Ewald’s Jahrbücher, iii. 42.
It is very characteristic testimony to the intensity of the Messianic hope in the age of Jesus Christ, that even a moralist like Philo should depict the happiness to be expected by the righteous, in the frame and with the colouring of Jewish national expectations.[1835] Two passages of his work “on the reward of the good and the punishment of the wicked” come in this respect especially under consideration (De exsecrationibus, § 8-9, ed. Mang. ii. 435 sq., and De praemiis et poenis, § 15-20, ed. Mang. ii. 421-428). In the former passage he expresses the hope, that all Israelites, or rather all who are converted to the law of God (for it depends on this and not on natural descent from Abraham), will be gathered in the Holy Land. “Though they should be in the ends of the earth as slaves among their enemies, who have taken them captive, yet will they all be set at liberty at a given sign on one day, because their sudden turning to virtue astonishes their masters. For they will release them because they are ashamed of bearing rule over their betters. When then this unexpected freedom is bestowed on those, who were before scattered in Hellas and in barbarous countries, on islands and on the continent, they will hasten with one impulse from all quarters to the place pointed out to them, led by a Divine superhuman appearance, which, invisible to all others, is visible only to the delivered.[1836] … When then they have arrived, the ruined cities will be rebuilt, and the desert reinhabited, and the barren land become fertile.” In the other passage (De praemiis et poenis, § 15 sqq., Mang. ii. 421 sqq.), Philo describes the time of prosperity and peace, which will appear when men turn to God. Before all they will be safe from wild beasts. “Bears, lions, panthers, Indian elephants, tigers and all kinds of beasts of uncontrollable strength and power will turn from their solitary ways of life to one according to law, and from intercourse with few, after the manner of gregarious animals, will accustom themselves to the sight of man, who will not as formerly be attacked by them, but feared as their master, and they will respect him as their natural lord. Some even, emulating the tame animals, will offer him their homage by wagging their tails like lap-dogs. The race too of scorpions, snakes and other reptiles will then no longer have any harmful poison” (§ 15). A further blessing of this time is peace among men. “Then says the prophecy (LXX. Numbers 24:7) a man who goes to battle and makes war shall go forth and subdue great and populous nations, God Himself sending help to His saints. This consists in unshaken boldness of mind and invincible strength of body, qualities each of which singly is terrible to enemies, but which when combined nothing is able to resist. But some of the enemies are, as the prophecy says, not even worthy to perish by the hand of man. Against them He (God) will send swarms of wasps, who fight to a shameful overthrow for the saints. But these (instead of τοῦτον we must read τούτους, i.e. the saints) will not only have certain victory in battle without bloodshed, but also invincible power of government for the welfare of their subjects, who will submit from either love, fear, or reverence. For they (the saints) possess three qualities, which are the greatest, and which found an indestructible dominion. Holiness, great power and benevolence (σεμνότητα καὶ δεινότητα καὶ εὐεργεσίαν), the first of which produces reverence, the second fear, the third love, but if they are harmoniously combined in the soul, they produce subjects, who are obedient to their rulers” (§ 16). Philo next mentions riches and prosperity (§ 20), health and strength of body, as blessings of Messianic times (§ 17-18). It is evident, that notwithstanding his efforts always to lay the chief emphasis on the ethic, he was not able to avoid popular notions. For he too expected, after the realization of the ethic ideal, a time of external prosperity and happiness for the pious and virtuous, one feature of which would be, that they should have dominion upon earth. Nor was the Messianic King absent from this image. For who else than he could be intended by the man, who goes to battle, carries on war and subdues great and populous nations? And the less such a God-sent hero is required by Philo’s fundamental view, the more worthy of remark is it, that he is nevertheless included in his description of the Messianic age.
[1835] Comp. on the Messianic idea in Philo, Gfrörer, Philo und die Alexandrinische Theosophie, i. 495-534. Dähne, Gechichtl. Darstellung der jülisch-alexandriniachen Religionsphilosophie, i. 432-438. J. G. Müller, Die messianischen Erwartungen des Juden Philo. Basel 1870 (25, p. 4).
