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MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN
v
MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN
BY
WILSON D. WALLIS
NcrUl ^A/--^u:.
ARTIetVeWTATli
BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS
Copyright, 1918, by Richard G. Badger
All Rights Reserved
Made in the United States of America
The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.
TO
THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM H. GOODING
TEACHER. FRIEND. GUIDE
" Christianity, after all, is, in one respect, a manifestation conditioned by time and circumstance. Even if the Church was divinely instituted, its history cannot be entirely dis- severed from the general history of religious belief." — R. R. Marett, Magic or Religion? in The Edinburg Review, April, 1914.
" There is a unity in the history of nature and of men." — W. Douglas Mackenzie.
PREFACE
SAMUEL BUTLER once remarked that " the more orig- inal a writer is, the more pleasure will he take in calling attention to the forgotten work of those who have gone be- fore him." The present writer would, indeed, fain be orig- inal in the sense denoted by Butler, but the circumstances surrounding the subject of messianic religions seem success- fully to preclude this type of originality. The topic of messianic religions, in its wider bearings, has been, so far as we are aware, a neglected one. Nowhere do we have a study of the distribution of these phenomena. Neither, it would seem, has any one attempted to correlate the phenomena of a given culture with other social or political conditions so' as to give us an insight into causes, or even occasions.
From this point of view it must be confessed that not even the Jewish messianic movements, the best known and most studied of all of them, have ever received adequate treatment. Theologians have generally restricted their studies to a par- ticular period or to a particular influence, paying more at- tention to textual matters than to sociological and psycho- logical conditions. Even those who have approached the matter historically, as, for example. Greenstone in his study of The Messiah Idea, have left large gaps in the evidence and seem unaware of the connecting threads and the similar underlying conditions that open up a large field for original investigation. Mooney and Chamberlain, among ethnolo- gists, have approached the study of American messianic movements from a more profitable angle, but they too have left the evidence incomplete.
Although it seems safe to say that no one has attempted this most important study in comparative religion and so- ciology, the need for such an investigation has more than once been pointed out by scholars who were familiar with at
8 Preface
least some important phases of the major topic. Foremost among these are three American scholars, two of them theo- logians, and the other a psychologist, who was earlier a stu- dent of theology, and who has remained deeply interested in anthropological theory and Weltanschauung — G. Stanley Hall.
In 1892 Dr. Ellinwood in lectures given in Union Theo- logical Seminary, New York City, called attention to the universality of a vague expectation of coming messiahs, than which, he declared, " nothing found in the study of the reli- gious history of mankind is more striking." He pointed out that " in modern as well as in ancient times nations and races have looked for deliverers or for some brighter hope. The very last instance of an anxious looking for a deliverer is that which quite recently has so sadly misled our Sioux Indians." {Oriental Religions and Christianity, 282-5, New York, 1896. Second Edition.)
Several years later another American Biblical scholar in- sisted that " Jewish and Christian scholars ought to be able by this time to break the spell of a name and to accord a fair judgment to those political leaders, social reformers, mys- tics, and prophets who from Simon bar Kozeba to Sabatai Zewi have assumed or received from others the title of tlie Messiah. . . . These Messianic movements should also be more closely examined in the light of similar phenomena in the East which is so prodigal with the Saoshyants, Mahdis, prophets and revealers." (Nathaniel Schmidt, The Propliet of Nazareth, 93, 1905.) G. Stanley Hall has more recently emphasised this need. (In the first volume of The American Journal of Religious Psychology and in Jesus and Christ in the Light of Recent Psychology, 1917.)
These suggestions have been little heeded. Although we have descriptions of Messiahs and of messianic movements among various peoples there is nowhere, so far as we have been able to ascertain, any comprehensive description or in- terpretation of them. For this task the writer can profess no especial fitness. On the contrary, he is especially unfitted for many of its extreme demands of scholarship and erudi- tion. Being unable to control much of the source material
Preface 9
he has had to depend on translations and the corroborations of more able scholars. It will not be surprising if this has led to mistakes in more than one instance, though in no case has he ventured to decide where specialists in their field have disagreed.
Neither can he profess to have presented the data in its completeness. The lacunae will probably not be filled until some published work has called the attention of scholars to a field of research in comparative religion and sociology whose importance has never been adequately realized. If the present work is influential to this end its existence will be justified.
Theologians may retain their peculiar right to judge of the sources which only such thorough scholarship as they possess is able to interpret confidently. But they can no longer claim that the interpretation of the meaning of the facts which they adduce belongs exclusively to them — if, indeed, they have ever made such a claim. The messianic faiths which they present appear in Judaism, but they are not its peculiar possession. Rather do they belong to hu- manity. They are a phase of human life which has its par- allels in many widely separated, and historically unrelated, regions of the globe; they constitute one chapter in the exulting, if often mistaken, faith of mankind, their comple- ment being found in Mohammedanism, in Buddhism, and in those cruder cultures which pertain to savagery. The light of universality must play upon them, in order that we may ascertain wherein they are the outcome of the genius of the Semite, and wherein they share in a larger human brother- hood. In no other way can they be properly evaluated.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Messianic Movement in Judaism . . .15
II The Mahdi : The Messiah of Mohammedanism 90
III The Buddhist Messiah 120
IV Messianic Movements Among the Negroes . 126
V Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 130
VI The Messianic Idea in Christianity . . .153
VII Messiahs and Miracles 197
VIII The Messiah and Pomtics 207
IX An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 240
MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN
MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN CHAPTER I
THE MESSIANIC MOVEMENT IN JUDAISM
The Background of Jewish Messianic Hope
THE cruder view that each people is responsible for its own life and development has given place to the more fruitful view that no people is solely responsible for its social life and ideals. These can be shown, in many cases, to have been inspired hj surrounding and older cultures which have left an impress upon their neighbours. The early life of Judaism is, accordingly, to be found, not in the oldest documents which they have left us, but in the older contigu- ous cultures that represent, in part, the dawn of their own life. The Jewish people are members of a larger group of influences that have shot through their civilization giving it new content and, often, new trend.
It detracts nothing from the genius of this race to dis- cover that the messianic idea itself, which is generally sup- posed peculiar to Judaism, has its roots elsewhere and is, after all, only a transplanted idea flourishing more luxuri- antly and more persistently in a more favourable soil. As- syria, Babylonia, and Egypt have, each of them, probabl}^, influenced Israel in generating the messianic ideal, as well as in many other ways.
Thus, Asurnasipal's prayer to Ishtar shows belief in the divine mission of the ruler — a prominent idea in the early Jewish belief:
" But thou, O Ishtar, mighty princess of the gods, in lift- ing up thine eyes didst thou teach me, and didst desire my
15
16 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
rule. Thou didst take from out of the mountains and didst call me to the threshold of the people, thou didst preserve for me the sceptre of the temples until the becoming old of mankind. And thou, O Ishtar, didst make great my name, and thou hast granted to the faithful salvation, mercy." [Zeitschrift filr Assyriologie, V (1890), p. 70.]
Similarly, in Egypt, Merneptah is praised as the divinely- sent protector of Egypt's peace: "Great joy has come into Egypt, rejoicing comes forth from the town of Tomeri (i. e.y Egypt). They converse of the victories which Mer- neptah has achieved among the Tehenu : ' How amiable is he, the victorious ruler, how magnified is the king among the gods, how fortunate is he, the commanding lord ; sit happily do^\Ti and talk or walk, or walk far out upon the way, for there is no fear in the heart of the people.' " [Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, III, 263. Chicago, 1906. God (Egyptian), Hastings' E.R.E., VI, £78.]
In what is known as the Leiden papyrus. No. 344, trans- lated by Alan H. Gardiner under the title, '' Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage " (Leipzig, 1909), there are elements that come close to the messianic ideal, and at least distinctly adumbrate it. The date of the document is not settled, some Egyptologists placing it about the middle of the seventeenth or the sixteenth century, others believing it prior to the ^^ear 2100. By either reckoning it easily antedates the appear- ance of the messianic idea in Judaism. The speaker, Ipuwer, represents first a state of calamity :
" The door-keepers say . . . Let us go and plunder. The washerman refuses to carry his load. A man looks upon his son as his enemy. The virtuous man walks in mourning on account of that which has happened in the land. The w^rong-doer is everywhere. Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere. Crocodiles are glutted with what they have captured, men go to them of their own accord. For- sooth, hair has fallen out for every one. Great and small say: *I wdsh I might die.' Little children say: 'He ought never to have caused me to live.' Forsooth, all ani- mals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan because of the state of the land. A man strikes his brother, the son of his
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 17
mother. The roads are guarded. Men sit over the bushes until the benighted traveller comes, in order to plunder his burden. What is upon him is taken away. He is belabored with blows of the stick, and slain wrongfully. Forsooth, grain has perished on every side. All is ruin."
The social order is overwhelmed. " Forsooth, poor men are become owners of good things. He who could make for himself no sandals is now the possessor of riches."
There is no longer respect for law. " Forsooth, the splendid judgment-hall, its writings are taken away. Behold the judges of the land are driven out through the land."
After this array of calamities comes the Messiah — if such we may call him. " He bringeth coolness upon that which is hot. It is said he is the herdsman of mankind. No evil is in his heart. When his herds are few, he passes the day to gather them together, their hearts being on fire. Would that he had perceived their nature in the first generation of man- kind; then he would have repressed evil, he would have stretched forth his arm against it; he would have destroyed their seed and their inheritance. Where is he to-day? Is he sleeping? Behold, his might is seen."
By Professors H. O. Lange, Ed. Meyer, J. H. Breasted, and others, this has been interpreted as messianic, the proph- ecy of a coming prince who would rescue and heal his people, restoring Egypt to her old-time place of prestige and power. A. H. Gardiner refers it to an account of the activity of the god Re, the creator and preserver of mankind, whose return to the earth will restore peace and prosperity. Since Re was regarded as the first king and all subsequent kings as the " sons of Re," it would, as Prof. J. M. P. Smith obsei-ves, be natural to think of the messiah king as a re-incarnation of Re. " Indeed," to quote Prof. Smith, " we recall that Micah speaks of a coming Messiah ' whose origins are from of old, from ancient time.' It is to be noticed, however, as Gardiner reminds us, that Ipuwer does not predict the coming of the messianic ruler, but merely gives expression to his longing that such an one might appear. Whether or not the thought is concerned with an individual Messiah in the ordinary sense of the word, the context is too uncertain to determine. But
18 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
it is perfectly clear," and this is a point we would stress, " it is perfectly clear that there is here presented a longing for the coming of a golden age such as that so gloriously de- picted and so confidently predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament." [J. M. P. Smith, ^Semitic Prophecy, in the Biblical World, Vol. 35, No. 4 (April, 1910), p. 223-33. J. H. Breasted, The Earliest Social Prophet, in the American Journal of Theology, Jan., 1910.]
These ideas are, in many respects, similar to the early Jewish hopes wherein the prophets lament the evils that befall the people under wicked rulers, and paint, in contrast, that ideal kingdom of the future when the righteous king shall reign and peace shall prevail.
Hammurabi, like other Babylonian rulers, was a descend- ant of the gods, their representative on earth, and was expected to inaugurate a golden age of peace. [Cheney be- lieves the Jewish messianic hope may be the result of Baby- lonian influence. See Messiah, Ency. Bibl. The view that it is derived from Chaldea is advanced by PI. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, II, 256. Madras, 1910.]
From other older Oriental cultures there comes an unmis- takable strain of messianic hope. " Wake ! Be thyself ! Arise, Scourge of thy Foes ! " is the admonition of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita.
In Zoroastrian religion the idea of a savior, political and moral, is clearly developed. The concept of the Iranian messiah, the Saoshyant, is implied, if not plainl}" expressed in the Gathas, the oldest portion of the Avesta, while in the later Avesta, the nineteenth Yast, the idea reaches fruition. In the later Pahlavi texts it is developed in some detail. The Saoshyant is the greatest and last of the three millenial prophets and will usher in the day of judgment for all man- kind. The way is paved by his predecessors, Ukhshetara, Aushetar, and Ukhshatnemah, or Aushetar-mah, each of whom rule or supervise for a thousand years, the world, meanwhile, undergoing slight improvement. The Saoshyant is assisted in his first duties, supervising the resurrection of the dead, by fifteen men and fifteen maidens. A mystic drink confers immortality upon the resuscitated, and the Saoshyant
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 19
then proceeds to recompense all according to their deeds. [Art. on Saoshyant, in New Intern. Ency. (1911). N. Soderblom, La Vie Future D'Apres Mazdeisme, 305-8, 246-7. Angers, 1901. J. H. Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of Persia. Cambridge, 1911. Incarnation (Parsi) in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 198. Ages of the World (Zoroastrian), lb., I, 205-10. Messiah, lb., VIII, 579. Gaster, however, in- sists that the Zoroastrian Taheb, or Messiah, plays as color- less a part as the Messiah in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs or in the Apocalypse of Baruch. See Art. Parsiism in Judaism, in Hastings' E.R.E., IX (1917), p. 640.]
The Fathers of the Church regarded Orpheus as the fore- runner of Christ, remarking that he had come to teach man- kind and had died a tragic death. In fact a Roman em- peror placed in his private chapel a statue of Orpheus beside the statue of the Christian Messiah. [Hutton W^ebster, Ancient History, 513 (D. C. Heath & Co. 1913).]
The Greeks, however, had no typical messiahs, though ele- ments of messianism had entered feebly into the religious as well as into the social and political life. The Eleusinian mysteries conducted the initiate into a new world of saving, if not absolving grace. The rebirth to a new life was sym- bolized in the Demeter and Persephone myth, known to all Greeks, and in the Dionysian rites divine inspiration was ex- pected. [Farnell, in art. on Greek Religion in Hastings' E.R.E. For a fuller account, see the excellent chapter on Hellenistic Religions of Redemptions, in S. J. Case, Evolu- tion of Early Christianity. Chicago, 1914.]
Even in Rome itself, cold, austere, self-controlled, and won- derfully cosmopolite, vague foreshadowings of a messianic kingdom are not wanting. The Golden Age pictured by Virgil will be established by Augustus Caesar, offspring of a god, than whom, sings Horace,
... no boon of nobler worth Fate or kind gods ere gave, or ere shall give Ev'n though the golden age upon the earth Once more may live again.
20 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Caesar " lives to save " — a " winged god who deigns to don a manly frame," a " present god." He is a " patri- monial Zeus, and savior of the common race of mankind, all of whose prayers Providence has not only fulfilled but even surpassed. For earth and sea have peace, cities flourish, well-governed, harmonious, and prosperous, the course of all good things has reached a climax, and all mankind has been filled with hopes for the future and good cheer for the present." Such is the optimistic doctrine recorded in a Halicarnassus inscription. [Ch. on The Religious Signifi- cance of Emperor-Worship in S. J. Case, op. cit., and W. Warde Fowler and others, Virgil and the Messianic Ec- logue.^ And so the devout Roman believed that " the birth- da^^ of the divine Caesar, which we might justly rate equal to the beginning of all creation, gave another aspect to the whole world, which would truly have perished utterly had not Caesar, the common good fortune of all men, been born."
Thus the Eastern pagan world found its Messiah in Caesar, the language in some places bearing a close resemblance in form as well as in spirit to the Jewish messianic psalms and prophecies. For example, an inscription, dated 9-4 b. c, in honor of the birthday of Augustus, declares :
" This day has given the earth an entirely new aspect. . . . Rightly does he judge who recognises in this birthday the beginning of life and of all the powers of life ; now is the time ended when men pitied themselves for being born. All- ruling Providence has filled this man with such gifts for the salvation of the world as designate him the Saviour for us and for the coming generations ; of wars will he make an end, and establish all things worthily. The birthda}^ of God has brought to the world glad tidings. From his birthday a new era begins." [W. Ramsay, Letters to the Seven Churches, 436. London, 1904. Art., Emperor-Worship, Diet, of the Apostolic Church, I, 330-2. The hymns and eclogues of Virgil were later confused with the Messianic outlook of the prophets. Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 717. Art., Caesarism, in Hastings' E.R.E., III, 50-6.]
The words of the Sibylline Oracle, given by Virgil some fifty years before the birth of Christ, are as follows : " The
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 21
last era, the subject of the Sibyl song of Cumae, has now arrived; the great series of ages begins anew. The virgin returns — returns the reign of Saturn. The progeny from heaven now descends. Be thou propitious to the Infant Bo}^ by whom the Iron Age shall expire, and the Golden Age over the whole world shall commence. Whilst thou, O Pollio, art consul, this glory of our age shall be made manifest, and the celestial months begin their revolutions. Under thy auspices whatever vestiges of our guilt remain, shall, by being atoned for, redeem the earth from fear forever. He shall partake of the life of the gods. He shall reign over a world in peace with his father's virtues. The earth, sweet boy, as her first fruits, shall pour thee forth spontaneous flowers."
Whether this reflects the influence of Hebrew prophecy, or is an adaptation of those prevailing Roman ideas that later expanded into a fully developed emperor worship under Augustus, it is at least the expression of a vague messianic expectation, even though the Messiah be identified as the ruling Caesar or as the heir to the throne. [See on this point Ellinwood, Oriental Religions and Christianity, 283-4.]
