RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Messiah
situation. Bitter oppression, devastations, wars, and unrest were expected in the immediate future as precursors of the end (xxvii., cf. lxix.-lxx.). Then the Messiah will reveal himself and will shield the remnant of his people in his land (Ixxi.). He will usher in a period of great prosperity (xxix. 5 sqq., cf. lxxiii.-lxxiv.), and the earth will give forth her fruits a thousand fold. Then he will return to heaven (xxx. 1), whereupon the resurrection of the dead and the last judgment will take place. The four kingdoms of Daniel appear in chaps, xxxv. sqq., wherein the Roman empire is explained to be the fourth kingdom. Under this rule the Messiah appears; he uproots this kingdom (xxxix. 7), kills the unjust ruler of the world (xli.-xlii.), and the nations are delivered into " the hands of my servant," the Messiah (lxx. 9, Ixxi. 1). Some of the nations will be destroyed, while others will be spared, according to their conduct toward Israel, to whom those that are spared shall be subject (lxxii. 2 sqq.). At the resurrection the dead are given up by the earth in the form in which it received them; then, however, the corporeal form changes according to the conduct shown in life. The just receive an ethereal body, which can not age and resembles that of the angels, with whom they live in the heavenly paradise (xlix. sqq.). According to this book, therefore, the kingdom of the Messiah precedes the end of the world; it belongs to " this eon " and constitutes its last period. On the other hand, the future life of the just in the coming eon is described as transcendental and heavenly.
Related to the Apocalypse of Baruch is the Apocalypse of Ezra, commonly called IV. Ezra, which is probably of somewhat later date. Chaps iii.-xiv. were written under Domitian, about 96 a.d., chaps.
i., ii., xv. and xvi. are additions by a
6. The Christian writer. This book is a
Apocalypse species of theodicy in apocalyptic
of Ezraj, garb. It is revealed to the Jewish
author that the eon approaches its end (iv. 26); the world has grown old (v. 50 sqq.); wonderful signs of the last revelations will be manifest on earth (vi. 11 sqq., cf. ix. 1 sqq.). The men who have been translated without enduring death (Enoch, Elias, Ezra) will show themselves, evil will be rooted out, faith will flourish, and truth will be manifested (vi. 25 sqq.). Since the world was created for the Jews (vi. 55), they will rule over it after the godless have been swept away by plagues. Then the Messiah (vii. 28) will appear and will for 400 years give joy to all who have survived; then he will die and all men with him (vii. 29). After seven days of silence, there follow the resurrection of the dead and the day of judgment, lasting a week of years, when the Most High will sit upon the throne. The conception of the Messiah appears in the vision of the eagle, by which the Roman empire up to the time of Domitian is represented (xi. 1 sqq.). Against this eagle (the fourth worldkingdom of Daniel, xii. 11 sqq.) there finally comes a lion speaking with the voice of a man (xi. 36 sqq.). He is a symbol of the Messiah (xii. 32) whom the Most High has reserved for the end of days. He will then arise from the seed of David and will pass
judgment on mankind. He will redeem the remnant of his people and give them joy until, after 400 years, the final judgment occurs. In the following vision (xiii. 1 sqq.) a man appears from the sea and flies upon the clouds of heaven; he sends from his mouth a stream of fire against all who oppose him, while God calls him " my Son " (xiii. 32). He will judge and destroy the froward by his word alone (cf. Isa. xi. 4), and then will lead back to their native land the ten exiled tribes.
III. Late Jewish Messianism: Apocalyptic literature was far from being exhausted in this period and continued to be cultivated in Jewish (cf. M. Buttenwieser, Outlines of the Neo-Hei. General braic Apocalyptic Literature, Cincin- Character- nati, 1901) and Christian circles for istics. several centuries. The Christians as a rule only elaborated Jewish originals and sometimes simply provided them with annotations. These writings offer fantastic pictures of future conditions, since in the domain of eschatology a large field was left open to the imagination of the individual writer. From the first century before Christ, the Messianic hope was drawn only partly from the writings of the Old Testament,. It is, then, very easy to understand that although this hope was very wide-spread and held powerful sway over religious sentiment and expectation, it had neither clear outlines nor a well-defined unity. It had a popular side, promising material blessings, and also a more spiritual side, which is found in the Gospels and in Jewish writings after the time of Christ. The rabbinical view of the Messiah runs in the following manner:
That, in the time of Jesus, the hope of a proximate appearance of the Messiah was part and parcel of the Jewish common belief, is apparent in the Gospels. Naturally this hope was 2. In most stedfastly maintained and faiththe First fully cherished among such faithful Christian Israelites as Simeon and Anna (Luke Century, ii. 25-26, 36-37), John the Baptist and his followers, and the disciples of Jesus. Even the Pharisees, the opponents of Jesus, expected the coming of the son of David who was to bring about the realization of the kingdom of God. The common people also held so firmly to this conviction that they were more than once tempted to make Jesus king, and for this very reason he exercised extreme caution and self-restraint in the revelation of his Messianic character. Even the illfated insurrection that led to the destruction of the temple in the year 70 was caused in part by Messianic expectations of a political character (Josephus, War, VI., v. 4, probably based on Dan. ix. 24-27, viii. 13-14). Josephus luminously refers to false prophets and seducers (War, II., xiii. 4), and says that till the end of the siege the zealots hoped that salvation would suddenly be accorded from above (War, VI., v. 2). Once again did the Messianic hope, attaching itself to Bar Kokba (q.v.), animate the people to a daring struggle for freedom in spite of warnings on the part of some teachers. Against this expectation a few voiced their dissent, as in the case of Rabbi Hillel, to whom the celebrated Rabbi Joseph of Pumbedita replied.
Messiah