3. Early Rabbinic Ideals

The rabbis usually placed the coming of the Messiah in the age then present. The " days of the Messiah " was an indefinite period, which, however, was to form the transition to that state of perfect retribution which begins with the resurrection of the dead (cf. Luke xx. 34-35, xviii. 30; Matt. xii. 32). Sometimes the age of the Messiah was placed in the future. After the temporally limited Messianic kingdom, the destruction of this world and the creation of a new world were to follow. In the future world there is neither eating nor drinking nor procreation. Messianic times would be preceded by a great humiliation of the Jews and a war of all kingdoms against each other, which would mark the birth-pangs of the Messiah. All manner of plagues, the sword, hunger, pestilence, earthquakes, are to occur. Israel will find rescue from these tribulations by holding fast to the Torah and by works of mercy. But the Jewish nation will have been reduced to extremities. Nevertheless, the belief is not lacking that the Messiah would find a people worthily prepared.

As a rule, the preparation of the nation for the coming of the Messiah was expected through Elias, whose reappearance was awaited by the scribes (Ecclus. xlviii. 1-10, on the basis of 4. The Mal. iii. 1 sqq.; cf. Matt. xvii. 10-11, Functions xi. 14). This is indeed usually of Elias. understood in a purely material sense; however. Malachi did not exclude a spiritual purification and unity. According to rabbinic teaching, Elias was to purify the law from spurious intrusions, and restore clauses wrongly excluded, to decide questions under debate, bring about the final atonement for Israel, and even cause the resurrection of the dead (cf. C. Sch6ttgen, Horse Ebraictv, pp. 533 sqq., Leipsic, 1733-42; J. Lightfoot, Horee Hebraica, ii. 384, 609, 965, Leipsic,1679). Other great prophets, as Moses and Jeremiah, were expected to arise from the dead at the beginning of the Messianic epoch and aid the Messiah in his work.

5. Duration of Messianic Rule

The duration of the Messianic kingdom was expected to be limited (cf. Baba. Sanhedrin, 97 sqq.; " It is a tradition of the school of Elias that the world will last 6,000 years: 2,000 tohu, 2,000 torah, 2,000 days of the Messiah; but, be- cause of our sins, which are many, a part of this time has elapsed "). In another view the duration of the world is placed at eighty-five jubilee periods, in the last of which the son of David comes, "whether at the beginning or at the end of it, no one knows." Others, on the contrary, reject any chronological calculation regarding the coming of the Messiah. When calculation is made, the durartion of the days of the Messiah rests upon many different methods and reaches divergent results. Some reckon it at forty years (cf. Ps. xcv. 10); others, again, conjecture seventy years (Isa. xxiii. 15); R. Akiba, forty years, from the forty years in the wilderness; in Sifre, 134a, the Messianic period is extended to three generations (cf. Ps. jxxii. 5, where, however, the duration is not given). Still others discover 100, 365, 1,000, 2,000, or even 7,000 years.