For Nero an almost messianic reign was to commence in the East. [E. Renan, The Anti-Christ. ~\ Vespasian, no doubt as a result of the Jewish influences by which he was surrounded, was induced to accept a messianic character, and to show works of healing and miracles in support of his claims. [Tacitus, Hist., IV, 81-2; Suetonius, Vesp., 7; Dion Cass., LXVI, 8.] Messianic ideas were, in fact, rife in the Roman empire about this time and liable to attach to any emperor. They represent, however, the influence of Jew- ish thought upon Roman life rather than the reverse, and are really an off'shoot of Jewish messianic faith. The messianic beliefs of Christians of the first and second centuries a. d. off"ered comfort to the citizens of the Eternal City, proud mistress of the world, as well as to poverty-stricken Jewish exiles. [Art. on Akiba Ben Joseph, in Hastings' E.R.E., I, 275. Antichrist, Diet, of Apost. Church, I, 67-8. Beast, lb., and in Diet, of Christ and the Gospels. Apocalypse, Ency. Bibl., I, 210-1.]
A,f ter this brief survey of surrounding cultures let us turn to
22 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
The Growth of the Messianic Idea in Old Testament Times
From the first, Jewish national life was closely linked with the religious. Jehovah was the god of the Hebrews and for the Hebrews, national in every sense of the word, and in no sense international. Moses, the law-giver and religion- giver, rose at a time of great need when the Jews were hard- pressed from without and in danger of losing national in- tegrity and independence. When Moses seemed to fail them in the wilderness and they no longer had actual every-day guidance they turned, disappointed, from his God and wor- shipped a golden calf.
Nathan Spira, preacher and rector of the Talmudic acad- emy in Cracow (1585—1633), a specialist on the Practical Cabala, published in Cracow in 1627 a book called Dis corner- ing Deep Thiiigs, in which he argued that IMoses prayed to God concerning the appearance of the two Messiahs of the house of Joseph and David. [Dubnow, I, 135.] The sup- position that Moses predicted the Messiah is based on Deut. xviii. 18: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him." The Jewish rabbis drew elaborate parallels between ]\Ioses and the Messiah. [See J. H. Allen, Hebrew Men and Times from the Patriarchs to the Messiah^ 392-3. Boston, 1883. L. S. Ploughton, Hebrew Life and Thought, 306. Chicago 1906. A. H. Lewis, Paganism Surviving in Christianiti/, 54-6. New York, 1892. William Smith (Old Testament History from the Creation to the Return of the Jews from Captivity, 19, 70. New York N. D.) finds promise of the Messiah given in the Garden of Eden as well as later to Abraham. See also S. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, 291-2. New York 1910.]
This seventeenth century view seems odd to us to-day. Yet half a century has not elapsed since an American theo- logian advanced the idea that " in some sense, vague per- haps, [Abraham] foresaw a Messiah and a Kingdom of Righteousness, and he was girded with confidence to the last, though he died without the sight." [Frank F. Ellinwood,
The Messianic MoveTuent in Judaism 23
Oriental Religions and Christianity, 365. New York 2nd ed. 1896.]
There is, of course, no doubt that the messianic idea had its Bibhcal inception at a much later period. The Prophets who wrote before the Assyrian captivity seem concerned mainly, if not solely, with immediate political ills and reme- dies. They deal with present evils and warn the people to re- pent because of impending disasters. It is not until after the captivity that we find distinct promise of an ultimate rather than an immediate millennium, in the form of a Messianic Age wherein all wrongs will be righted. The return of the Jews under Zerubbabel had been a disappointment, now that the commonplaces and hardships of habitation in the actual Jerusalem had displaced the glamour which surrounded the Holy City when they longed for it, captives in a foreign land. They had not successfully established national au- tonomy. Theirs was not the position among the nations of the world which their pride and ambition demanded. Un- equal to these demands — so at least they thought — were their leaders. Amid these conditions there evolved the idea of a Messiah, ideal and distant rather than immediate and merely practical, who would fulfil national ambitions. As the Messianic Age became increasingly needed national im- patience insisted on fixing its date. [Cornill has advanced the view that Zerubbabel was regarded as the Messiah. Carl H. Cornill, The Prophets of Israel: Popular Sketches from Old Testament History, 150. Chicago, 1907. Trans- lated by S. F. Corkran. Seventh Edition. The book is one of the best of the earlier expositions. Cheney endorses Cor- nill. Messiah, Ency. BibL, III, 3059.]
Most of the Old Testament prophets were inspired with the ideal of a social regeneration of regenerate Israel. It was especially during periods of national stress that promise was given of a Messiah who would cleanse the nation and raise it to a position above all its neighbors. The exalta- tion of Jahweh-worsliip to its preeminent position above all of the other cults seems to have owed its great impetus to the spur of a national enthusiasm, in answer to a dangerous external attack upon the existence of Israel and of Israel's
24" Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
God. " This final touch was given by the aggression of Assyria, and, later, of Babylon. For two years the two tiny Israelitish kingdoms had maintained a precarious inde- pendence between the mighty empires of Egypt and Meso- potamia. In the eighth century it became certain that they could no longer play their accustomed game of clever diplo- macy and polite subjection. The very existence of Israel was at stake ; and the fanatical worshippers of Jahweh broke out in that memorable ecstasy of enthusiasm which we may fairly call the Age of the Prophets, and which produced the earliest masterpieces of Hebrew literature in the wild effort to oppose to the arms of the invaders the passive resistance of the supreme Jahweh. In times of old, the prophets say, when Jahweh led the forces of Israel, the horses and the chariots of their enemies counted for nought : if in this crisis Israel would cease to think of aid from Egypt or alliance with Assyria — if Israel would get rid of all her other gods and trust only to Jahweh — then Jahweh would break asun- der the strength of Assyria and would reduce Babylon to nothing before his chosen people." [Grant Allen, Evolution of the Idea of God^ Ch. X; Prideaux, Old and New Testa- ment, I, 62, 141, 227.] This was the language of Isaiah in the crisis of a grave national danger. [See Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Bk. Ill, and liis Old Testament Theology, 363 (translated by Goodby). Also S. D. F. Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortalitif (1903).] Under the Restoration, when the people and prophets alike were optimistic about the present and the immediate future, the messianic idea was not so strongly dominant. [Juda- ism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 586, 595. C. F. Kent, The Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, 119-21. New York, 1906.] The forecast of a bright future became more vivid and more concrete as the circumstances of the time seemed the more to contradict it. C'est quand tout semblera perdu que tout sera vraiment suave, said a French- man to his compatriots after the Prussian invasion and the Paris revolution. Jeremiah made a similar remark to his brethren after the invasion of Palestine.
The Babylonian exile was not only a crisis representing a
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 25
fundamental social and political transformation in Israel, but was equally a period of religious transformation. The destruction of the ancient state cleared the way for the con- struction of the new, and religion and ritual underwent re- vision in keeping with the political changes. [C. F. Kent, Hist, of Jewish People during the Babylonian, Persian, and Greek Periods, 92-8, 147-53. New York 1910. Kittel, His- tory of the Hebrews, II, 319, 346; in the German edition, II, 432, 480. Gotha, 1909. Emil Schurer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ. First Division, I, 188fF. Hugo Winckler, Geschichte Israels in Einzeldarstellungen, I., chapter entitled Der Jahvismus und die Propheten in Politishen Leben, 7S'-113. Leipzig 1895. S. E. Fuller, His- torical and Religious Significance of the Reign of Manassah, see esp. 71—91. Leipzig 1912. An account of Messianic hope is given by H. O. Taylor, Ancient Ideals, II, 146—71, 132, 228-31. See also Ewald, History of Israel, III, 11, 202, 226, 242, 272, 292; IV, 19, 50, 59-63; V, 67-9.]
In the time of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, " in its complete form the Messianic expectation involved four things : the punishment of foreign nations ; the restoration of Israel to its own land ; a new covenant ; and the rule of a king of David's line. . . . The political coloring varies greatly," some hearts ardently longing for the supremacy over other nations, while some yearn more for a religious regeneration. Isaiah's prediction of the child to be born, whose name, Emmanuel, will testify to the deliverance of Jerusalem from its besiegers, suggests a rapturous descrip- tion of the Coming One, whose very name indicates that he will be a hero prince, godlike in his deeds (Isaiah 9:5). [Henry Preserved Smith, The Religion of Israel, 247-8.] The Jews seem to have held throughout to a belief that only a supernatural power could save a nation that is once started on the road to ruin. [J. E. Dewe, Psychology of Politics and History, 180. 1910. Emil Schurer, op. cit.] Indeed, Jahweh may intentionally allow Israel to be conquered by Babylon in order to awake their faith in him and so, through disaster, secure their united conversion : " that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that
26 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
there is no God beside me " (Isaiah xlv). ^
There is no doubt that as Israel's day waned more and more, faith learned to cling with an intenser grasp to this expectation of the consummation of a divine kingdom, and to the prospect of the coming of Jehovah Himself to reign on earth. The message of prophecy became in increasing meas- ure the announcement of a future which God held for the theocracy, wherein right should finally be done to his people, justice executed upon His enemies, and hope fulfilled. As the vision of the Messianic era became larger and clearer, the whole conception of the future partook of this expansion and illumination. [S almond. The Christian Doctrine of Im- mortality, 208. Edinburgh, 1903.] In later years, when the Messiah's coming seemed too long postponed, impatient Jews (and Christians) asked: *' Where is his promised coming, for since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain in the same condition as since the creation " (2 Peter iii. 4). To arouse and invigorate, a Messiah is needed. [See Huidekofer, Judaism at Rome, 259.]
The messianic hope has served as a powerful stimulus to self-preservative eff*ort. When Israel, at whatever period in its histor}^ was impelled to a more vigorous religious life, its marvellous ancient courage against external enemies re- vived: witness the days of Josiah, those of Zedekiah, those also of Zerubbabel. [Ewald, History of Israel, IV, 242, 272; V, 117,27.]
To assert that these efforts were self-preservative is not inconsistent with the fact that every recrudescence of na- tionalism has brought misfortune to the Jews and to Juda- ism, that " it was the cause of the catastrophe of 578 b. c, of the fall of the Maccabees, of the decay of the Sadducees, of the destruction by Titus, and of the desolation of Judaea in 136." [Herbert Loewe, in Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 608, seems to imply otherwise.]
The Messianic Idea in the Apocryphal Books — The First Two Centuries B. C. and the First Century A. D.
The development of the messianic hope in the decades pre- ceding and following the appearance of Christianity can be
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 27
read in the Apocryphal books, made accessible to the lay world largely through the patient efforts of Dr. R. H. Charles. As has been mentioned, in the second century b. c, the messianic hope was practically non-existent. " So long as Judas and Simon were chiefs of the nation, the need of a Messiah was hardly felt. But in the first half of the next century (i.e., the first century b. c.) it was very different. Subject to ruthless oppressions, the righteous were in sore need of help. But inasmuch as the Maccabean princes were themselves the leaders in this oppression, the thoughts of the faithful were forced to look for divine aid. Thus the bold and original thinker to whom we owe the Parables con- ceived the Messiah as the supernatural Son of Man, who should enjoy universal dominion and execute judgment on men and angels. But other religious thinkers, returning to the study of the Old Testament, revived the expectation of the prophetic Messiah, sprung from the house and lineage of David. These very divergent conceptions took such a firm hold of the national consciousness that henceforth the Mes- siah becomes almost the central and chief figure in the Messi- anic kingdom." [R. H. Charles, EscJiatology, 296.] The Messiah would, after purging Jerusalem, allow no stranger to dwell within the gates; " the sojourner and the stranger shall dwell with them no more," says the Psalms of Solomon (written 70-40 b. c). As for the ungodly nations he will destroy them with the word of his mouth ; the hostile nations shall be destroyed.
He shall judge the nations and the peoples with the wisdom of his righteousness And he shall possess the nations of the heathen to serve him
beneath his yoke. And he shall have mercy on all the nations that come before him in fear. (Yea) the nations shall come from the ends of the world to see
his glory, Bringing as gifts her sons that had fainted.
The future that is predicted and fondly hoped for is the time when God will succor his own people, the psalmists dwell-
S8 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
ing on the vengeance that will befall hostile nations and the sinners among men, rather than on the saving features of this kingdom. It was to be not so much a kingdom of grace as one of power vindicating national superiority. In the Apoc- alypse of Baruch, w^ritten in the second half of the first cen- tury A. D., the Messiah, who in the first Apocalypse is con- ceived as wholly passive, is here pictured as a w^arrior who slays the enemies of Israel with his own hand. " Against Him all the heathen powers are arrayed under a great leader." [lb., 327.]
For the Pharisee who wrote the Similitudes of Enoch, " the blood of the martyred Pharisees cries out to Heaven, and the angels of heaven join their supplications with those of the living. He finds relief in two directions : first, in his conception of the origin of evil, and, second, in the belief in a preexistent, Messiah, who will come and establish a uni- versal kingdom of righteousness, and execute judgment upon all." (lb., 75.) Israel, oppressed from without, must have a new ruler, one who brings with him not only new religious conceptions but new temporal authority that will vindicate the reality of this people's racial authority, and vanquish every formidable foe.
That portion of the Book of Sirach (second century b. c.) which refers to a Messianic hope Schmidt [See Ecclesiasticus, in the Temple Bible, p. xxvi.] believes to be " manifestly an interpolation." However this may be, " it voices the feel- ings of a people sorely oppressed by a foreign enemy, long- ing for deliverance and vengeance, encouraged b}^ prophecies concerning the ' end ' and anxious to see the fulfilment of their predictions."
As regards the distribution and occurrence of the INIessi- anic belief the absence of it in certain of the Jewish apocry- phal literature is no less significant than its presence in other writings. We have noted its prevalence in the literature of doctrinally torn Palestine during the century or more pre- ceding the appearance of Christ, and in the first century of our era. In none of the Alexandrian literature of these cen- turies, however, do we find expression of the hope of a per- sonal Messiah. Its absence in the Alexandrian writings is
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 29
" explained by the fact that, removed from the center of political aspiration and life, and influenced by the more spir- itualized Judaism represented in the Book of Wisdom, the faith and ideals of the Alexandrian Jews did not suffer secu- larization to the same extent as those of their Palestinian brethren." [It must be pointed out, however, that if the conception of a personal Messiah is absent, that of a messi- anic kingdom is not. The book known as Slavonic Enoch, for example, represents this kingdom as being realized in a coming millennium — not as near at hand.]
Great is the contrast in the Palestinian literature of the same centuries, wherein " we can trace diversity and modi- fication of the Messianic belief." The Assumption of Moses is a protest against the hope of a personal Messiah — a hope then prevalent and potent enough to call forth this extended and dignified protest — and a plea for reversion to the older theocratic idea. Again, " the Apocalj'pse of Baruch, in the sections written before a. d. 70, foreshadows the coming of the Messiah; but of the sections composed after the destruc- tion of Jerusalem some cherish the hope of a Messianic king- dom without a Messiah, others look for a speedy consumma- tion and judgment, and one fragment bears witness to the survival of the Sadducaic view of the present and the future." In at least three of the books written after a. d. 70 (Baruch, Sibylline Oracles, and the Apocalypse of Abraham), although there is the vision of a Messianic kingdom there is no refer- ence to a personal Messiah. Evidently the destruction of Jerusalem dealt a severe blow to the political hopes of Juda- ism, but that they were not entirely destro3^ed is clear from 4 Ezra, where the person of the Messiah is brought into the foreground of the picture of the future." [Maldwyn Hughes, Ethics of the Jewish Apocryphal Literature, 309- 12, 249. Alexandrian Theology, Hastings' E.R.E., I, 309.]
The Jews of the mother-country were face to face with the great crises which threatened their nation ; those of Alex- andria, the Jews of the Dispersion, viewed the course of events from a more dispassionate standpoint. If the latter saw them from a truer perspective, the former viewed them with a more vitfll interest and national concern. [Dewick, op.
30 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
cit., ch. X.] It was only in later centuries that Alexandria became " the most fatal scene of Jewish turbulence and Jew- ish calamity." [H. H. Milman, op. cit., Ill, 42fF. N. Schmidt, op. cit., 80-1, 76. Ch. on the Alexandrians, in J. H. Allen, op. cit.]
The history of Palestine from about 105 b.c. till 63 b. c. exhibits a struggle for power by the opposing sects of the Pharisees and the Maccabean house with alternating suc- cesses and failures. " When one party was in power it per- secuted the other." The psalms of Solomon bear witness to the bitterness of this mutual hatred, a bitterness aug- mented by the theological in addition to the political differ- ences. Thus the first century b. c. which introduced to Juda- ism and to the larger Gentile world John the Baptist and Christ himself was a time of intense activity, and of the impact of many conflicting forces, all of which played their part in shaping the Messianic hope. [M. Hughes, op. cit., ^5-6, 66.]
It was the attempt to solve the problem, " why it is that Israel, which with all its perversity is more faithful to the law than other nations, is yet oppressed by them," that led the apocalyptists to cast their gaze into the future, and to foreshadow a Messianic kingdom in which Israel and the law should be vindicated and its enemies overthrown. The emergence of this Messianic Prince is pictured in Jubilees and the Testaments. [Eschatology, in Hastings' E.R.E. Apocalyptic Literature (by R. H. Charles) in Ency. Britt. II ; in Ency. Bibl., I, 213-50 ; in Diet, of Christ and the Gos- pels, Apocrypha, in the last mentioned, I, 79-94. Eschatol- ogy (by R. H. Charles), Ency. Bibl., II, 1351-72, and in Diet, of the Apostolic Church, I, 334-65. Apocalypse, and Christ, Christology, lb., I, 71-81 ; I, 177-99. Also, in lb., art. Barnabas, Epistle of, 139-40; Baruch, Apocalvpse of, 142-4; Esdras, The Second Book of, 365-6; Enoch, Book of, 334-40 ; Assumption of Moses, 107 ; Ascension of Isaiah, 100.] In view of this political tinge it is not surprising that Cyrus was regarded by the Israelites as Messiah, for he seemed to insure political salvation. [P.P.C. De La Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religious geschichte I, 446. Tubingen, 1905.]
