6. The Person of the Messiah

of this kind is that in Justin Martyr, Trypho, xlix., ANF, i. 219: " We all expect that Christ will be a man." The passage Taanith, ii. 1, is also sharply polemical: R. Abbahu spoke: " If a man say to you, ` I am God '-he lies; 'I am the Son of Man'-he will repent it at the end; ` I shall ascend to heaven '-he will not prove it." In general, the mysterious quality of the prophetic utterances is reduced to the standard of common humanity. The names of the Messiah in Isa. ix. 6 are for the most part attributed to God, even though this requires arbitrary exegesis. Hence the Messiah comes like others of the race of David. The assertion that the Targums sometimes identify the Messiah with the memra de Yahweh (" word of Yahweh ") is incorrect. On the contrary, this divine word is expressly distinguished from the Messiah, as in Targum Jonathan to Isa. ix. 6-7, where the concluding sentence is rendered: "through the memra of Yahweh will this be performed." It is however, quite true that a kind of preexistence of the Messiah in heaven was taught. Thus his name was pronounced by God even before the creation (Bereshith rabba, chap. i.), though this signifies merely that he was from the beginning an object of the divine plans of salvation. A more real preexistence is implied in the Book of Enoch and the related apocalyptic writings, and even in some Midrashim appears the doctrine that the Messiah is a superior being who existed before all time. Still, such passages as Bereshith rabba to Gen. i. 2 do not prove that the Messiah was regarded as a divine being in the metaphysical sense.

The Messiah was to appear suddenly (Baba San.. hedrin 97: " Three

7. The Messiah's Activities

scorpion "), though the exact time is subject of dispute. A period of concealment on earth, however, precedes his appearance (Justin Martyr, Trypho, viii.). Christ when he comes is unknown, does not even know himself (as Messiah) until the prophet Elias comes, anoints him, and reveals everything (Trypho, ex.). In the mean time, he perfects him self in the knowledge of God and of the Law, instructed by God as were Abraham, Job, and Hezekiah (Bammidbar rabba, xiv.), and submits to discipline in good works. According to Sanhedrin, 98a, he sits in Rome at the gate, surrounded by the wretched and the sick, whose wounds he binds, waiting for that "to-day" (Ps. xcv. 7) when the conversion of his people will allow him to come to them. By this recognition of a state of lowliness and disesteem an effort was made to do some slight justice to the picture of the suffering Messiah in Isa_ Iii., liii., recognized as Messianic by the Targum, although with a weakening of the vicarious expiatory sufferings and death there portrayed. Later, this suffering figure, if it were at all accepted, was referred to another and subordinate Messiah (see below). Regarding the form in which the son of

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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 transof 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 (lllb) 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 Bib lical 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 of; 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, 1888; and Messiah of the Gospels, 3 series, New York, 1893-95. A thoroughly worthy book on Old Testament Messianism is F. H. Woods, The Hope of Israel, ib. 1898. 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, Weiaaagung and Erfallung, NSrdGagen, 1841-44; J. J. Stahelin, Die meaaianischen Weieeagungen des A. T., Berlin, 1847; E. W. Hengetenberg, Christologie des A. T., 3 vols., Berlin, 1854-57, Eng. transl., Christology q/ as O. T., Edinburgh, 1854-1858; A. Tholuek. Die Propheten und ihre Weiasagungen, Gotha, 1887; R. Anger, Geschichte der mesaianischen Idea, Berlin, 1873; E. C. A. Riehm, Die meananiwAe Weiasaguny, Gotha, 1875, Eng. transl., Messianic Prophecy; Edinburgh, 1891; E. B&I, ChriStalogie 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 (oonser, votive); C. yon Orelli, Die allkatamentlide Weiasagung, Vienna, 1882, Eng. trend.. Old Testament Prophecy of Consummation q/ 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 Delitzeeh, Die measianische Weiaaagungen, Berlin, 1899, Eng. transl. of earlier ed., Messianic Prophecies in Historical Suecesaion, Edinburgh, 1891; J. Richter, Die meaaianischen Weiasagungen und ihre ErftWung, Giessen, 1905; J. H. Greenstone, The Messiah Idea in Jewish History, Philadelphia, 1907; W. O. Oeaterley, The Evolution of as Messianic Idea, London, 1908; Lagrange, Le Mesaianiame ehez les Juifa, Paris, 1908; E. P. Berg, Our Lord's PreparationJorMesaiahahip, London, 1909; A. Causse, L'Evolution de 1'eaphrance memianique done Is christianiame primitif, Paris, 1908.

On the late Jewish ideas the works of Eisenmenger and Sch6ttgen mentioned in the text are to be placed among the important contributions. Consult further: R. Young, Christology of the Targuma, Edinburgh, 1853; A. Hilgenfeld, Die jüdieehe Apokalyptik, in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung, Jena, 1857; T. Colani, Jesus Christ et les croyances messianiquee de son temps, Strasburg, 1884; Holtzmann, in Jahrbücher für deutsche Theologie, 1887,

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pp. 389 sqq; A. Wünsche, Die Leiden des Meseiae, Leipsic, 1870; M. Vernes, Hist. des ides measianiques, Paris, 1874; F. Weber, System der altsynagogalen paldatinischen Theologie, Leipsic, 1880; J. Hamburger, Realencykloptidie far Bibel and Talmud, vol. ii., Strelitz, 1883; G. Dalman, Der leidende and aterende Memias der Synagoge, Berlin, 1888; J. Wellhausen Skizzen and Vorarbeiten, part vi., Berlin, 1899; E. Huhn, Die messianischen Weissagungen, Tübingen, 1899; W. Wrede, Das Mesaiahgeheimniss in den Evangelien, Göttingen, 1901; Schürer, Geschichte, vols. ii.-iii., and the Eng. transl. The articles in DB, EB, and JE are also to be used on the Biblical side.