RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Messiah
David was to appear, there was never a very clear idea. The distinction between Dan. vii. 13 and Zech. ix. 9 presented an enigma to the rabbis. His work consists in breaking the foreign yoke ( Targum Jonathan to Isa. x. 27) and bringing his people back from captivity. In order to erect his kingdom (Targum Onkelos to Num. xxiv. 17; Targum Jonathan to Amos ix. 11; Origen, Contra Celsum, ii. 29) he endures mighty struggles with the nations (Targum Jonathan to Zech. x. 4) . The principal enemy is the Roman empire, whose leader Armilius, who is the anti-Messiah, will be killed by the breath from the lips of the Messiah (cf. II Thess. ii. 8, and J. A. Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. 705 sqq., Frankfort, 1700). The dispute whether the ten tribes are or are not included in this bringing back of the exiles was decided in later times by assuming the coming of a second, subordinate Messiah, the son of Joseph, to be the precursor of the son of David (Baba Sukkah, 52a). This Messiah is to be a descendant of Ephraim; he will lead back the ten tribes from their exile and subject them to the son of David, and will then be killed in the war with Gog and Magog. His death, according to a later conception, will serve as an expiation for the sins of Jeroboam (cf. Eisenmenger, ut sup., ii. 720 sqq.). By this assumption of two Messiahs a place was sought for those features of the suffering and murdered Messiah which are present in Isa. liii. and Zech. xii. 10, yet were not easily included in the usual conception of the Messiah. At an earlier period, however, the rabbis knew of only one Messiah, and while they often acknowledge the prophecies concerning his sufferings, they attenuate them by saying that the Messiah is at first to work in lowliness among the poor and wretched and to suffer because of the sins of his people, which delay his revelation (so Targum Jonathan to Isa. liii.). The suffering servant of Yahweh is an especially favorite theme. Later Judaism with its ceremonial righteousness was little inclined to receive the more earnest Biblical promise of a complete atonement. The activity of the Messiah will, therefore, consist in bringing about the universal rule of the Jewish theocracy. He will rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and establish the authority of the Torah.
The fruitfulness of the land and the prosperity of
the nation are described in glowing terms, and in
these blessings the repatriated exiles and even
the departed just will also share, since a first
resurrection of the dead takes place in
8. Accom- the land of Israel, the faithful who
paniments have died in other lands being trans-
of the ported thither beneath the surface of
Messiah's the earth (Eisenmenger, ut sup., ii.
Coming. 893 sqq.). The reawakening of the dead is sometimes ascribed to God and sometimes to the Messiah; it occurs at the sound of a trumpet, but the Samaritans will be excluded from it. Kethubot (111b) says that even the unlearned will have no part in it. The living heathen will offer homage to the Messiah and to the sanctuary at Jerusalem, though there will be a great difference and a strict barrier between them and Israel. Following the order of events as given in Ezekiel,
at the end of the Messianic epoch, there will again ensue a general uprising of the heathen nations against the rule of the Messiah, the originators and leaders of which will be Gog and Magog, though according to other views they are the bitterest enemies of the Messiah at the beginning of the Messianic era. This uprising is succeeded by a final and universal judgment of the world, with the resurrection of all the dead to eternal happiness or to condemnation. Then begins the state of perfection, for which a new heaven and a new earth are created. The just enter into paradise, the godless into the pains of hell. Still, it must be admitted that this distinction is not always maintained, and the two epochs often run into one another. In one particular, however, there is agreement: the Messiah brings about the consummation of all things and the resurrection of the just to new and eternal life precedes the state of final retribution.
C. von Orelli.
Bibliography: The material on Messianism is abundant. The reader is referred to the commentaries on the Biblical books containing passages regarded as Messianic, to works on Biblical theology, especially those of Schultz and Dillmann: the subject is also treated more or less fully in the literature given under Apocrypha; Israel, History op; Prophecy; and Pseudepigrapha. On the Messianism of the Bible there is nothing better than the works of C. A. Briggs on the subject: Messianic Prophecy, New York, 1886; and Messiah of the Gospels, 3 series, New York, 1893-95. A thoroughly worthy book on Old- Testament Messianism is P. H. Woods, The Hope of Israel, ib. 1896. Considerably broader in scope, but based on what used to be called rationalistic exegesis, is the scholarly work by J. Drummond, The Jewish Messiah, London, 1877, covering the period down to the close of the Talmud. A book which has caused much debate from its extreme positions is A. Kuenen, Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, ib. 1877. Consult further: J. C. K. Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfilllung, Nordlingen, 1841-44; J. J. Stahelin, Die messianischen Weissagungen des A. T., Berlin, 1847; E. W. Hengstenberg, Christologie des A. T., 3 vols., Berlin, 1854-57, Eng. transl., Christology of the O. T., Edinburgh, 1854-1858; A. Tholuck. Die Propheten und ihre Weissagungen, Gotha, 1867; R. Anger, Geschichte der messianischen Idee, Berlin, 1873; E. C. A. Biehm, Die messianische Weissagung, Gotha, 1875, Eng. transl., Messianic Prophecy; Edinburgh, 1891; E. Bohl, Christologie des A. T., Vienna, 1882; W. F. Adeney, The Hebrew Utopia; a Study of Messianic Prophecy, London, 1879; P. J. Gloag, Messianic Prophecies, Edinburgh, 1879 (conservative); C. von Orelli, Die altteslamentliche Weissagung, Vienna, 1882, Eng. transl.. Old Testament Prophecy of Consummation of God's Kingdom, Edinburgh, 1885; B. W. Saville, Fulfilled Prophecy, London, 1882; A. Edersheim, Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah, ib. 1885; E. H. Dewart, Jesus the Messiah in Prophecy and Fulfillment, Cincinnati, 1891; G. S. Goodspeed, Israel's Messianic Hope, New York, 1900; F. Delitzsch, Die messianische Weissagungen, Berlin, 1899, Eng. transl. of earlier ed., Messianic Prophecies in Historical Succession, Edinburgh, 1891; J. Richter, Die messianischen Weissagungen und ihre Erfilllung, Giessen, 1905; J. H. Greenstone, The Messiah Idea in Jewish History, Philadelphia, 1907; W O. Oesterley, The Evolution of the Messianic Idea, London, 1908; Lagrange, he Messianisme chezles J uifs, Paris, 1908; E. P. Berg, Our Lord's Preparation for M essiahship, London, 1909; A. Causae, L' Evolution de Vesperance messianique dans le christianisme primitif, Paris, 1909.
On the late Jewish ideas the works of Eisenmenger and Schottgen mentioned in the text are to be placed among the important contributions. Consult further: R. Young, Christology of the Targums, Edinburgh, 1853; A. Hilgenfeld, Die jUdische Apokalyptik, in ihrer geschichtlichen Enlwickelung, Jena, 1857; T. Colani, Jesus Christ ct les croyances messianiques de son temps, Strasburg, 1864; Holtzmann, in Jahrbilcher fur deutsche Theologie, 1867,
Mestrezat Metals