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 31
Resuscitation of the Messianic Idea in Roman Days
If this relationship between the harshness of the times and the intensity of the messianic hope is true of the days of the prophets, it is none the less true of a later Israel, of the Israel which meets us in the centuries preceding and fol- lowing the birth of Christ. " Had the dream of Daniel been realized," it has been said, " and the dominion over the nations been given to the saints of the Maccabean period, the king of Israel would have been worshipped as a God, and Jerusalem rather than Rome would have become the seat of the imperial cult." [Nathaniel Schmidt, The Prophet of Nazareth, 71-2. 1905.]
That dream of Jewish national domination was, however, not to be realized. The revival of national strength was short-lived. As national prosperity waxed the messianic idea waned, and, when Israel fell upon evil days, the messi- anic idea, now in more favorable soil, took new root and bore fruit abundantly. This inverse relationship is well estab- lished. " Scarcely can it be supposed that the cry for a Messiah burst forth with loud accents while the Maccabean prince, Simon, ruled over the country. . . . The Jewish people were then content with the prevailing order of things. If it be true, as the author of the first book of Maccabees avers, that in those days * every man was sitting under his vine, and under his fig-tree,' w^e cannot for one moment sup- pose that, under such realization of Messianic bliss, there should have existed an impulsive yearning toward another ruler, the imagined Messiah of the house of David. . . . The same may be said of the prosperous reign of his son, John Hyrcanus (b. c. 135—105). Under him almost a Davidic splendor, greatness and power prevailed. By the side of proud national self-consciousness the morbid sigh for an unknown and unknowable royal personage who should yet improve upon the present common happiness, can not well be imagined to have burst forth.
" The Messianic vision, it must be admitted by all, was originally born of gloom. It was always expressed, with more or less demonstrative force, under the somber aspects
S2 Messiahs: Christian cmd Pagan
of the times. Its ' reason of existence ' was either the weary night of oppression — or the dim twilight of a dubious des- tiny. In the serene radiance of the light of freedom and peace, or the lucid gleam of temporal bliss, the motive for its being is only hypothetical. If it nevertheless exists under such favorable conditions, it is due to a mere emotional at- tachment to the past and a pious repugnance to part from the wonted track cut by venerated ancestors and trodden all along in subsequent ages. That, therefore, the Jews were, under the prosperous reign of the high-priestly prince, John Hyrcanus, little troubled about the Messianic future, may be set down as a reasonable conclusion." [I. Schwab, A Review of the Messianic Idea from the Earliest Times to the Rise of Christianity. Published in Judaism at the World's Parliament of Religions. Cincinnati (R. Clarke), 1894.]
Seldom in the history of mankind has the need for a re- deemer been so strongly felt as in the century before and the century after Christ, the apocalyptic frame of mind being so wide-spread that even a Seneca could not keep his thoughts from the early arrival of the end of the world. The messianic character of Augustus reflects the temper of mind of the emperor-worshipping Romans of this age. [Arthur Drews, The Christ Myth, 35. Art., Caesarism, in Hastings' E.R.E., III, 50-6.]
If security lulled the messianic hope into quiescence, dan- ger and oppression revived it. For its stimulus Judaism has many peoples to thank, Assyrians, Egyptians, Ro- mans, and, later, many a European people. The Apoca- lypse fitly represents the messianic movement as beginning at the time when Rome was extending her dominions over Judea. Its inception was amid " the beginnings of sor- row," and the forerunners of the Messiah's advent were dis- asters without precedent. " Revolution and Messianism," wrote Ernest Renan, " were indeed the ruin of the Jewish people considered as a nation," and, perhaps one should add, " the true vocation of that people, its one contribution to the structure of a world-wide civilization."
The first evidence of belief in a Messiah who was expected to deliver Israel has been attributed to the period following
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 33
the conquest of Palestine by Pompey, in 63 b. c. [N. Schmidt, op. cit., 68.] In view of the prevalent Messianic expectation, it can not be considered pure accident that Dosithee proclaimed his messiahship among the Samaritans at almost the same time that Christ proclaimed his messiah- ship among the Jews. [Krauss, Dosithee et les Dositheens. Rev. d. Etudes Juives, Vol. 42 (1901), 27-42; A. Buchler, Les Dositheens dans le Midrash, lb., Vol. 43 (1901), 50-71 ; Vol. 42, p. 220-31. Dositheans, in Cath. Ency., and in the New Inter. Ency. (1915), VII, 195.] According to Origen, Dosithee was long believed by some of his followers to be still alive on this earth.
The galling oppression of the stranger, and the bitter sense of helplessness under the crushing power of the Roman legions, bred in the Jews a wild despair which made them look forward more eagerly than ever to the appearance of some one with extraordinary powers, who, as the Messiah, would, in accordance with ancient oracles, free them, and, with them, the world, from the prevailing material and moral bondage. [P. Goodman, A History of the Jews, 28. Lon- don, 1909.]
While the people were miserable, impatient, and longing for a leader, " if such a hero had arisen, and had dealt with the Romans as Judas Maccabeus had dealt with the Syrians, he would assuredly have been hailed by the Jews as the Mes- siah, the anointed of the Lord. The restlessness and riot- ing, which had their center in Jerusalem, prevailed through- out Palestine, and nowhere more strongly than in Galilee, the northern provinces in which Jesus, the son of Joseph a car- penter, first attracted attention. When Jesus was a tiny child a certain Judas of Galilee, a very ordinary hero indeed, only just escaped the perilous distinction of being altogether believed in by his countrymen. Judas the Galilean had headed a frantic outburst of passionate patriotism. It had been locally successful. Led by him, the Galileans had re- volted and the Romans had retreated, and, like his great namesake, this Judas conquered for a while. But it was for a very little while; and his followers had not time to turn this leader of theirs into Messiah before he was crucified
34 Messiahs: Chris tiaTi and Pagan
by the Romans as a rebel. The enthusiastic reception which was given to this poor straw of a hero shows the tendency of the time and the temper of the people. The very stones seemed crying out for a Redeemer and Deliverer to come unto Zion. Under the circumstances a Messiah was almost bound to appear." [Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish His- tory, 49, 226. Philadelphia, 1890. Hope for a political Messiah who will save from Roman domination is recognised by G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, 16.]
It is easy to forget but important to remember that in the days of Jesus the word " Messiah " would inevitably suggest a powerful king, a warrior, a sudden and successful revolu- tion. The Son of Man as pictured in Enoch 37-70 will execute judgment on men and angels alike. In fact, it was only after the year a. d. 135, in Talmudic times, that Juda- ism accepted belief in a Messiah who would die a belief
that may be related directly to the death of the national Messiah-hero, Bar-Kokebas. [Messiah, in Hastings' E.R.E., VIII, 580. Jesus Christ, lb., VII, 514, 517. Eschatology, lb., V, 379-80, 381.]
Jesus of Nazareth was not accepted by the more patriotic Jews as their Messiah for he failed to respond to national political hopes. Only in the Greek language does the name " Christ " signify the " Anointed One," i. e., the " Messiah." It is true Josephus does not attribute a political philosophy to the Zealots, the sect led by Judas against the Romans, and says nothing of the messianic hope that dominated them ; but his silence may well be out of regard for Roman feeling. [An interpretation given b}^ Norman Bentwick, Josephus, 117. Philadelphia, 1914.]
The belief in the coming of a triumphant Messiah w^as so widely diffused as to be mentioned by both Suetonius and Tacitus, [Cf. H. H. Milman, History of the Jews, II, 210- 11.] so that Josephus must certainly have been cognisant of it. Only by virtue of this prevailing idea can we explain that state of expectancy which seldom failed to welcome any would-be Messiah. Thus it was that Theudas (beheaded 46 A. D.) could persuade the people to follow him to the river Jordan, expecting to see its waters miraculously divide as
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 35
the Red Sea divided for Moses. An Egyptian impostor (about 58 A. D.) could induce them to go out to the Mount of Olives expecting to see the walls of Jerusalem fall pros- trate at his command. Even when the Roman soldiers were making preparations to set fire to the temple, a Messiah was able to assemble 6,000 men, women and children, into its courts and porches to await a promised miraculous deliver- ance. [See Josephus, Ant., XX, and Wars, VI; Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ, 65-7. London, 1896.]
Many of these, like Menahem, son of Judah, the Galilean, who appeared during the siege of Jerusalem, clothed in royal garments, and led the attack upon the Roman garrison, finally fell victims to their messianic pride or arbitrariness. All of them were inspired with a fervor as patriotic as it was religious.
Under the prosperous rule of the Maccabees, the old pro- phetic hope of a Messiah-king of David's line either lay dorm.ant, or else became transformed into the expectation of a great Maccabean Priest-King of the House of Levi. When the Pharisees found themselves oppressed by the ex- isting King of the Jews, the Messianic hope revived. It is clear, also, that at the time of Christ we need not expect to find one stereotyped form of Messianic hope. It was, in- deed, a pious belief of certain individuals, not a recognised article of the Pharisaic creed, and, where the belief was held, its expression varied considerably. [Dewick, Primitive Christian Eschatology, ch. IX, and Emil Schiirer, op. cit.]
The expectation of a Messiah was no part of the doctrine of the Hilleiites, though it was exuberant among the Graeco- Ronian Jews, and, among them, was raised to a high pitch by the edict against the Hebrews promulgated by Tiberius and Sejan. [I. M. Wise, History of the Hebrews' Second Com- monwealth, S65. Cincinnati, 1880.] The success of Jesus' Messiahship varied according to the needs of the respective classes to whom it appealed. [lb., 260.] Nor is this rela- tivism peculiar to any age. The Pharisees cherished the Messianic hope, but with them it was interwoven with the hope of national and political redemption which, with them,
36 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
was inseparable from it. This was also essentially the doc- trine of the Zealots, whose passionate zeal sought to hasten the day of national retribution upon Israel's enemies. [Riggs, History of the Jewish People, 108, S49. New York, 1902.]
Though the messianic hope was rampant in Palestine, in the books of the Cabbala, which were given shape among the Egyptian Jews, the names " Son of Man " and " Anointed Prince," the terms used when referring to the Messiah, do not occur. [C. R. Conder, Judas Maccabaeus and the Jew- ish War of Independence, 68 (1879).] These Alexandrian Jews were apart from the political depression and turmoil, and messianic doctrines were correspondingly absent. [A detailed account of the conditions and doctrines of the Alex- andrian Jews of this and proximate periods will be found in August Bludan, Juden und Judenverfolgungen im alien Alexandria, esp. 13^28. Munster i. W. 1906. Also, N. Schmidt, Prophet of Nazareth.'] Messianic hope is ex- pressed in the Book of Enoch and in that of Solomon (Pales- tinian), whereas there is no reference to it in the Sibylline Oracles (Alexandrian). [Ewald, History of Israel, V, 361, 346, 484.]
Most of the Messianic prophecies are, as Professor Kent has remarked, [op. cit., 84ff., 175.] determined by the con- ditions and especially by the age in which the prophet lived, and their success has been closely related to the nature of the appeal. Before the appearance of John the Baptist and of Jesus of Nazareth the outrages perpetrated by Pilate had given rise to several prophets and saviors. One of these, a Samaritan, called his fellow-patriots to Mount Gerizzim, promising, in proof of his divine mission, to show them the sacred vessels and the ark made by Moses, these objects, ac- cording to Samaritan tradition, being buried on that Mount. Many of his followers came under arms ; but the ever-wary Roman knew the political danger involved in religious fer- vour and promptly quelled the uprising. [I. M. Wise, op. cit., 244, 253.] Syria, which had been one of the most op- pressed of the Roman provinces was most fruitful in messi- anic religious movements, while Alexandria, a refuge from
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 37
political oppression, furnished none — not even an appealing messianic idea.
In Palestine itself there was, prior to the appearance of Christ, not one prevailing idea of the desired and expected Messiah, but at least two distinct ones: there were two classes, each with its own peculiar needs and hopes, and these were not always reconcilable not to say coincident. If Mr. Louis Wallis' interpretation is correct, [Sociological Study of the Old Testament^ the messianic idea found its source in the desire of the upper classes of Israel to have foreigners work for them, while they, the successful peoples, ate the wealth of the nations and succeeded to the world's glory. " But the lower classes were infected with social revolution, and wanted to set mishpat, or justice in the land." The final catastrophe of Judaism, its last attempt to get rid of the Roman yoke, is directly traceable to a messianic upris- ing of the lower class. Although later in its history Chris- tianity was first adopted by the higher classes and by them imposed upon the peasantry (as in France, England, Ger- many, and most European countries), in the first centuries of its life it was distinctively and almost exclusively the reli- gion of the lower classes, of the poor and oppressed. To them it promised salvation from the oppressor, regeneration and superiority that made the poor rich, the afflicted happy despite their misery. Such a religion was not for the higher classes because the oppression felt by them was the result of conditions external to the nation, not incidental to the social life, as was the case with the poorer classes. [Prideaux, op. cit., II, 404<-5, 425. 1849. Riggs, op. cit., 152-3, 211, 228. The Old Testament is, for the most part written from the aristocratic point of view, that of the ruling and wealthy classes, and voices their aspirations. For example from its account we might supose that all of the Jews were carried away by Assyria during the captivity, whereas only the leaders and members of the upper classes were taken. The New Testament, on the other hand, reflects the views of the poorer classes who had little to do with the affairs of the nation.] Thus the success of Christianity, like the progress of the Jewish reli- gion, is in large part a reflex of political conditions.
38 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Some Jewish Messiahs After the Time of Christ
The hope for the advent of the Messiah lay dormant in the people awaiting for its fulfillment the time of pressing need ; this hope reached its fulfilment, or at least its highest tension, in the troublous times immediately preceding the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. " From the simple idea of a warrior, a protector of the people against foreign foes, the Messiah idea developed into the expectation of the rise of a great and glorious king of the house of David." [J. A. Greenstone, The Messiah Idea in Jewish History, 42—3, 54?, 8-i, 111-112.] " The darker the present grew . . , the more eagerly did their minds turn to the comfort offered by the apocalyptic promises, w^hich predicted the end of their suflferings and the dawn of their delivery." [Buttenweiser, in Jewish Encyclopedia.] Indeed, subsequently to b. c. 63, the Jews at Rome had taught the coming of a King, or Mes- siah, who would have been for the rest of Europe a King from the East:
" And ' the People ' of the Great God shall again shine, Loaded with wealth, with gold and silver. And fine purple."
As already suggested there can be little doubt that a Messianic excitement " accompanied as usual by anti-Roman feeling," was largely responsible for the Jewish revolt sup- pressed by Titus. At this time as well as through the fol- lowing fifteen centuries or longer [see below the account of Molcho], Rome's downfall was to be the sign of the Messiah's approach ; or the return of Nero, " the Beast," would herald it. " A dog chased the lion wliich throttled the Shepherds " of Israel ; the chasing dog was a powerful Messiah. The two epistles of Paul which bear, of all his writings, the strongest evidence of an intense Messianic expectation were written at a time when the notion was prevalent in the Jew- ish aristocracy, that an emperor at Rome would rival God ; while in the second epistle of Paul reflecting this belief, we have a reference to this heathen emperor as one who is to precede the Messiah's coming. [See I Thess. 4* and 5; II
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 39
Thess. 2. Paul, Diet, of Chr. and Gospels, II, 890. Christ, Christology, Diet. Apost. Ch., I, 188-91.] This view was essentially at one with that belief in the Anti-Christ which prevailed through the Middle Ages as an inheritance from New Testament times : An Anti-Christ who would be liberal in bribes, of unbounded wealth, capable of performing great signs and wonders so as to deceive the very elect, and at last tear the moral veil from his face revealing himself a monster of impiety and cruelty. He would inaugurate that awful persecution which would last three years and a half, excelling all previous persecutions in horror. " When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? " asks Christ as though expecting the answer, " No." The vessel of the Church, says Marchantius, a seventeenth century theo- logian of Flanders, will disappear in the foam of that boil- ing deep of infidelity and be hidden in the blackness of that storm of destruction which sweeps over the earth. The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. After the lapse of those three and a half years Christ will descend to earth, destroy Anti-Christ and his world power, thus avenging the blood of the saints. [For the beliefs about the Anti-Christ, see S. Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, Boston, 1889.]