[1836] ξεναγούμενοι πρός τινος θειοτέρας ἢ κατἀ φύσιν ἀνθρωπίνης ὄψεως, ἀδήλου μὲν ἑτέροις, μόνοις δὲ τοῖς ἀνασωζομένοις ἐμφανοῦς. That this divine appearance is not the Messiah, but one analogous to the pillar of fire in the march through the desert, scarcely needs mention.
But even apart from such evidence, it is already plain from the New Testament, that the Messianic idea was anything but extinct in the popular consciousness in the period before Christ. We easily see from the question of John: “Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3; Luke 7:19-29), that the coming One was expected. And the whole course of the gospel history—to mention only Peter’s confession (Matthew 16:13 sqq.; Mark 8:27 sqq.; Luke 9:18 sqq.)—clearly shows that Jesus in acknowledging Himself to be the Messiah, was only connecting Himself with existing ideas He by no means aimed in the first place at the revival and animation of Messianic hopes. And yet we find, that at His entry into Jerusalem, the whole multitude hailed Him as the Messiah (Matthew 21; Mark 11; Luke 19; John 12). Such scenes are only to be explained on the assumption, that the Messianic hope was, before His appearance, already active in the nation.
This also needs no proof for the period after Christ. The numerous popular tumults of a politico-religious kind, which took place in the time of the Roman procurators (A.D. 44-66), give sufficient evidence of the feverish tension, with which a miraculous intervention of God in history and the appearance of His kingdom on earth were expected. How else could men such as Theudas the Egyptian have found believers for their promises by hundreds and thousands? Even Josephus superabundantly confesses, that the Messianic hope was one of the most powerful levers in the great insurrection against Rome. He himself did not indeed shrink from applying the Messianic prophecies to Vespasian, and in this respect he found approving faith from Tacitus and Suetonius.[1837]
[1837] On the Messianic notions of Josephus, see Gerlach, Die Weissagungen des Alten Testaments in den Schriften des Flavius Josephus (1863), pp. 41-89. Langen in the Tüb. Theol. Quartalschrift, 1865, pp. 39-51. The passage in question in Bell. Jud. vi. 5. 4 is as follows: Τὸ δὲ ἐπᾶραν αὐτοὺς μάλιστα πρὸς τὸν πόλεμον ἦν χρησμὸς ἀμφίβολος ὁμοίως ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς εὑρημένος γράμμασιν, ὡς κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν ἐκεῖνον ἀπὸ τῆς χώρας τις αὐτῶν ἄρξει τῆς οἰκουμένης. Τοῦτο οἵ μὲν ὡς οἰκεῖον ἐξέλαβον, καὶ πολλοὶ τῶν σοφῶν ἐπλανήθησαν περὶ τὴν κρίσιν· ἐδήλου δʼ ἄρα τὴν Οὐεσπατιανοῦ τὸ λόγιον ἡγεμονίαν, ἀποδειχθέντος ἐπὶ Ἰουδαίας αὐτοκράτορος. Comp. Tacit Hist. v. 13: Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore ut valesceret oriens profectique Judaea rerum potirentur. Quae ambages Vespasianum ac Titum praedixerant; sed volgus more humanae cupidinis sibi tantam fatorum magnitudinem interpretati ne adversia quidem ad vera mutabantur. Sueton. Vesp. c. 4: Percrebuerat oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judaea profecti rerum potirentur. Id de imperatore Romano, quantum postea eventu paruit, praedictum Judaei ad se trahentes rebellarunt. It is hardly to be doubted, that Tacitus and Suetonius drew, whether directly or indirectly, entirely from Josephus. Comp. Gieseler, Kirchengesch. i. 1, p. 51. This is disputed by Keim in Herzog’s Real-Enc., 1st ed. xvii. 164 (art. “Vespasianus”).