Earthquakes and widespread famine, it seems, brought the Messianic excitement in Rome to a culmination in a. d. 52. Claudius expelled from Rome the Jews who, to quote Sue- tonius, " under the impulse of Christianity were keeping up a constant disturbance." As Pluidekofer observes, the heathen could have had no motive for exculpating Jews at the expense of Christians. " Hence the allegation that Christianity was to blame for the disturbance must have originated with conservative Jews." The fearful earth- quakes which shook Southern Italy again in a. d. 63, through the universal apprehension wliich they aroused, stimulated Messianic expectations among Jews and Christians. To supplement this, in June, 64, the city of Rome was nearly destroyed by a fire, only four of the fourteen sections of the city remaining untouched, the other ten being wholly or in
40 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
part destroyed. " Here was an event — Rome's destruc- tion — which for more than a century had by many Jews been deemed the precursor of their Messiah's coming. Party strife and Sibylline predictions found place in the capital, whilst in Judea the autumn cannot have passed without premonitions of rebellion. From Josephus we know that revolutionary disturbances were, shortly thereafter, well under way in Judea. [See Huidekofer, Judaism at RomCy N. Y., 1887, S42fF; 2^9-38; 133, 144-7, 154, 425, 501 ; and the same author's Indirect Testimony of History, 33—5. For the use by Cicero of the phrase, " A King from the East," see the orator's work on Dimnations and his De Naiura Deorum. Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, edited by Mayor, Fowler and Conway, London, 1907, contains a dis- cussion of the question of the messianic concept in Virgil. On the relation betv/een the Dragon and the ]\Iessiah, see Hastings' Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, I, 313, art. on Dragon. The religious stimulus of such events has been discussed by the author in the article on Prodigies and Portents in Hastings' Ency. of Religion and Ethics, Vol. X.]
" Amongst the magicians and the false prophets who, to the disturbance of the people, began, in rivalry, with the robbers, to play a more dangerous part, and whom Felix endeavored rigorously to put down, there was an Egyptian Judean who especially distinguished himself (shortly after A. D. 5S). He sought to prove, by a perverse interpretation of the Bible, that the walls of Jerusalem, having been subject to the heathen, must fall down in the same way as those of Jericho, under Joshua, had once done, and that only when that had been accomplished would the victory over the world accrue to those who should in that way enter the city. He had already collected many people from the populace on the Mount of Olives, in his advance from the eastern desert, when Felix fell upon him with a large body of horse and cavalry, killing four hundred and taking two hundred pris- oners." [J. H. Allen, op. cit., 413. Ewald, History of Israel, VII, 423.]
About a decade later, the Roman governor, Festus, was compelled to send cavalry and infantry against a similar
The Messianic Movement in Jiodaism 41
false Messiah, who had promised the people immediate deliv- erance from the oppressive Romans, and a cessation of all sufferings, if they would follow him into the desert. [lb., 426. The account is given in Josephus, Ant,, XX, 8, 10.] It was in the days of intense excitement and concern, when Cleopatra was scheming to effect the overthrow of Herod, that a Judean author foretold the coming destiTiction of the Roman-Greek state and heralded the coming of a glorious Messiah. [Graetz, Hist of Jews, II, 95. See also 143ff., 240ff., 290ff., 409ff., 610; IV, 18, 494ff. ; in II, 610ff.; of Messiahs in the early sixteenth century, in IV, 482ff. ; of Charles V (sixteenth century) in IV, 497.] In a word, " To trace the rise of the Jewish revolt is hardly anything less than to trace the growth of the messianic propaganda." [See Shaler Matthews, Messianic Hope in the New Testa- ment, 15 ; cf., also, C. A. Briggs, The Messiah of the Apostles, New York, 1895 ; and by the same author. The Messiah of the Gospels.']
The periods of greatest oppression and consequent de- pression, from 180 b. c. to 100 a. d., " far from being ages of spiritual stagnation and darkness, . . . might with jus- tice be described as the two most fruitful centuries in religion, life and thought in the history of Israel." [R. H. Charles, Religious Development between the Old and New Testament, 115. See also his Apocrypha.]
The messianic conception which Josephus witnessed at work was eminently national and anti-Roman. In the Asmonian period (cir. 130 b. c), in conformity with Jewish prophecy, the Messiah was to establish a glorious territorial kingdom. The apocalyptic messiah of this age was to origi- nate a heaven, descend to earth, establish future judgment, and, as was held after the capture of Jerusalem, avenge the Jews upon their enemies. The motive for national venge- ance died hard. In a. d. 132, a Messiah by name of Bar Kokebas came forward and raised a revolt against the Ro- mans which lasted three years and a half, finally resulting, to the great injury of the Jewish cause, in the Hebrew temple being replaced by one dedicated to Jupiter. [Lagrange, Le Messianism (Paris, 1909), esp. pp. 6, 132, 309. Also
4*2 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
J. A. Greenstone, op. cit., 89. See Virgil's Messianic Ec- . logue, edited by J. B. Mayor, W. W. Fowler, and R. S. \ Conway (London, 1907). Josephus, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 776, sec. 3-4.] This illustrates the pragmatic value of messianic ideals and is probably what Briggs had in mind when he referred to the Old Testament Messianic prophecies i as an " organism of redemption," an ideal to guide the Jew- | ish people in " their advance toward the goal of history." [C. A. Briggs, Messianic Frophecy. New York, 1891. An older and less valuable treatise will be found in the book of James Drummond, The Jewish Messiah : A Critical History of the Messianic Idea among the Jews from the Rise of the Maccabees to the Closing of the Talmud. London, 1877. See also Shailer Mathews, Messianic Hope in the New Testa- ment (Univ. of Chicago Press).]
In less than a year Bar Kokebas had conquered fifty forti- fied cities and nine hundred and fort3^-five towns and villages. He led an army of two hundred thousand men. For two and a half years he reigned as king. Only after fifty-two battles did Julius Severus, in 135 a. d., finally vanquish him. There is something sublime in this King of Zion bidding defiance to the armies of proud imperial Rome. [N. Schmidt, op. cit., 8&-91; Rev. d. Etudes Juives, I (1880), 42.]
This Bar-Kokebas, Son of a Star, whose name was later turned by his disappointed follow^ers into Bar-Cosba, Son of a Lie, though not the first, nor yet the last, of a long line of Messiahs, is one of the most dramatic figures. It w^as an opinion deeply rooted in the breasts of all faithful Israelites, that in the darkest hour of the race of Abraham, when his children were at the extreme point of degradation and w^retchedness, even then the arm of the Lord would be re- vealed, and the expected Messiah would make his sudden and glorious appearance. In the year 132 a. d., after the death of Trajan and the ascension of Hadrian, that hour seemed to have arrived. Not only was their holy Jerusalem a mass of ruins and inhabited by the stranger, but the pagans were about to take up permanent residence in Sion, and place a Roman idol on the very site of the Holy of Holies. At that moment the Messiah appeared in the person of Bar-Kokebas ;
The Messianic Movement im, Judaism 43
the greatest of the Rabbis openly avowed the justice of his claims : many miraculous feats were attributed to him, and thousands of Jews flocked to his banner. [H. H. Milman, Hist, of the Jews, II, 432-8'. Emil Schurer, Hist, of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ. First Division, II. 297ff^. New York. No date. S. Hecht, Epitome of Post-Bihlical History, 33-5 (1882). R. A. S. Macalister, Hist, of Civili- zation in Falestime, 101. Merivale, Hist, of the Romans, VII, 316-7. New York, 1896. J. H. Allen, op. cit., 423. Gibbon's Roman Empire, I, 589.]
Schindler has referred to Bar Kokebas as the only man who has earned the title of Messiah, if it has been earned by any one, embodying all the qualities expected of the Mes- siah. " He was of powerful, herculean build ; tall, muscu- lar, strong. He was the model of a soldier. He would sleep on the bare ground, and share the coarse food of his soldiers. In battle he would be seen at the most dangerous points, whirling his battle-axe with undaunted courage. He was a skilful leader, who outgeneralled the most experienced sol- diers of Rome. Deep as was his hatred of Rome was his love for his country. He was modest and willing to listen ; and for all this his followers worshipped him. How he had passed his youth, where he had obtained his military knowl- edge, nobody knew. There he was at the time when all was prepared, and people were only waiting for the leader; and the impression which he must have made upon the people was such that, without examining his past record, all, the rich and the poor, the learned and the simple, flocked to his ban- ner, and obeyed implicitly his commands. Within the space of a year he stormed fifty fortified places, and freed nine hundred and eighty-five towns held by the Romans ; and when the year 133 dawned, not a single Roman was to be seen in Palestine." [Messianic Expectations, 69-73. Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, II, 244. New York, 1887.]
Later belief that the messianic period would be preceded by many misfortunes and perplexities for Israel [Greenstone, 111-12] may well have been an inference based on the con- ditions that had, as a matter of fact, prevailed prior to its manifestations. A few examples will illustrate this :
44 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
In the fifth century, an enthusiast, one Moses, arose in the island of Crete, declaring himself the Messiah and attract- ing all the Jewish congregations on the island. " Business was neglected, all the common pursuits of life were forsaken, in the anxious expectation of the time when the new Moses should lead them dryshod through the sea into the Promised Land. So convinced were the people of his mission and of his powers, that they delivered all their belongings to him, and men, women, and children followed him to the sea. Standing on a promontory projecting into the sea, he or- dered them to throw themselves into the ocean, as the waters would surely part for them. . . . Many were drowned, some were rescued by sailors." " Thus the Jews, whom the mag- nanimous offer of a Roman emperor left incredulous, were deluded by the fancies of an enthusiast, or by the snares of an impostor, merely because he promised them miracles." [Greenstone, op. cit., 109-11; G. F. Abbott, Israel in Eu- rope. 48-9; H. H. Milman, III, 40, 96ff., 366.] His suc- cess is no doubt partly due to the fact that in the beginning of the fifth century hopes of a millennium were spreading and the long-awaited deliverer was expected. This expecta- tion was heightened by the prediction of an ancient Sib3dline oracle placing the advent of the Messiah in the eighty-fifth jubilee, between a. d. 440 and 470. " In proportion as per- secution became stronger, these hopes grew more vigorous." [Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 598. The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, probably written in the first century b. c, con- tain similar speculations. There was a tradition among the Jews that before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B. c. the Tabernacle with all its sacred furniture was hidden by Jeremiah, or, according to the Talmud, by Josiah, in a cave in Mt. Nebo, whence it was to be miraculously restored to its place at the coming of the Messiah. 2 Es., X, 22 ; Ark, Diet, of Apost. Ch., I, 92. In this connection we may warn readers of Josephus to bear in mind that he tried to suppress the messianic expectations of the Jews, or at least to purge them of all political import. He tries generally to divest Jewish sects of all political significance, and anxiously avoids all reference to the stirring messianic expectations
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 45
then current among the Jews. See Josephus, Diet, of Apost. Ch., I, 651-2.]
Dunaan, who appeared in Nigra, a city of Arabia Felix, in 4f34, was a similar character in similar conditions. Simi- lar, too, is the story of the Syrian reformer. Serene, who appeared about 720. The Jews of that period were suffer- ing heavily at the hands of the fanatical Caliph Omar II. " When, therefore, the Messiah arose, promising to restore them to independence and to exterminate their enemies, many Eastern Jews lent an attentive ear to his gospel. The Re- deemer's fame reached Spain, and the Jews of that country also, still smarting under the sufferings of centuries and probably disappointed in the extravagant hopes which they had built upon the Arab conquest, hastened to enlist under his banner." Serene, however, after being intercepted by the successes of Caliph Omar II, was delivered over to the Syna- gogue and, with his disgrace, disappeared that particular messianic dream.
Not long, however, was the dream absent. In less than a generation another reformer of messianic type appeared in the Persian town of Ispahan, rekindled the enthusiasm and revived the messianic faith. This reformer, who professed to be merely a forerunner, by name, Obaiah Abu Isa ben Ishak, promised to free the children of Israel from their thraldom. Nor did he exhort in vain. Ten thousand Jews rallied around his standard and the war for independence begun at Ispahan seemed for awhile to promise success. His memory w^as alive up until the tenth century but none succeeded him who was able to revive the movement toward liberation. [G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 60-1 ; Silvestre de Sacy, Chrestomathie Arable, I, 307. Paris, 1826.]
The Book of the Bee, written by the bishop Shelemon, or Solomon, a native of Armenia, in the thirteenth century, gives the messianic generations and shows the importance at- tached to them at that time. [See the translation by E. A. Wallis Budge, published in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series, I, 1886.] So frequent were the messianic disturb- ances of the Middle Ages that it became necessary for the Jewish congregations to place all questions bearing upon
46 Messiahs: Christian a/nd Pagan
Messianic topics or movements before the Nagid of Egypt. [Jewish Quart. Rev., IV, 505 ; X, 140.]
As early as the middle of the tenth century, Hasdai, the Jewish statesman of the Cordova Caliphate in Spain, wrote to the Jewish community settled near the mouth of the Volga river to find out " whether there is anywhere a soil and kingdom where scattered Israel is not subordinate and sub- ject to others. Having been cast down from our former glory, and now living in exile, we are powerless to answer those who constantly say unto us : * Every nation hath its kingdom, while 3^ou have no trace of a kingdom on earth.' " In reply the king of the Khazars writes, in part : " Our eyes are turned to God and to the wise men of Israel who preside over the academies of Jerusalem and Babylon. We are far away from Zion, but it has come to our ears that, on account of our sins, the calculations concerning the coming of the Messiah have become confused, so that we know noth- ing. May it please the Lord to act for the sake of his great Name. May the destruction of his temple, and the cutting off of the holy service, and the misfortunes that have be- fallen us, not appear small in His sight. May the words of the prophet be fulfilled : ' And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple' (Mai. iii, 1). We have nothing in our possession concerning the coming of the Mes- siah except the prophecy of Daniel. May the God of Israel hasten our redemption and gather together all our exiled and scattered brethren in my lifetime, in thy lifetime, and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, who love his name." [Dubnow, I, 26—27. The author, however, points out that the authenticit}^ of the document is not above suspicion. He thinks it may more probably reflect the mournful Messi- anic temper of the sixteenth century, when this correspond- ence w^as brought to light by Spanish exiles who had made their v>^ay to Constantinople, rather than the state of mind of a Spanish dignitary or a Khazar king of the tenth cen- tury. In that case it must be accounted part of the Sab- bataian movement described below.]
A powerful messianic movement was initiated in 1096, in the midst of the Crusades, by the German Jews who had long
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 47
looked forward to this year as a year of deliverance. Many thousands of them started for the Holy Land by wa^^ of the Byzantine Empire. The belief was rife that the ten tribes, from behind their dark mountains, were astir, and wished to unite with their distant brethren in the West, from whom they had long been separated. These dark mountains were, the German Jews declared, before their eyes, brightened with a great brilliancy. So widespread was the movement that the Jews of France dispatched a special messenger to Constanti- nople to obtain reliable information about the success of the movement for deliverance, and to ascertain whether the time of freedom had, in very truth, arrived. It was reported also that from the Byzantine Empire seventeen congregations had started, undeterred by the necessity of wandering through the desert. [David Kaufmann, A Hitherto Unknown Mes- sianic Movement, Jewish Quart. Rev., 10 (1897-8), 139^51.]
A ]\Iessiah appeared in France about 1087, another at Cordova in 1117, one in Fez in 1127, all of these movements being traceable to the oppression felt by the Jews as a result of the Crusades.
In Yemen (Persia) in 1172, just when the IVIohammedans were making most ardent efforts to convert the Jews, ap- peared a self-proclaimed forerunner of the Messiah, who declared that the misfortunes of the day betokened the ap- proach of the Messianic kingdom.
Similar tendencies to rebound from under the severest calamities characterized this whole period when the Jews were suffering manifold ills from the direct and indirect effects of the first and second Crusades. The Jewish trav- eler, Benjamin of Tudela, who visited his co-religionists in the cities along the Rhine, twenty years after the second Crusade, found them cheerfully awaiting the Messiah. Here, as elsewhere, the wish seemed to yield its own fulfilment and the expectation when at a high pitch was seldom in vain.
Came to the fore at this time, about the middle of the twelfth century (1160) one David Alroy, who appeared in Asia Minor and there summoned the brethren to his banner. A wave of enthusiasm spread from Bagdad through both East and West, many giving up all they possessed in order to
4*8 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
respond to the call. The Synagogue, however, excommuni- cated the Messiah, and either his father-in-law, or the execu- tioner of the Sultan himself, soon dispatched him. Here again, as in the case of Sabbatai and of Molcho -^ death did not extinguish the hopes and beliefs of many of the Jewish followers for his return was confidently expected. [G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 89-90, 171 ; Rev. d. Etudes Juives, IV, 188-91; XVII, 304; A. Neubauer, Mediaeval Jewish Chronicles, 123. The followers of David Alroy formed a sect known as Menakemists (q.v. Jewish Enc3^, I, 454<ff.).]
In 1279 or 1280 Abraham Abulafia published a book in which he claimed to be God's mouth-piece. Later, in 1284, in Messina. Sicily, he declared his Messiahship and an- nounced that the Messianic era would begin in 1290. Perse- cuted in Sicily, he went to the island of Comino, near Malta, about 1288, and there pushed his claims; with what success is not known. One of the two prophets who arose from among his disciples, claiming to be prophets and miracle- workers, foretold in m^^stic language at Ayllon, in Segovia, the advent of the Messiah.
About this time flourished also in Avila, Nissim ben Abra- ham, who was inspired by an angel to write a mystic work, " The Wonder of Wisdom." He designated the last day of the fourth month of the year 1295, as the date of the Mes- siah's appearance. The credulous fasted and practised almsgiving and assembled on the appointed day; but only to find — by what strange chance may only be surmised — that to their garments were attached little crosses.
A Lombard enthusiast, Wilhelmina " of Bohemia," claimed to be an incarnation of the Spirit appointed to save the Jews, Saracens, and false Christians. The sect died out soon after her decease in 1282.
In the fourteenth century there appeared, in Persia, an- other Messiah, Moses Botarel of Cisneras.
Any menace to the Papacy was accepted by the Jews as a good augury and a presage of the coming of the Messiah. This was the case after Charles VIII had poured his forces,
1 Reiibeni, David, Jewish Ency. X, 388ff., and Molcho, Solomon, lb., VII, 604. Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 604,
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 49
like a torrent, over the Italian Peninsula, with consequent hard fates for the Jews of Spain and Portugal, who were of the belief that the French conquest marked the end of the Papacy. They decided upon the year 1490 as the year of deliverance, though it was not until 150^ or 1503 that a Messiah, in the person of Ascher Lembein, appeared. Hard days for the oppressors meant the approach of salvation for the oppressed. Ascher preached repentance and contrition, giving assurance that the Messiah would appear in six months. Many devoted disciples in Italy and Germany ral- lied to his support, but his sudden death brought the dream to an abrupt end, only to be revived thirty years later by the much-tried Marranos of Spain and Portugal.
In the troublous days of the beginning of the sixteenth century, " there arose in Istria, near Venice, a German Jew, whose name was Lembein, a foolish and mad prophet, an infatuated man, and the Jews ran after him. And they said, ' Surely he is a prophet, whom the Lord has sent as a prince over his people Israel; and he shall gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.' And some of the men were inclined to him and girded themselves with sack- cloth; and every man turned from his evil ways in those days ; for they said, ' Our salvation draweth nigh ; but the Lord, in his own time, will make haste.' "
Tribulations similar to those which beset Lembein, and anticipations of a still worse fate for the entire Jewish com- munity, were the fertile soil which produced three Messiahs in the latter part of the fourteenth century — Abraham of Granada, Shem-Tob, and Moses Botarel. [G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 200--1, 150, 279. The Chronicles of Rabbi Joseph Ben Joshua Ben Meir, the Sphardi, I, 354. London, 1836. Translated by C. H. F. Bialloblotzky.]
Isaac Luria (1534-72) proclaimed himself as possessing the soul of the Messiah, and announced the date of the messi- anic age as 1568. After his death Hayim Vital Calabres claimed to be the Messiah and preached the speedy advent of the messianic era.
In 1574, Abraham Shalom, himself a pretender to the Mes- siahship, advised Vital to repair to Jerusalem for two years ;
50 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
should he do so the holy spirit would come upon him. In 1615, there appeared in Coromandel another Messiah. Even the poet Moses Luzzate (1707-47) declared his messiahship, isincjmg himself destined by means of his production, the Second Zohar, to redeem Israel. He had a small band of followers but was several times excommunicated. [Lent, De Pseudo-Messiis. Art. on Messiah, in the Jewish Encyclo- pedia. Messiahs (Pseudo) in Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Messiah, in the New International Encyclopedia.]
During the reign of the Spanish king, Charles V, there appeared in the court of the king of Portugal a man by the name of David, announcing that he had come from India on a mission from his brother, the King of the Jews, to propose an alliance directed toward the recovery of the Holy Land from the Turk. In Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy he traveled on his mission, winning many converts, and even securing an interview with the Pope. Some of the more worldly-wise detected the imposture and David fell upon hard days. In the naive and quaint Chronicles of the Rabbi Joseph, we find a lengthy description:
" A Jew-man whose name was David, came from a distant country of India into the court of the king of Portugal in those days and said unto him: ' I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of Heaven, and my brother the king of the Jews sent me unto thee, O king, for help ; and now, be a helper unto us and we will go to war against the Turk, Solyman, and will take the Holy Land from his hands.' And the king said unto him, ' Be thy coming with peace ; and now go, I will send thee unto the high priest ; and what- soever he shall say, I will do.' And he went out from him, and abode on Lisbon several days. And the forced Chris- tians [Literally, the compelled ones ; Jews who had been driven by the Inquisition into outward compliance with ec- clesiastical rites.] believed his words. And each said unto his neighbor, ' He is our deliverer, for God hath sent him ; and they gathered themselves unto him and honoured him much. And the man departed thence, and passed through Spain ; and in all the places through which he passed, many
J
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 51
flowed unto him of those who were scattered there; and he was unto them a stumbHng block. And he passed over to France and went unto Avignon. And he departed thence, and came unto Italy ; and he made banners of cunning work, and wrote upon them the names of the Holy ; and many be- lieved him in those days. And also unto Bologna, Ferrara, and Mantua, came that man ; and he said that he would, with the consent of the kings of the uncircumcised, lead all the Jews who were found in the midst of them unto his place and into his land. And he spake also unto the pope ; and the children of Israel feared much. And it came to pass, when they spake unto him, saying, ' And what shall we do with our wives this day, if we shall all go into the battle, and what unto their children which they have borne .^ ' That he re- plied, * Surely there are many women in our country, like unto these women : fear not, for there is no restraint with the Lord to save.' And he invented a writing of his own heart saying, ' My brother, the king, hath sent unto me written and sealed with the king's ring; and it came to pass, one day, that his secret was discovered, and they believed him no more ; for he decreed decrees of nothingness." [Translated by Bialloblotzky, London, 1836:, II, 149-50. See also, G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 169—70.]
Succeeded David, one Solomon Molcho, at first a Christian and an ignorant man. Upon his circumcision the Lord in- vested him with profound knowledge, out of which he was enabled to master the Cabala and speak with inspiring elo- quence. To kings he preached the Jewish faith, and with the Pope, Clement VII, he had audience and secured permis- sion to dwell where he would.
" And there came forth a rod from Portugal, whose name was Solomon Molcho, of a stem of Israel, which had been scattered there since the days of destruction ; and he was a lad with the scribes of the king at that time. And when he saw the man David, the Lord touched his heart, and he returned unto the Lord, the God of his ancestors ; and he circumcised the skin of his foreskin. And he knew nothing of the law of the Lord, and of the Holy Scriptures in those days ; and it came to pass, when he was circumcised, that
52 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the Lord gave wisdom unto Solomon, and he became wiser than all the men in a very short time ; and many wondered at him ; and he went to Italy, and with a daring face he spake of the law of our God in the presence of kings, and hid not his face from them. And he went into Turkey and returned into Rome, and spake with Clement, who extended towards liim kindness against the desire of all those who knew law and judgment. And he gave him a written privilege signed with his name to dwell as it should be pleasing in his sight, and he surnamed himself by the name of Israel; and he was wise in the wisdom of the Cabala ; and he brought forth from his mouth words of grace, for the spirit of the Lord spake in him ; and His word was constantly upon his tongue. And he continually drew also from the deep fountain of the Cabala goodly words ; and he wrote them upon tables ; but I have not yet seen them. And he preached to many at Bologna and in other places ; and many ran after him to hear his wisdom, and to prove him with riddles. And Solomon told them all their words : there was nothing hid from him which he told them not; and when they saw the wisdom of Solomon, they said, ' It was a true report w^hich we heard concerning thee, and thou hast gained wisdom exceeding the fame which we heard.' And many clothed themselves with envy against him; but they could cast no evil upon him in Italy, for he was beloved in the sight of the nobles : and he united liimself with David, and they were as one in those days.
" And Solomon wrote unto the wise men, words of peace and truth, saying : —
" ' Incline your ear to hear the words of a worm and no man, a rod out of the stem of the children of our captivity, which came forth from a land of our adversaries, sitting in a forest and in a desert, in a place of thorns, thistles and briers ; there he fed, and there he lay down ; for his father and his mother forsook liim; he walked in darkness and had no light, meditating in the night upon his couch by what way the light is parted, that he might know the place of the da^wTi, to keep himself from the ways of the violent, that he might walk in the paths of God to seek wisdom of him, and to hear the words of truth. And He put in his heart anxiety and
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 53
trouble at all times, to save his soul from destruction, to shine in the light of Hfe, that he might hold fast unto the right hand of God, and cast from him the left.' "
In an ecstatic vision he was shown an earthquake and a deluge that were to come : " The deluge will be in tliis coun- try and in another country, on the north side, on the utter- most part of the earth; and the earthquake in the land of thy kindred. . . . And in those days the earthquake will be in the kingdom of Portugal; and when the deluge shall be at Rome, it shall also be in the north. And the lightnings which came down from heaven, which separated you from the birds, shew, that after the flood, two great stars shall be seen, one upon the citadel on which were the fowls ; and the second upon the great place which is situated high on the clefts of the rock. And each star shall have a great tail of purple color and they shall be in the sight of the inhabitants of Rome for many days, and they shall all prophesy con- cerning them. And the star which shall be seen over the place will show, that there shall abide a great weeping over the place, and over all the cities, which are on the west of Turkey, for they shall be in the inheritance of their enemies. And the second star showeth that this shall not be forever; but that Israel shall do valiantly, that singing may be in the morning. . . . And on the self-same day shall rest upon the king Messiah a holy spirit, a spirit of wisdom and under- standing, to make him rule over a great people, and to be at eventide a light to shine through the night. After this shall awake from the dust the dead of the world and he will renew them by a perfect resurrection. No Satan and no evil spirit shall then be, and the Lord will give rest to his people ! ' And it came to pass that when the old man left off speaking according to these words, that Solomon awoke and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and said, ' Lord God of Israel, I acknowledge before Thee that Thou hast dealt kindly with me this day, for the sake of thy great mercies, and not according to my righteousness and for the sake of thy loving-kindness, and not for my innocency ; for what am I, that I should be taught a high matter over which there is a watcher ; if it was not by thy good and great hand,
54 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
\
to show the good unto criminals which thou hast shown me this day, not according to the work of my hand but accord- ing to thy righteousness, O living God, that I have seen what I have seen, and my soul is preserved; blessed be the Lord who sheweth goodness unto debtors I ' . . .
" And after I was healed, I went to Rome, to observe the stars and their appearance; and before they came, I told it all unto the pope, and to some of the cardinals belonging to the great of the court, written in a letter. And I also wrote unto the king of Portugal by the hand of his ambassador, for I spake to him in his chamber. And when the earth- quake came, they marvelled much. And the ambassadors said unto me, ' If the king had known before thou removedst from Portugal, that thou art so very wise, he had given thee permission to act by every law thou wouldst.' And daily he and his servants honored me much at his house and before the pope." [^Chronicles of Rahbi Joseph, II.]
The wonderful vision of Molcho, tliis would-be Jewish Messiah who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century, to the effect that Portugal would be visited by an earthquake and that Rome and a northern country would be swept by a destructive flood, after which there would appear in Rome, for a few days, two comets with golden tails, had its major fulfilment. Rome was inundated in October, 1530, as also was Flanders ; a brilliant comet appeared ; the earthquake shook Lisbon in January, 1536, with terrible effect. As a result of this fulfilment of prophecies, when IMolcho again appeared in Rome, he was greeted with marks of highest con- fidence and reverence, and was regarded by all as the mes- senger of God. The Inquisition, however, was not so favor- ably inclined and soon dispatched him. [Greenstone, Mes- siah Idea, 197ff., 118—122. Lagrange, Le Messianisme, 329ff. S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, 224-5. IMorris Joseph, Judaism as Creed and Life, 169. H. H. ]\Iilman, Hist, of the Jews, III, 367-8. G. F. Abbott, op. cit., 170-1.]
The spirit of martyrs is not consumed in the flames of their martyrdom. The burning of Molcho -^ was but as a
1 Schindler, Messianic Expectations, Chapter VII, describes David Rubeni and Solomon Molcho.
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 55
burnt offering unto the Lord. " And the Lord smelled the sweet savour, and took to him his spotless soul, and she is with him as one brought up with him, rejoicing always before him. . . . And many in Italy believed, at that time, that Rabbi Solomon Molcho had been delivered by his wisdom from the hand of those who sought after his soul to destroy it, and that the fire had no power over him. And there were some witnessed, and sware before the assembly and congre- gation, that he stood in his house eight days after the burn- ing, and that he went his way thence and they saw him no more; the Almighty God alone knoweth. And would to God," writes Rabbi Joseph Ben Joshua Ben Meir, the Sphardi, " would to God I could write in a book with cer- tainty and sincerity whether his words were true or not." [Said the author's nephew with regard to these Chronicles, written shortly after the events which they describe, " Who- soever desireth to find delight in the times past, let him take up this Book of Memorials. . . . Peradventure he will be fa- vored to discern between the greatness of heathen kings and that of our Messiah." II, 525.]
Canon Moreau, quoted by Baring-Gould, gives the fol- lowing account of a messianic movement in the closing days of the sixteenth century and the earlj^ part of the seven- teenth: "'In the year 1599 a rumor circulated with pro- digious rapidity through Europe, that Antichrist had been born in Babylon, and that already the Jews of that part were hurrying to receive him as their Messiah. The news came from Italy and Germany, and extended to Spain, England, and other Western kingdoms, troubling many people, even the most discreet ; however, the learned gave it no credence, saying that the signs predicted in Scripture to precede that event were not yet accomplished, and, among others, that the Roman empire was not yet abolished. Others said that, as for the signs, the majority had already appeared to the best of their knowledge, and with regard to the rest, they might have taken place in distant regions without their hav- ing been made known to them ; that the Roman empire existed but in name, and that the interpretation of the passage on which its destruction was predicted, might be incorrect ; that
56 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
for many centuries, the most learned and pious had believed in the near approach of Antichrist, some believing that he had already come, on account of the persecutions which had fallen on the Christians ; others, on account of fires, or eclipses, or earthquakes. Every one was in excitement ; some declared that the news must be correct, others believed noth- ing about it, and the agitation became so excessive, that Henry IV, who was then on the throne, was compelled by edict to forbid any mention of the subject.'
" The report spoken of by Moreau gained additional con- firmation from the announcement made by an exorcised demoniac, that in 1600, the Man of Sin had been bom in the neighborhood of Paris, of a Jewess, named Blanchefleure, who had conceived by Satan. The child had been baptised at the Sabbath of Sorcerers ; and a witch, under torture, acknowledged that she had rocked the infant Antichrist on her knees, and she averred that he had claws on his feet, wore no shoes, and spoke all languages.
" In 1623 appeared the following startling announcement, which obtained an immense circulation among the lower orders : ' We, brothers of the Order of St. John of Jeinisa- lem, in the Isle of Malta, have received letters from our spies, who are engaged in our service in the country of Babylon, now possessed by the Grand Turk ; by the wliich letters we are advertised, that, on the 1st of May, in the year of our Lord 16^3, a child was bom in the town of Borrydot, other- wise called Calka, near Babylon, of the which child the mother is a very aged woman, of race unknown, called Fort- Juda: of the father nothing is known. The child is dusky, has pleasant mouth and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a cat, ears large, stature by no means exceeding that of other children ; the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked and talked perfectly well. His speech is comprehended by every one, admonishing the people that he is the true Messiah, and the son of God, and that in him all must believe. Our spies also swear and protest that they have seen the said child with their own eyes; and they add, that, on the occasion of his nativity, there appeared marvellous signs in heaven, for at full noon the sun lost its brightness, and was for some
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 57
time obscured.' This is followed by a list of other signs ap- pearing, the most remarkable being a swarm of flying ser- pents, and a shower of precious stones." [Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 168-71. The author refers to Moreau, his authority for the above account, as a " contemporary historian." I have not been able to consult the work of Moreau.]
In 164-0, when the Jews all over Europe were eagerly look- ing for redemption, the belief was entertained that all the Jews should rise again and be led to Jerusalem by the Mes- siah. When this Messiah had come, " all the ships, barkes, and vessels of Holland should, by the powere of certain strange whirle-winds be loosed from their ankers and trans- ported in a moment to all the desolate ports and havens throughout the world wherever the dispersion was, to convey their brethren and tribes to the Holy Citty." [G. F. Ab- bott, Israel in Europe, 251, 278, 298, 494.] Truly this was an age of Messianic dreams, and of such dreams as inspire attempt at fulfilment.
The English Jews went so far as to attempt to prove Cromwell their Messiah. In the reign of Edward I (in 1290) fifteen thousand Jews, supposed to represent all of those in England, were banished. Since that time England's shores had been inhospitable. Now, under the Protectorate, they were allowed to return and to remain unmolested. [Frederick Harrison, Oliver Cromwell. London, 1890.] It is not surprising, then, in view of their long cherished hope for a future deliverer, that Cromwell's leniency towards Jews should induce some of them to apply to him the epithet of Messiah.
Belief in his Messiahship may, in fact, have induced some of the Jews to immigrate. " About this time. Rabbi Manas- seh Ben Israel came to England to solicit the Jews' readmis- sion ; and about the same time a deputation of Asiatic Jews arrived also, with the noted Rabbi Jacob Ben Azabel at their head, to make inquiry, whether Cromwell was not that Mes- siah they had so long expected. These deputies upon their arrival, pretending other business, were several times in- dulged with the favor of a private audience with him; and
58 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
at one of them proposed buying all the Hebrew books and Mss. belonging to the University of Cambridge. But this the Protector refused, rejecting the proposal with scorn. However, they had the liberty of viewing them ; after which they took an opportunity to enquire, among his relations in Huntingdonshire, where he was born, whether any of his ancestors in the male line could not be proved of Jewish extraction." [Raguenet, Hist. d'Oliver Cromwell, 290. Haye, 1727. Gentleman s Magazine, Jan., 1810, Vol. 80, p. 12.]
[They did not find the desired ancestry. Instead, " their enquiries into Oliver's pedigree not being carried on with all the secrecy such a scheme required, the true purpose of their errand into England became quickly known at London, and was very much talked of; which causing much scandal among the Saints, they were suddenly packed out of the kingdom, without obtaining any of their requests, to the great joy of the Country, as well as the University of Cambridge, which being at that time under a cloud, on account of their former loyalty to the King, had everything to fear from such visitors."]