On the state of the Messianic hope after the destruction of the temple, and during the last decades of the first century after Christ, we have copious information in the Apocalypses of Baruch and Ezra. The Apolcaypse of Baruch describes the course of the last things as follows: A time of general and terrible confusion will first of all occur, Men will mutually hate and fight against each other. The disreputable will rule over the respectable, the base will be exalted above the illustrious, the ungodly above heroes. And the nations (whom God has previously prepared for the purpose—we cannot but think of Gog and Magog) will come and fight against the princes who remain. And it will come to pass, that he who escapes from war, will perish by the earthquake, and he who escapes this, by fire, and he who escapes the fire, by famine. And he who escapes all these ills will be delivered into the hands of the Messiah (70:2-10). For he will be manifested, and destroy the hosts of the last universal kingdom. And the last prince, who is left, will be chained and brought to Zion, and the Messiah will convict him of ungodliness and put him to death (39:7-40:2). The Messiah will gather the nations, and to some he will grant life, and others he will destroy with the sword. He will grant life to those who have submitted to the seed of Jacob. But those who have oppressed Israel will be destroyed (72:2-6). Then will he sit upon the throne of his kingdom for ever;[1838] and peace will appear, and sorrow and tribulation depart from mankind, and joy prevail over the whole earth. And the wild beasts shall come and serve men, and vipers and serpents shall be subject to children. And the reapers shall not be faint, nor the builders weary (73-74; comp. 40:2, 3). And the earth shall yield her fruits a thousandfold, and on one vine there shall be a thousand branches, and on one branch a thousand clusters, and on one cluster a thousand grapes, and one grape will yield a cor of wine.[1839] And manna will again fall from heaven, and it shall be again eaten in those days (29:5-8). And after the end of that time all the dead will arise, the just and the unjust, in the same bodily form which they formerly had. Then will judgment be held. And after the judgment the risen will be changed. The bodies of the just will be transfigured in brightness, but those of the unjust will dwindle and become uglier than before. And they will be given up to torment. But the just will behold the invisible world, and will dwell in the high places of that world. And Paradise spreads out before them, and they see the hosts of angels who stand before the throne of God. And their glory is greater than that of the angels (chap, 30, 50, and 51; comp. 44:15).
[1838] Cap. lxxiii. 1: Et sedebit in pace in aeternum super throno regni sui. xl. 3: Et erit principatus ejus stans in saeculum, donec flniatur mundus corruptionis. From the last passage it appears that the reign of Messiah is not to last “for ever” in the strict sense, but only to the end of the present world.
[1839] Comp. Papias in Irenaeus, v. 33. 3.
The eschatological expectations of the fourth Book of Esdras agree in all essential points with those of Baruch. He too predicts first a time of fearful want and distress (5:1-13, 6:18-28, 9:1-12, 13:29-31). After this the Messiah, the Son of God, will be revealed, and it will come to pass, that when the nations hear His voice they will forget war amongst each other, and will assemble in an innumerable multitude for an attack against the anointed. But he will stand upon Mount Zion, and will convict them of their ungodliness, and destroy them by the law without battle and without weapons (13:25-28, 32-38; comp. 12:31-33). Then will the hidden city (viz. New Jerusalem) appear (7:26); and the ten tribes will return to the Holy Land (13:39-47). And the anointed will protect and rejoice the people of God in the Holy Land, and show them many miracles for four hundred years (7:27, 28, 12:34, 13:48-50; comp. 9:8). And after this the anointed and all men who have breath will die. And the world will again return to the silence of death for seven days, as at the beginning. And after seven days a world which now sleeps will awake, and the corrupt world will perish. And the earth will restore those who sleep in it; and the receptacles will give back the souls committed to them (7:29-32). And the Most High will appear upon the judgment-seat, and long-suffering will have an end; only judgment will remain, and the reward come to light (7:33-35). And the place of torment will be revealed, and opposite to it the place of rest; the pit of hell, and opposite to it Paradise. And the Most High will say to the risen: Behold Him whom you denied and did not honour, and whose commands you did not obey. Here is joy and delight, there is fire and torment. And the length of the day of judgment will be a week of years (6:1-17, according to the computation of the Ethiopic translation; comp. also vv. 59 and 68-72, ed. Fritzsche, in Bensley, The Missing Fragment, etc. 1875, pp. 55-58, 64, 69 sq.).