In the sixteenth century, in the days of Joseph de la Reina, a citizen of Safed, Upper Galilee, as in the early days of Roman domination, the destruction of the Evil One was a preliminary condition to the advent of the Messiah. [S. Schechter, Studies in Judasim, 248.]
The " Sohar," composed by Rabbi Mose ben Shem Tob de Leon, born 1250, prophesied the appearance of the Mes- siah in the beginning of the fourteenth century. In this ac- count he ceased to be the anointed king who was to restore the political status of Israel, and was pictured as a mythical being, the incarnation of the En Sof, or Spirit of the Lord, '* the exact image of the Messiah taught by the Christians." [Schindler, 126-8.]
When, in the seventeenth century the Christians, both Catholic and Protestant, began with almost unanimity to predict the end of the world and the reappearance of Christ, the Jews remembered the Sohar. They declared the pre- diction for the appearance of the Messiah in the beginning
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 59
of the thirteenth century a mistake, alleging that the proper time for his appearance was about the same as that pre- dicted by their Christian neighbors, namely, the year 1648. In that year their Messiah was to come, riding upon a lion, reconquer Palestine in a miraculous manner and without arms, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth. " By that time, the Kabbalists said, the last lot of souls would have arrived on the sublunary world, and with it the soul of the Messiah ; and everything would then be in readi- ness for the absorption by the En Sof."
There can be no doubt that the times amply favored the revival of these forgotten hopes: the Thirty Years War then raging in Germany ; the rise of Protestantism ; the in- roads which the Turks were making upon Siebenbiirgen ; the discoveries which were so disturbing to the intelligent as well as to the unintelligent — all these were fostering circum- stances and foisted the messianic aspiration.
In the seventeenth century, there arose (in 1666) a messi- anic movement which affected profoundly or slightly almost the entire Jewish world, raising it to the highest pitch of ex- citement by the news that at Smyrna the long awaited Mes- siah was to be found. This pretender was none other than Sabbatai Sevi, a Smyrnan Jew, son of a poulterer in that Mediterranean port. So rapid had been his progress in the Cabala that at eighteen years of age he was made a Rabbi. His fame increased. How could it be otherwise? Did he not fast from Sabbath to Sabbath and bathe until his life was imperilled? And did not his beaut}'^, which already was exquisite, increase from day to day? From his whole body came a delicious odor, suspected by the physician of the family to be a perfume, but found on examination, to be a natural exhalation from the skin. Soon he began to preach, announcing himself openly as the Son of David and having the temerity, in proof of his divine mission, to utter the Ineffable Name, Jehovah. The offended Rabbis declared him worthy of death, and denounced him to the Turkish tri- bunal to be punished for this two-fold impudent sacrilege. Sabbatai was not prepared to stem this effusive torrent and, like the Apostle Paul, made a pilgrimage to Saloniki. A
60 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
similar attitude upon the part of the Rabbis here induced him to look to other lands and he besought refuge, first in Egypt, then in Jerusalem. When passing Gaza there came before him, trembling, one Nathan Benjamin, declaring by the Almighty and Dreadful God, " that he had seen the Lord in his cherub-borne chariot as Ezekiel of old, with the ten Sephiroth murmuring around him like the waves of the sea : a voice came forth, — ' Your Redeemer is come ; his name is Sabbat ai Sevi ; he shall go forth as a mighty one, inflamed with wrath as a warrior; he shall cry, he shall roar, lie shall prevail against his enemies.'^ [Isaiah xlii, 13.]
This was the turning point of his career. In Jerusalem he preached, proclaiming himself the Messiah; the Rabbis trembled, not with rage, but with fear and awe. The prose- lyte, Nathan of Gaza, announced that before long the Mes- siah would reveal himself, and seize the crown of the Sultan who would follow him like a slave. Sabbatai resided thirteen years in Jerusalem, then returned to Egypt, and went again, after three years' absence, to Jerusalem, where he openly proclaimed himself Messiah in the Synagogue. This was too much for the Rabbis, who launched an interdict against him and compelled him to return to Smyrna. This time his people received him, despite the attaching ban, with rapture.
" In all parts, as if to accomplish the memorable words of Joel, prophets and prophetesses appeared: men and women, youths and maidens, in Samaria, Adrianople, Salonichi, Con- stantinople, and in other places, fell to the earth, or went raA^ng about in prophetic raptures, exclaiming, it was said, in Hebrew, of which before they knew not a word, ' Sabbatai Sevi is the true Messiah of the race of David: to him the crown and the kingdom are given.' Even the daughters of his bitterest opponent, R. Pechina, were seized, as Sabbatai had predicted, with the same frenzy, and burst out in rap- turous acknowledgment of the Messiah in the Hebrew lan- guage, which they had never learned."
Sabbatai's claims were further established by his marriage to a young woman who had long declared herself destined to be the wife of the Messiah. The story of this messiah's bride has been romantically told by Israel Zangwill, but we
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 61
follow here the more matter-of-fact account given by Schindler, for the story in its unembellished outlines is suffi- ciently romantic.
" In far-off Poland a whole Jewish colony had been butch- ered years before by the Cossacks, one little girl only had been saved by accident. She had been found the next day by a benevolent person half-starved and almost frozen to death, who gave her up to the sisters of a neighboring nun- nery. Here she grew up to be a maiden of rare beauty ; and though she had been instructed in the tenets of the Christian religion, she still remained, so she said, a Jewess at heart. One night this girl was found by some Israelites almost naked on their burial place. She claimed that the spirit of her father had taken her in the stillness of the night and carried her through the air from the cloister to this place. He had told her that she was to become the bride of the Messiah. To the astonished Jewish women she even showed the finger- marks which her father's spirit had left on her body. The Jews, being afraid to get into trouble for her sake, did not investigate the matter, but sent her to Amsterdam, where, she said, she had a brother. She remained for a few years in Amsterdam; then went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, and later to Livorno, always claiming that she was to be the bride of the Messiah. She did not, however, lead such a life as would be becoming to such a distinguished person ; for in all these cities she bore an ill name. Whenever the incon- sistency of her behavior was shown to her, she would say that because she was to become the wife of the Messiah, her irregularities had been allowed to her by divine revelation. The story of her adventures had reached Cairo and Sabbatai at once corroborated her story, claiming that he had been waiting for her appearance as she had for his. He sent for her, and in the house of the generous Raphael their nuptials were consummated in gorgeous style. This marriage made him at once a Messiah, and he justified his action by refer- ring to the prophet Hosea, who likewise had been ordered by God to marry a lewd woman." {^Messianic Expectations^ 143—4. See also, Voltaire, Ancient and Modern History, VI, 107-13. New York, 1901. Enthusiasts (Religious) in
62 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Hastings' Ency. Religion and Ethics, V, 320.]
One wealthy Israelite, of Constantinople, more cautious than the rest, apprehending that this religious frenzy would bring some dreadful persecution against the Jews, went to the Grand Vizier, and requested a certificate that he had never been a believer in the Messiah. This reached the ears of the partisans of Sabbatai ; they accused their crafty op- ponents of treasonable designs against the Turks, brought forward false witnesses and the over-cautious unbeliever was sentenced to the galleys. From many parts of Europe came Jews to pay not only their homage, but, what was still better proof of their unwavering confidence, their money, to this future deliverer of his people. He, in response to their homage and funds, parcelled out, with great liberality, estates in the Holy Land which no more belonged to him than to the deluded purchaser. Nothing succeeds like success but seldom does it consider the price. Sabbatai was moving forward with such headlong impetus that his claims could not long remain uncontested.
The test came when he proceeded to Constantinople and found the Sultan's power greater than his own. It came again when the Sultan proposed to decide the matter for the then wavering Sabbatai by shooting three poisoned arrows at him, suggesting that his invulnerability would be proof of the genuineness of his claims. Again, came the test: If you refuse to submit to this ordeal you have the choice of being put to death or of accepting Mohammedanism. In view of this alternative it involved no great length of time for Sabbatai to decide that his true mission in life was to preach the total abolition of the Jewish religion and the sub- stitution for it of Islamism. [G. F. Abbott, Israel in Eu- rope, 174-6, 242, 281, 326, 484. Voltaire, Essai sur les Moeurs. ]\Iorris Joseph, Judaism, 169. Greenstone, op. cit., 213-27. Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish History, 226-30. H. H. Milman, Hist, of the Jews, III, 369-80. J. G. Frazer, The Dying God (Golden Bough, 3rd edition). A literary account is given by Israel Zangwill, in his Dream- ers of the Ghetto. See also Leroy Beaulieu, Israel Among the Nations, 61, 196. G. Karpeles, Sketch of Jewish His-
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 63
tory^ 86-9. Graetz, Geschichte der Jitden, Vol. VI. Geiger, Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, V, 100-5 (1892).]
Among the downtrodden Jews especially there was re- sponse to the appeal of Sabbatai. Among the Persian Jews confidence and excitement ran so high that the husbandmen refused to labor in the fields. Neither would they pay trib- ute to the governor, alleging with one voice, that their De- liverer had come. Indeed, they readily agreed to pay two hundred tomans if the Messiah did not appear within three months. In Poland, where the Jews had but lately suffered terrible persecutions during the Cossack invasions, the Sab- bataian craze assumed most alarming proportions. [G. Karpeles, op. cit., 85-6, 89. P. Goodman, Hist, of the Jews, 104^5. G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 242, 281. Basker- ville. The Polish Jew, 261 fF. Jost, Allg. Geschichte. Isr. Volkes, II, 298ff. (Berlin, 1832). Greenstone, 227. For the Tannaite period see Joseph Klausner, Die Messianischen VorsteUungen des Judischen Volkes im Zeitalter der Tain- naif en, Kralsan, 1903. (A thesis at Heidelberg.)] Even in England the Jews heralded Sabbatai as the Messiah who would reinstate Israel in the Holy Land. We are indebted for this information to an entry in the diary of that versatile gossip, Samuel Pepys, under date of February 19, 1666: " I am told for certain," writes Pepys, " what I have heard once or twice already, of a Jew in town, that in the name of the rest do offer to give any man ten pounds sterling to be paid one hundred pounds, if a certain person now at Smyrna be not within two years owned by all the Princes of the East, and particularly the Grand Segnor, as the King of the world, in the same manner we do the King of England here, and that this man is the true Messiah. One named a friend of his that had received ten pieces of gold upon this score, and says that the Jew hath disposed of 1100 pounds in this manner, which is very strange; and certainly this year of 1666 will be a year of great action; but what the conse- quences of it will be, God knows ! " [G. F. Abbott, op. cit., 281.]
" Jonas Salvador, the Jew of Pigueral," wrote Father Simon from Paris in May, 1670, " has often spoken to me
64< Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
about a new Messiah who is now at Adrianople. His name, if I recollect right, is Sabbatai Sevi ; and I have seen a Jew- ish convert to him here, who affirms that Sevi performs mira- cles. This is mere illusion. However, since this pretended Messiah has become a Mahometan, the Turks go from all parts of Adrianople to see him. M. Hardi has given me a little book of prayers to be said by the Jews who go to Adrianople to see their Messiah. This book has been printed bv the Jews of the Portuguese Synagogue at Amsterdam: if you wish to make a pilgrimage I will make you a present of it. However, this new Messiah cannot be any obstacle to your views, as among your good friends, the Jews, one Mes- siah need not stand in the way of another. I am convinced that Sabbatai Sevi has no footing but the understanding carried on between him and some Turkish officers, who are happy in this opportunity of drawing money from the over- credulous Jews. Those who came to pay their respects to the new Messiah are fleeced pretty smartly." [Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 83, p. 614-6 (1813).]
Sabbatai's messialiship found a number of claimants. First, in the person of Jacob Querido, brother of Sabbatai's fourth wife. Later, with four hundred followers, he trans- ferred his allegiance to Islamism. The tendency toward imi- tation is great, especially Avhen circumstances foster it. Upon his death, his son Bercchiah, or Berokia, claimed to be the Messiah. Next came Miguel Cardoso (1630-1706), who also later went over to Islam. INIordecai ^lokiah, " the Re- buker," from 1678-83, made claims to messiahship, at first preaching that Sabbatai was the true Messiah, that his con- version to Islam was, for mystic reasons, necessary, that he did not die, and would reveal himself within three years after his supposed death. The persecutions of the Jews in Spain, in Austria, in France, and the pestilence in Germany, were pointed to as heralding the messianic era. Other Sabbataian followers who proclaimed their messiahship were Lobele Prossnitz, Isaiah Hasid, Jonathan E^^beschiitz, and, finally, Jacob Frank (1726-91). Jacob Frank secured a following among Turkish and Wallachian Jews and later went to Po- dolia where he revealed himself as Santo senior, " Holy
Tlie Messianic Movement in Judaism 65
Lord." He finally advised his followers to elect Christianity, and about one thousand of them did so. [G. F. Abbott, op. cit.]
A Russian writer has given us a good account of the Sab- bataian movement among the Jews of Poland :
" The mystical and sectarian tendencies which were in vogue among the masses of Polish Jewry were the outcome of the Messianic movement, wliich, originated by Sabbatai Zevi in 1648, spread like wildfire throughout the whole Jew- ish world. The movement made a particularly deep impres- sion in Poland, where the mystical frame of mind of the Polish-Jewish masses made a favorable soil for it. It was more than a mere coincidence that one and the same year, 1648, was marked by the wholesale murder of the Jews of the Ukraine and the first public appearance of Sabbatai Zevi in Smyrna. The thousands of captive Jews, wlio in the summer of that year had been carried to Turkey by the Tatar allies of Khmelnitzki and ransomed there by their co- religionists, conveyed to the minds of the Oriental Jews an appalling impression of the destruction of the great Jewish center in Poland. There can be no doubt that the descrip- tions of this catastrophe deeply affected the impressionable mind of Sabbatai, and prepared the soil for the success of the propaganda he carried on during his wanderings in Turkey, Palestine, and Egypt.
" When, in the year 1666, the whole Jewish world re- sounded with the fame of Sabbatai Zevi as the Messianic liberator of the Jewish people, the Jews of Poland responded with particularly keen, almost morbid sensitiveness.
" ' The Jews,' says the contemporary Ukrainian writer Galatovski, ' triumphed. Some abandoned their houses and property, refusing to do any work and claiming that the Messiah would soon arrive and carry them on a cloud to Jerusalem. Others fasted for days, denying food even to their little ones, and during that severe winter bathed in ice-holes, at the same time reciting a recently composed prayer. Faint-hearted and destitute Christians, hearing the stories of the miracles performed by the false Messiah and beholding the boundless arrogance of the Jews, began to
66 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
doubt Christ.'
" From the South, the Sabbataian agitation penetrated to the North, to distant White Russia. We are informed by a contemporary monastic chronicler, that on the walls of the churches in Moghilev on the Dneiper mysterious in- scriptions appeared proclaiming the Jewish Messiah ' Sapsai.'
" In the course of the eventful year in which the whole Jewish world raved about the coming of Messiah and depu- tations arrived from all over the Jewish world at the * Castle of Splendor,' Sabbatai's residence in Abydos, near Constan- tinople, a delegation was also despatched by the Jews of Poland. In this delegation were included Isaiah, the son of David Halevi, the famous rabbi of Lemberg, author of the Taz, and the grandson of another celebrity, Joel Sirkis. The Polish delegates were sent, as it were, on a scouting expedition, being instructed to investigate on the spot the correctness of the Messianic claims concerning Sabbatai Zevi.
" When, in the summer of 1666, they were presented to Sabbatai at Abydos, they were deeply impressed by the sight of the thousands of enthusiastic admirers who had come from all possible countries to render homage to him. Sab- batai handed the Polish delegates this enigmatic letter, ad- dressed to the Rabbi of Lemberg:
" ' On the sixth day after the resuscitation of my spirit and light, on the twenty-second of Tammuz, I herewith send a gift to the man of faith, the venerable old man. Rabbi David of the house of Levi, the author of Ture Zahab — may he flourish in his old age in strength and freshness ! Soon will I avenge you and comfort you, even as a mother comforteth her son, and recompence you a hundred fold (for the sufferings endured by you). The day of revenge is in my heart, and the year of redemption hath arrived. Thus speaketh David, the son of Jesse, the head of all the kings of the earth, the Messiah of the God of Jacob, the Lion of the mountain recesses, Sabbatai Zevi.'
" The gift referred to in the letter consisted of a shirt which Sabbatai handed over to Rabbi David's son, with the instruction to put it on his aged and feeble father and recite at the same time the words, * May thy youth be renewed like
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 67
that of the eagle.'
" Having learned from the delegates that a Cabalistic propagandist, by the name of Nehemiah Cohen, who pre- dicted the coming of the Messiah, had appeared in Poland, Sabbatai added a postscript in his letter in which he asked that this ' prophet,' being the forerunner of the Messiah, be sent to him speedily. The omniscient Messiah failed to foresee that this invitation spelled ruin for him. It is gen- erally conceded that the interview between Nehemiah, the Cabalistic fanatic, and Sabbatai was one of the causes that accelerated the downfall of the Messiah. After a Cabalistic argument with Sabbatai, which lasted three days, Nehemiah refused to acknowledge him as the expected Messiah. While in Adrianople he revealed Sabbatai's plans to the Turkish authorities, and this led to the arrest of the pseudo-Messiah and his feigned conversion to Islam.
" The news of the hideous desertion of Judaism by the redeemer of the Jewish people was slow in reaching the Jews of Poland, and when it did reach them, only a part of his adherents felt it their duty to abandon him. The more credulous rank and file remained steadfast in their loyalty, hoping for further miracles, to be performed b}^ the mysteri- ous savior of Judaism, who had ' put on the turban ' tem- porarily in order to gain the confidence of the Sultan and afterwards to dethrone him. When Sabbatai died, Poland witnessed the same transformation of political into mystical Messianism which was taking place at the time in Western Europe.
" The proximity to Turkey and to the city of Saloniki, the headquarters of the Sabbataian sect, lent particular in- tensity to the sectarian movement in Poland, fomenting a spiritual agitation in the Jewish masses from the end of the seventeenth down to the end of the eighteenth century. The main center of the movement came to be in Podolia, part of which had been annexed by Turkey, after the Polish-Turkish War of 1672, and was returned to Poland only in 1699 by the peace treaty of Carlowitz.
" The agitators and originators of these sects were re- cruited partly from the obscure masses, partly from among
68 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the Cabalists whose minds were befogged. At the end of the seventeenth century, a Lithuanian Jew by the name of Zadok, a plain, ignorant man, who had been an innkeeper, began to prophesy that the Messiah would appear in 1695. About the same time a more serious propagandist of the Messianic idea appeared in the person of the Cabalist Hay- yim Malakh. Having resided in Turkey, where he had been in contact with the Sabbataian circle in Saloniki, Malakh returned to Poland and began to muddle the heads of the Jews. He secretly preached that Sabbatai Zevi was the Messiah, and that, like Moses, who had kept the Israelites in the desert for forty years before bringing them to the borders of the Promised Land, he would rise from the dead and redeem the Jewish people in 1706, forty years after his conversion.
" Malakh's propaganda proved successful, partly among the ignorant masses of Podolia and Galicia. Malakh was soon joined by another agitator, Judah Hasid, from Shidlo- vitz or Shedletz. Having studied Practical Cabala in Italy, Judah Hasid returned to his native land and began to initiate the studious Polish youths into this hidden wisdom. The cir- cle of his pupils and adherents grew larger and larger, and became consolidated in a special sect, which called itself ' the Pious,' or Hasidim. The members of this sect engaged in ascetic exercises ; in anticipation of the Messiah, they made public confession of their sins and inserted mystical prayers in their liturgy. Hayyim Malakh joined the circle of Judah Hasid, and brought over to it his Sabbataian followers. The number of ' the Pious ' grew so large that the Orthodox rabbis became alarmed and began to persecute them. Under the effect of these persecutions the leaders of the sect started a propaganda for a mass-emigration to Palestine, there to welcome in triumph the approaching Messiah.
" Many Jews were carried away by this propaganda. In the beginning of 1700, a troop of one hundred and twenty pilgrims started on their way, under the joint leadership of Judah Hasid and Hayyim Malakh. The emigrants travelled in groups, by way of Germany, Austria, and Italy, stopping in various cities, where their leaders, dressed, after the man-
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 69
ner of penitent sinners, in white shrouds, delivered fiery exhortations, in which they announced the speedy arrival of the Messiah. The lower classes and the women were par- ticularly impressed by the speeches of the rigorously ascetic Judah Hasid. On the road the Polish wanderers were joined by other groups of Jews desirous of visiting the Holy Land, so that the number of the travellers reached 1300 souls. One party of emigrants, led by Hayyim Malakh, was des- patched, with the help of charitable Jews of Vienna, from that city to Constantinople. Another party, headed by Judah Hasid, travelled to Palestine by way of Venice.
" After much suffering and many losses on their journey, during which several hundred died or remained behind, one thousand reached Jerusalem. On arriving at their destina- tion the newcomers experienced severe disappointment. One of the leaders, Judah Hasid, died shortly after their arrival in the Holy City. His adherents were cooped up in some courtyard, and depended on the gifts of charitable Jews. The destitute inhabitants of Jerusalem, themselves living on the charity of their European brethren, were not in a posi- tion to support the pilgrims, who soon found themselves without means of subsistence. Disillusioned and discouraged, the sectarians rapidly dispersed in all directions. Some joined the ranks of the Turkish Sabbataians, who posed as Mohammedans. Others returned to Western Europe and Poland, mystifjdng credulous people with all kinds of wild tales. Still others in their despair let themselves be per- suaded by German missionaries to embrace Christianity. Hayyim Malakh, the second leader of the pilgrims, remained in Jerusalem for some time with a handful of his adherents. In this circle symbolic services, patterned after the ritual of the Sabbataians, were secretly held, and, as rumor had it, the sectarians performed dances before a wooden image of Sabbatai Zevi. Having been forced to leave Jerusalem, the dangerous heretic travelled about in Turkey, where he main- tained relations with sectarian circles. After being banished from Constantinople by the rabbis, Hayyim Malakh returned to his native country, and renewed his propaganda in Podolia and Galicia. He died about 1720."
70 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
But Sabbataianism was not yet dead.
" The ill success of the ' Hasidim ' failed to check the spread of sectarianism in Poland. In Galicia and Podolia, the conventicles of ' Secret Sabbataians,' dubbed by the people ' Shabsitzvinnikes ' (from the name of Sabbatai Zevi) or, in abbreviated form, ' Shebsen,' continued as before. These Sabbataians neglected many ceremonies, among them the fast of the Ninth of Ab, which, because of its being the birthday of Sabbatai, had been transformed by them from a day of mourning into a festival. Their cult contained ele- ments both of asceticism and libertinism. While some gave themselves over to repentance, self-torture, and mourning for Zion, others indulged in debaucheries and excesses of all kinds. Alarmed by this dangerous heresy, the rabbis at last resorted to energetic measures. In the summer of 1722, a number of rabbis, coming from various communities, assem- bled in Lemberg, and, with solemn ceremonies, proclaimed the harem (excommunication) against all Sabbataians who should fail to renounce their errors and return to the path of Orthodoxy within a given time.
** The measure was partly successful. Many sectarians publicly confessed their sins, and submitted to severe penances. In most cases, however, the ' Shebsen ' clung stubbornly to their heresy, and in 1725 the rabbis were forced to launch a second harem against them. By the new act of excommunication every Orthodox Jew was called upon to report to the rabbinical authorities all the secret sectarians known to him. The act of excommunication was sent out to many communities, and publicly recited in the synagogues. But even these persecutions failed to wipe out the heresy. Secret Sabbataianism continued to linger in the nooks and corners of Podolia and Galicia, and finally degenerated into the dangerous movement known as Frankism." [S. M. Dubnow, History/ of the Jeivs in Russia and Poland from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, I, 204-11. Philadelphia, 1916. Translated from the Russian by I. Friedlander.]
The belief in Sabbatai has been retained to this day by a sect of Turkish Jews, the Donmeh, who await expectantly his second coming. [Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VH, 605.
The Messianic Moveinent in Judaism 71
Donmeh, Jewish Ency., IV, 639. J. H. Allen, op. cit., 424. E. W. Latimer, Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago, 1896), p. 77.]
" Jacob Frank was born in 1726 in a town of Podolia. His father Judah Leib belonged to the lower Jewish clergy, among whom all kinds of perverted mystical notions were particularly in vogue. Judah Leib fell under suspicion as an adherent of Sabbat aianism, and was expelled from the community, which he had served as rabbi or preacher. He settled in Wallachia, where little Jacob grew up in an atmos- phere filled with mystic and Messianic fancies and marked by superstition and moral laxity. From his early youth he showed repugnance to study, and remained, as he later called himself, an ignoramus. While living with his parents in Wallachia, he first served as clerk in a shop, and afterwards became a travelling salesman, peddling jewelry and notions through the towns and villages. Occasionally young Jacob travelled with his goods to ad j oining Turkey, where he lived for some time in Saloniki and Smyrna, the centers of the Sabbataian sect. Here, it seems, Jacob received his nick- name Frank, or Frenk, a designation applied [since the Crusades] to all Europeans. Between 1752 and 1755 he lived alternately in Smyrna and Saloniki, and came into con- tact with the Sabbataians, participating in their symbolic, semi-Mohammedan cult. It was then and there that Jacob Frank was struck with the idea of returning to Poland and playing the role of prophet and leader among the local secret Sabbataians, who were oppressed and disorganized. Selfish ambition and the spirit of adventure rather than mys- tical enthusiasm pushed him in that direction.
" In 1755 Frank made his appearance in Podolia and, joining hands with the leaders of the local ' Shebsen,' began to initiate them into the doctrines he had imported from Turkey. The sectarians arranged secret meetings, at wliich the religious mysteries centering around the Sab- bataian 'Trinity' (God, the Messiah, and a female hypos- tasis of God, the Shekhinah) were enunciated. Frank was evidently regarded as the second person of the Trinity and as a reincarnation of Sabbatai Zevi, being designated as
7S Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
S.S., i. e., Santo Senior, * the Holy Lord.' One of these as- semblies ended in a scandal, and turned the attention of the rabbis to this new agitation.
" During the fair held in Lantzkorona, Frank and two score of his followers, consisting of men and women, had as- sembled in an inn to hold their mystical services. They sang their hymns, exciting themselves to the point of ecstasy by merrymaking and dancing. Inquisitive outsiders managed to catch a glimpse of the assembly, and afterwards related that the sectarians danced around a nude woman, who may possibly have represented the Shekhinah, or Matronitha, the third person of the Trinity. The Orthodox Jews on the market-place, who were not used to such orgies, were pro- foundly disgusted by the conduct of the sectarians. They informed the local Polish authorities that a Turkish subject was exciting the people and propagating a new religion. The gay company was arrested, Frank, being a foreigner, was banished to Turkey, and his followers were delivered into the hands of the rabbis and the Kahal authorities (1756)." [Dubnow, I, 211-SO.]
Later the followers of Frank summoned him from Turkey. " The latter immediately appeared in Podolia with a new plan, which, he hoped, would at once rid him and his ad- herents of all opponents. Li the discourses delivered before his followers Frank dwelt a great deal on his exalted mis- sion and on the divine revelations which commanded him to follow in the footsteps of Sabbatai Zevi. Just as Sabbatai had been compelled to embrace the Mohammedan faith tem- porarily, so he and his adherents were predestined from above to adopt the Christian religion as a mere disguise and as a stepping stone to the ' faith of the true Messiah.' Filled with thirst for revenge, the sectarians hit upon the thought of lending the weight of their testimony to the hideous ritual murder accusation, which was agitating the whole of Poland at that time, claiming many a victim in the Jewish ranks." [Frank, Jacob, in Cyclopedia of Bibl., TheoL, and Eccles. Literature.]
About 1750, Besht, another Polish Jew, inspired no doubt by the Prankish movement, heralded anew the coming of the
The Messianic Movement m Judaism 73
Messiah. To liis brother-in-law, Kutover, living in the Holy Land, he sent a prophetic manifesto telling of his miraculous vision, or revelation. He herein asserted that on the day of the Jewish New Year, " his soul had been lifted up to heaven, where he beheld the Messiah and many souls of the dead. In reply to the petitions of Besht, ' Let me know, my Master, when thou wilt appear on earth,' the Messiah said:
" ' This shall be a sign unto thee : when thy doctrine shall become known, and the fountains of thy wisdom shall be poured forth, when all other men shall have the power of performing the same mysteries as thyself, then shall disap- pear all the hosts of impurity, and the time of great favor and salvation shall arrive.'
" Revelations of this kind were greatly in vogue at the time, and had a profound effect upon mystically inclined minds. The notion spread that Besht was in contact with the prophet Elijah, and that his * teacher ' was the Biblical seer Ahijah of Shilo. As far as the common people were concerned, they believed in Besht as a miracle-worker, and loved him as a religious teacher who made no distinction be- tween the educated and the ordinary Jew. The scholars and the Cabalists were fascinated by his wise discourses and para- bles, in which the most abstract tenets of the Cabala were concretely illustrated, reduced to popular language, and ap- plied to the experiences of everyday life. Besht's circle in Madzhibozh grew constantly in number. Shortly before his death, Besht witnessed the agitation conducted by the Frank- ists in Podolia and their subsequent wholesale baptism. The Polish rabbis rejoiced in the conversion of the sectarians to Christianity, since it rid the Jewish people of dangerous heretics. But when Besht learned of the fact he exclaimed : ' I heard the Lord cry and say : As long as the diseased limb is joined to the body, there is hope that it may be cured in time ; but when it has been cut off, it is lost forever.' There is reason to believe that Besht was one of the rabbis who had been invited to participate in the Frankist disputation in Lemberg, in 1759. In the spring of the following year, Besht breathed his last, surrounded by his disciples." [Dubnow, I, 228-9.]
74 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
A Messiah by the name of Mordecai, who appeared in Germany in the year 168^ had a considerable following. When the imposture was discovered he was compelled to flee to Poland to save his life, and nothing further has been re- corded about him.
The Molokane, the Russian Sabbatarians, expect the com- ing of the Messiah, since the promises of the Prophets remain unfulfilled, Jesus being not a Messiah but merely a great prophet. The coming Messiah will not be a King and Con- queror, but a great philosopher and moral teacher, who will reveal to mankind the greatest truths, scatter the Mosaic creed over the entire world, and thus establish the reign of universal happiness on earth.
" The rites and worship of the Sabbatarians of Russia proper," declares Stepniak, " contain nothing Jewish. On Saturdays they assemble in their houses of prayer, where their elders or teachers deliver a sermon, which is interrupted from time to time by the sacred songs of the congregation. The Sabbatarians hold these meetings in great secrecy, and also, as a rule, conceal their affiliation to the sect. The criminal code, which still punishes conversion to Judaism with deportation and hard labor, and the easily aroused aversion of the surrounding Christian peasantry, are suf- ficient grounds for this. A lady friend of mine, a Socialist, who lived among the Molokane peasantry for the sake of propagandism, w^as once invited by her hostess, a Sabba- tarian, to one of their secret meetings, when a famous wan- dering preacher of the sect was expected to speak. She was instructed not to speak to anybody, and not to answer any questions. On entering the house they had to give the pass-word.
" As to the service, it was very unlike that of the Russian Jews. The small congregation was seated in rows on wooden benches on one side of the room. Opposite there was an open space, on which stood the preacher, in silent prayer, clad in a sort of black mantle, with an open Bible before him. When all were assembled and the doors shut, he delivered a prayer animated by the broad Deistic spirit of the Jews, and then began to address the audience. He spoke of God, the
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 75
soul, penitence, and salvation in the same Unitarian spirit, appealing with great power to the emotions of his hearers. After a very pathetic allocution, he fell to the ground, as if overwhelmed by the vehemence of his feelings.
" The Sabbatarian colony in the Caucasus, where they were deported in Nicholas I's time, have developed into a sect much more nearly allied to Judaism than that of their Russian coreligionists. They accept the Talmud, and they expect the Messiah in the guise of a king and conqueror, who is to appear at the close of the seven thousandth year, dating from the creation of the world (Mosaic style). They follow the Jewish ritual in the marriage ceremony and the burial service, and permit divorce ; and they use the Jewish prayers in a Russian translation.
" Among the Caucasian Sabbatarians we meet with an- other curious subdivision of the sect — the so-called Herrs, who are as completely Judaised as is possible to any of their nationality. They elect a born Jew as rabbi, and they pray in the Jewish language, which they try to learn. The num- ber of these Russian moujiks who strive for the sake of their creed to become Jews is small — about one thousand — one-fifth of the whole body of Sabbatarians. None of the branches of this sect give any sign of great vitality. They do not increase, and they have no influence on the popular movements among the masses. They are shunned, and in their turn shun the people." [Stepniak, The Russian Peas- antry, 326-9. New York, 1888.]
In 1806 Napoleon assembled in Paris the " Jewish Parlia- ment " which raised apprehension among the sovereigns of those countries which had cause to fear the machinations of the Emperor. A circular from the Russian Holy Synod, sent to the Greek Orthodox clergy, declared that " he now planneth to unite the Jews, whom the wrath of the Almighty hath scattered over the face of the whole earth, so as to incite them to overthrow the Christian Church and proclaim the pseudo-Messiah in the person of Napoleon." " By these devices," says Dubnow, " the Government, finding itself at its wits' end in the face of a great war, shrewdly attempted to frighten at once the Jewish people by the specter of an
76 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
anti-Jewish Napoleon and the Orthodox Russians by Napo- leon's leaning toward Judaism. The former were made to believe that the Sanhedrian was directed against the Jewish religion, and the latter were told that it was established by the Jewish ' pseudo-Messiah ' for the overthrow of Christi- anity." [Dubnow, I, 348-9.]
The Fremdenblatt of August, 1872, describes a Messiah who appeared in Berlin in the last half of the nineteenth century. He told the congregation to announce that the commemoration day of the fall of Jerusalem was no longer to be observed, for the King of Israel had come and was about to assume the throne as a veritable Messiah.
At about the same time another Messiah was operating in Yemen. He distinguished himself as a worker of miracles and in this way attracted the attention of the Bedouins. They were blessed with an increase of flocks. His reputa- tion spread far and wide. Later, however, misfortune came upon the flocks of the worshipping Arabs, whereupon their allegiance turned to opposition, and he was forced to flee for his life. He took refuge in a cave. The Arabs, remember- ing that he was a Jew, asserted that he was the Messiah. His Jewish countrymen expected him to crush the Arabs and lead them to the Holy Land. He accepted the character at- tributed to him by his followers, receiving many presents and living in princely style until some Arabs waylaid and mur- dered him, thus proving his vulnerability and the falsity of his claims. Ari Shocher, as he was called, is not considered dead; he appeared in another form in the neighborhood of Sana, proclaiming that at a later time he would reappear in his former shape. The government took steps to seize this reappearance, which immediately disappeared and has not been seen since.