Thus the two Apocalypses. That their hopes are not those of individuals, but form an essential element of Jewish consciousness is still shown by the Shemoneh Esreh, the daily prayer of the Israelites, which received its present form about A.D. 100. As it has been fully given above (p. 85 sq.), we need here only recall that in the 10th petition the gathering of the dispersed, in the 11th the reinstitution of the native authorities, in the 14th the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in the 15th the sending of the son of David and the setting up of his kingdom, and lastly, in the 17th, the restoration of the sacrificial worship at Jerusalem, are prayed for. Such was the hope and prayer of every Israelite after the destruction of the Jewish polity.[1840]
[1840] The prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the restoration of the Aboda (the sacrificial service) occurs also in the Paschal Liturgy, Pesachim x. 6.
We have in this survey purposely passed over the Targums, in which “King Messiah” frequently appears.[1841] For the opinion, that the older Targums originated in the time of Jesus Christ, may now be regarded as given up. They probably belong to the third or fourth century after Christ, at any rate, there is no proof of their greater antiquity, though they often fall back upon older exegetical traditions. Their case is the same as that of the other rabbinical works (the Mishna, Talmud, and Midrash), viz. that they are based upon older materials, but do not in their existing form belong to the period of which we are treating. The essential outlines of the Messianic hope of Judaism in this later time. (about the beginning of the third century) are very well summed up by the author of the Philosophumena, who describes them in the following manner:[1842] they say that the Messiah will proceed from the house of David, not from a virgin and the Holy Ghost, but from a man and woman, as it is appointed to all to be born from seed. He will, they believe, be king over them, a warlike and powerful man, who will gather together the whole nation of the Jews, and carry on war with all nations, and build Jerusalem as a royal city for the Jews, in which he will assemble the whole nation, putting it into its old condition as a ruling and a sacrifice-offering nation, which will long dwell in safety. Afterwards war will arise against them collectively, and in this war the Messiah will fall by the sword. Not long after will follow the end and the conflagration of the world, and then will be fulfilled that which is believed with respect to the resurrection, and retribution be done to every one according to his works.
[1841] See in Buxtorf, Lex. Chald. col. 1268-1273, a list of passages in the Targums applying to the Messiah. Comp. also Im. Schwarz, Jesus Targumicus, 2 parts, 4. Torgau 1758-59. Ayerst, תקות ישראל, the hope of Israel, or the doctrine of the ancient Jews concerning the Messiah, as stated in the Targums, p. 52. Langen, Das Judenth. in Palästina, pp. 418-429.
[1842] Philosophum. ix. 30: Γένεσιν μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῦ [scil. τοῦ Χριστοῦ] ἐσομένην λέγουσιν ἐκ γένους Δαβίδ, ἀλλʼ οὐκ ἐκ παρθένου καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος, ἀλλʼ ἐκ γυναικὸς καὶ ἀνδρός, ὡς πᾶσιν ὅρος γεννᾶσθαι ἐκ σπέρματος, φάσκοντες τοῦτον ἐσόμενον βασιλέα ἐπʼ αὐτούς, ἄνδρα πολεμιστὴν καὶ δυνατόν, ὃς ἐπισυνάξας τὸ πᾶν ἔθνος Ἰουδαίων, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη πολεμήσας, ἀναστήσει αὐτοῖς τὴν Ἰερουσαλὴμ πόλιν βασιλίδα, εἰς ἣν ἐπισυνάξει ἅπαν τὸ ἔθνος καὶ πάλιν ἐπὶ τά ἀρχαῖα ἔθη ἀποκαταστήσει βασιλεῦον καὶ ἱερατεῦον καὶ κατοικοῦν ἐν πεπονθήσει ἐν χρόνοις ἱκανοῖς· ἔπειτα ἐπαναστῆναι κατʼ αὐτῶν πόλεμον ἐπισυναχθέντων· ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ πολέμῳ πεσεῖν τὸν Χριστὸν ἐν μαχαίρῃ, ἔπειτα μετʼ οὐ πολὺ τὴν συντέλειαν καὶ ἐκπύρωσιν τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιστῆναι, καὶ οὕτως τὰ περὶ τὴν ἀνάστασιν δοξαζόμενα ἐπιτελεσθῆναι, τάς τε ἀμοιβὰς ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὰ πεπραγμένα ἀποδοθῆναι.