At Nablous, the modern Shechem, at the foot of the sacred mountain Gerizim, there lives a sect of Samaritans, small and almost forgotten, among whom the messianic hope still burns with undiminished vigor. Through them the hope of gener- ation upon generation voices the expectation of a Messiah still to come. This hope they base on Old Testament inter- pretation, but largely on other passages than those used by
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 77
Christians.
They posit no less than ten " proofs " of his coming. Among these are the promise given to Abraham ; the advices of Jacob to his sons ; the miracles performed by Moses ; a part of the parable of Balaam : " A star shall come out of Jacob and a rod shall rise out of Israel " ; the disasters that will befall the enemies of Israel ; the subsequent purification and rectification of the nation.
" As to the appearance and coming of the lord Christ, recorded in our chronicles," says elacob, Son of Aaron, High Priest of the Samaritans, " we regard its validity not from the viewpoint of our law, but as a matter of history. As to the Messiah, with whose coming we are promised, there are proofs and demonstrations in regard to his coming. As our learned men have explained in their voluminous commen- taries, he will rise and perform miracles and demonstrations ; he will uphold religion and justice. Among other proofs he will produce the following three :
" 1. The production of the ark of testimony, which is the greatest attestation of Israel. For Deut. xxxi. 19, says : ' It shall be there for thee a witness.'
" 2. He will produce at his hand, the staff which was given by the Creator (who is exalted) to our lord Moses (upon him be peace), about whose attribute a reference is made as follows : ' And this shall be to thee as a sign,' in order that miracles be performed thereby.
" 3. He must produce the omer of manna which our fa- thers ate, while in the wilderness, for forty years. This is the greatest proof, because, after all this period, it will be found not to have undergone the slightest change. When our ancestors, in the days when manna used to fall, would keep some of it till the morrow, it would become rotten and worm}'-. Therefore, it would be a proof none could deny if it should appear after this long interval, and remain in its sound state. Thus the people of the second kingdom might see it, and confess reverently and increase in exalting and glorifying the Creator (who is exalted), for the power of producing such a marvel.
" These three proofs must be verified by the Prophet ; and
78 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
without them his claim would be considered illegal. No mat- ter could ever be sustained unless with two or three testi- monies, in accordance with the saying of the holy Law: ' Upon the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter is sustained.' Without such proof he has no standing."
" There is," says the High Priest, " nothing in prophecy to say whether he will be of the priestly line or not. Some of our learned men say he will come from the children of Aaron, and be a priest. Others say that he will be of the children of Joseph, and ' like unto his brethren.' My own private opinion is that he will be of the children of Joseph.
" The Messiah will be a prophet, and will be acknowledged as a prophet. That will be his title, as the prophecies give it. But he will also be a king.
" The Messiah will not be in any sense a Son of God. He will be a prophet like INIoses and like his brethren, as is told in Deut. xviii, 15-22.
" The Messiah will be a prophet, as I have told you, and will no doubt work signs to prove his mission. There will be unusual signs and wonders. But he is to be a king and rule the earth from Shechem, the ancient seat of power, and from his holj^ mountain, Gerizim. He will call all the world to acknowledge him, and they will do so. He will bring blessings to all nations that acknowledge him." [^The Messi- anic Hope of the Samaritans. By Jacob, Son of Aaron, High Priest of the Samaritans. Translated from the Arabic by Abdullah Ben Kori. Edited with an introduction by Wil- liam Eleazar Barton. Reprinted from the Open Court, May and September, 1907.]
Thus in the remotest parts of Judaism the messianic faith still flourishes. Even the isolated and almost submerged community of Falashas, the so-called Jews of Ab3^ssinia, vaguely expect the Messiah and look forward to the re- building of Jerusalem. [Agaos, in Hastings' E.R.E., I, 165.]
There are many distant echoes of the Eighteen Benedic- tions of the Targum, that Aramaic paraphrase of the Old Testament, used in the synagogues of Palestine and Baby- lonia, containing prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 79
and for the near advent of the Messiah and the Resurrection. [Judaism, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 596.]
The Conditions that have Fostered Jewish Messianic Faith
How shall we explain this constant recurrence of the mes- sianic idea in Jewish history ? Its ultimate explanation will, of course, not be forthcoming. Yet it is germane to point out that Israel is otherwise peculiar. No other people have shown such racial and religious persistence under the severest trials of poverty, dissemination and social contempt. No other people has shown such persistent and out-vying faith in its destiny, no other such unwavering fidelity to religious law. The messianic peculiarity is not unrelated to these other peculiarities, but rather a counterpart, their supple- ment and directly dependent upon them. " If in physiologi- cal experiments we cut the connection between brain and heart, we have to arrange for artificial breathing or the functions of life cease ; this the priestly founders of religion did by the introduction of the Messianic kingdom of the future." [H. S. Chamberlain, Foundations of the Nine- teenth Century, I, 477-8'3. 1913.]
Israel seems, both unitedly and severally, to have realized the importance of this hope. " The magnificent picture of the future kingdom, the glorious position of Israel, the venge- ance the Messiah would wreak upon all Israel's enemies, and the vision of the restored Jerusalem and the rebuilt Temple, were a constant consolation to the oppressed and downtrod- den Israelites. They fondled the hope with intense affection, the mother sang it to her babe, the father on all occasions related it to his household, the teacher impressed it upon the minds and hearts of his pupils — all were invigorated by the assurance to suffer and hope, to withstand the onslaughts of the enemy, and remain faithful to their religion. The feel- ing of the ancient Jew towards his persecutor was not so much one of hatred and revenge as of sneering pity." [Greenstone, 112-3.]
It is still true that, " die messianische Idee betrifft einem der Zentralen der jiidische Lehre." [I. Elbogen, in Judaica
80 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
(Berlin, 1912).] In his Dreamers of the Ghetto Israel Zangwill has shown us the pathetic tragedy of a dream still stirring at the heart of the mummied race, of a fire quenched two thousand years ago still slumbering in the ashes, flaming out here and there in fitful, hopeless, and apparently endless attempts to enkindle the hearts of the faithful with new mes- sianic faith. Prayers for the coming of a personal Messiah have in recent j^ears been abolished or modified by liberal Jews and the messianic hope interpreted as the spiritual re- generation of the Jews. [Philipson, Reform Movement in Judaism, 45, 105, 113, 175, 4'70. Israel Cohen, Jemsh Life in Modern Times, 278, 286-7. New York, 1914.] But, al- though Reformed Judaism has relinquished hope of the per- sonal Messiah, Rabbinical Judaism still holds fast to this hope. [lb., 8, 115, 117, 163, 168, 181, 246fF., 328, 331, 470, 472, 492.] Many Reformed Jews who have surrendered this belief have given it up reluctantly, and often only half- heartedly, reinterpreting it in terms of national or religious regeneration. Thus, one of these eminent Jews, Morris Joseph, who discountenances the messianic belief, assures us that " even the word ' Messiah ' as used in the Hebrew Bible, has not that half-supernatural significance w^iich it has come to possess. It means only the ' anointed one,' and was ap- plied to ordinary Israelitish kings like Saul and David and Zedekiah, and even to a foreign potentate like Cyrus. In like manner passages which, according to some interpreters, speak of a Golden Age yet to come, were meant only to por- tray in highly figurative language a happy state of things that was inaugurated and came to an end long ago." But the renunciation is much tempered by a hasty assurance that, " it docs not necessarily follow, however, that the be- lief in a Messiah or in the Restoration of the Jewish State is a delusion. . . . Among oppressed Jewish communities, such as those of Russia and the East, the belief in the national revival of Israel is a powerful solace and support under galling persecutions. Who would wilfully seal up the springs of so much blessing? Who would dare to tell these compa- nies of sorrowing, trusting souls that heir hope is vain, their faith a chimera.^ No one can say what the future has in
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 81
store for us. It may possibly be God's will that Israel is once more to enjoy political independence, and be settled in his own land under his own rulers. Nay, it would be rash to declare positively that even the prophets could not have had this far-off event in their minds when they dreamt of the future. If, then, we meet with Jews who believe in the Re- turn, in national revival, in a personal Messiah, let no one venture to say dogmatically that they are wrong." [Juda- ism in Creed and Life, 169—70 (London, 1903) ; Robertson, The Early Religion of Israel (New York, 2nd ed., 1892), 116, 499, also seem to admit that the earliest messianic ex- pectation referred rather vaguely merely to the " day of Jahaveh " (Amos v, 18—20), and " a good time coming."] As another liberal Jew has phrased it, " Liberal Judaism has always tended to a firm grasp of Messianism, in the form of a belief in the perfectibility of human nature, of a steady advance toward that end, and of the ultimate conversion of the world to monotheism, and the establishment of the uni- versal Kingdom of God." [Liberal Judaism, by I. Abraham, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 901, and Judaism, lb., esp. p. 608. Israel, lb., 456.]
There can be little doubt that since its earliest promulga- tion the messianic hope has been shot through with political aspirations. This political-social stimulus has been a thread of continuity from the inception of messianic faith to its very latest manifestations. [W. Staerk, Neutestamentliche Zeit- geschichte, II, 85ff. G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, Ch. 24 et passim. Paul Carus, The Pleroma: An Essay on the Ori- gin of Christianity, 21, 43, 61 (1909). Geo. P. Fisher, The Beginnings of Christianity with a View of the State of the Roman World at the Birth of Christ, 8-10, 228, 248-57, 26, 370-5, 416-20. New York, 1911. Carl Clemens, Primitive Christianity and Its Non- Jewish Sources, 190-99, 232, 294, 298, 300-17, 346, 363-8, 139^59, 337-40, 292, 166, 243, 173. Edinburgh, 1912 (translated by R. G. Nisbet). His- tory of All Nations Series, II, 225.]
The Jewish Messiah has been, throughout, the product of oppression and the apostle of hope. As Jehudah Halevi sings, in his Song of the Oppressed :
82 MessiaJis: Christian and Pagan
Men have despised me, knowinp^ not that shame
For Thy Name's glory is my gh)rioiis })ridt'. Wounded and eriished, beneath my load I sigh, Despised and ahjeet, outcast, trampled low, How long, () Lord, shall I of violenee ery?
My heart dissolve with woe? How many tears without a gleam of light.
Has thraldom been our lot. our })()rti(>n })ain ! Witii Ishmael as a lion in his might.
And Persia as an owl of darksome night, Beset on either side, behold our })liglit
Betwixt the twain. Wherefore wilt Thou forget us, Lord, for aye?
Merey we erave ! O Lord, we hope in Thee alway, Our King will save!
Ls this Tliy voiee? The voiee of captive Ariel's woe unliealcd?
\'irgin of Israel, arise, rejoice! In Daniel's vision, lo, the end is sealed:
When Michael on the height
Shall stand aloft in strength,
And sjiout aloud in miglit. And a Redeemer come to Zion at length.
Amen, amen, behold
The Lord's decree foretold E'en as Thou hast our souls afflicted sore, So wilt Thou make us glad forevcrmore !
Wherefore wilt Thou forget us. Lord, for aye?
Mercy we crave ! O Lord, we lioj)e in Thee alway.
Our King will save!
[Solomon Ihu Gablral's Son^ of Redemption; a y^oet, gram- marian and philosopher, bom in Spain in 102L Translated bv Nina Davis, SoJigs of ExUe hif Ilchrczc Poets. Philadil- phia, 190L]
Both Isaiah and the author of Mlcah had given reason to expect that the Messianic era would be inau^ratcd imme-
The Messumic Movenujit in Judaism 83
diiitcly afttT the dclivcraiico of Jorusakin (in 701 u. c.) and tluit it would herald the overthrow of the power of Assyria. | ('. F. Kent, Hist, of Hchrcic People, N. Y., 1914, 153-i). Kent is echoing the thou^'ht J. Wellhausen, History of Israel, j). il4ff'., Edinburf^li, 1885.] In the phrase of Wellhausen, the Prophet sat close to the helm of the vessel of state and took a very real part in directing tlie course of that vessel. [Hist, of Israel and Judah, 108ff'. London, 1891. The same view is expressed by H. H. Milman, Hist, of the Jews, I, 417, 469. New York/l875. |
It is certainly fruitless to deny the persistence, even to the present, of tliis messianic hope in Judaism. The false messiahs that have appeared from time to time — and at no lon^ intel'^'al — throuf^h the centuries after Christ seem rather to have kept alive this belief than to have submerged it in that discredit into which, to an outsider, they might seem to have brought it. '' The disa})pointment in each par- ticular case might break the spirit and confound the faith of tlie immediate followers of the pretender, but it kept the whole nation incessantly on the watch. The Messiah was ever present to the thoughts and to the visions of the Jews: their })rosperity seemed the harbinger of his coming; their darkest calamities gathered around them only to display, with the force of a stronger contrast, the mercy of their God and the glory of their Redeemer. In vain the Rab- binical interdict repressed the dangerous curiosity which, still baffled, would seek to penetrate the secrets of futurity. * Cursed is he who calculates the time of the Messiah's com- ing,' was constantly repeated in the synagogue, but as con- stantly disregarded. That chord in the national feeling; was never struck but it seemed to vibrate through the whole com- munity." [H. H. Milman, op. cit.. Ill, 366-1
Without some such hope of national revival what hope is there for a dispersed race.'^ [See on this point, G. F. Ab- bott, Israel in Europe, XIX, 39, 8.5, 89, 212-13.] Through the centuries, and es})ecialh^ in the Ghetto, " The Feast of Tabernacles year after year rekindled their gratitude for the miraculous preservation in the wilderness. The F'east of Dedication reminded them of their deliverance from the
S-h Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Hellenic yoke. On the Passover Eve was read the Seder, most ancient of house services, and round the festive board were then gathered the shades of gifted men of old who had sung the glories of Israel, and of the brave men who had suffered for the faith of Israel. Then was retold for the thousandth time, with tears and with laughter, to the accom- paniment of song and wine, the tale of their ancestors' de- parture from Kgy})t. At the end of the meal the door was opened and a wine cup was left upon the table. This was done for the reception of Elijah, the harbinger of the ex- pected Messiah. In this and like domestic rites the memory of the past was annually revived, and, if its splendor made the sordid present look more sordid still, it also kept alive the hoj)e of re(lem])tion. The magic carpet of faith, that priceless heirloom of Israel, transported the inmates of the Ghetto out of their noisome surroundings far away to the radiant realms of Zlon.'* The Messianic Utojiia never was more real to the Jews than at the j)erlods of greatest opi)res- sion such as we find, for example, in the seventeenth century. During these troublous years, " from a favourite dream it grew into a permanent desire. It was firmly held that the Redeemer would soon come in His glory and might; would gather His people from the four corners of the earth, would slay their foes, would restore the Temple of Jerusalem, and would comyu'l the nations to acknowledge the Majesty of the God of the Jews." [See the chapters on the Ghetto and on Zionism in G. E. Abbott, Israel in Europe. Baskervllle, The Polish Jeu\ 253. New York, 1906. Leroy-Beaulieu, Israel Among the Nations, 70, 20f5-4, 29.^^-9, *370. The political forces inherent in new religions or religious move- ments has been recognized by B. K. Sarkar, in bis Science of History and Hope of Mankind. London, 1912.]
The messianic ideal, like a pillar of fire, has guided the Jews through the long nights of despair, and, like a veritable will-o'-the-wisp, has faded with the dawn of better times, and vanished in the garish light of freedom and prosperity. Yet still the stream of these messianic aspirations flows on, hid- den in prosperity, coming to the surface in times of oppres- sion, with a continuity that has remained unbroken from the
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 85
time of Jeremiah unto tlie present day. The average Jewish lad in Russia looks forward to the coming of the Messiah as confidently as he anticipates the return of the father to the household. Even in America, the orthodox Jew still antici- pates this personal Messiah. During the Passover cele- bration held in every Jewish household, the door, at a certain part of the ritual, is thrown open that the ^lessiah, if he be at the threshold, may enter and not be kept waiting, and a glass of wine is placed aside for Elijah, the forerunner of the [Messiah. [Israel Cohen, op. cit., 67.] In the weekly prayers at the Synagogue his coming and ])rotection is de- voutly besought. The Haggadic Midrasliim closes with verses of encouragement, prophesying the redemption of Israel and the advent of the Messianic era, while the twelfth article of the present Jewish creed, as drawn up by Maimoni- des, states : " I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and though he tarry I will wait for his coming." The ancient Jewish community in Kai-Fung-Fu, China, finally fell into such religious destitution and decay that even the expectation of a Messiah seems to have been entirely lost. But this was when no member of the community could read its scrolls, and only one of them, a woman of more than seventy years, had any recollection of the tenets of their faith. [Cf. the article by David Kaufmann in the Jexcish Quarter] fj Ucricw, Vol. 10; articles on Messiah, in J. Ham- burger's liral-Encf/cIopadie fiir Bihel und Talmud^ Abteil., I, 745-50, II, 735-79. Leipzig, 1883; lb., Supplem., II, 75- 93. Leipzig, 1891. B. F. Wescott, An Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, 92^-164. London, 1881. Paul Wend- land. Die IlcUrnistisch-Uomischc Kultur. Tiiblngen, 1907; lb.. Die UrchristUchen Literaturformen. Tubingen, 1912. Di€ Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, art. Messias, Vol. IV. Tiibingen, 1913. W. Baldensperger, Die Messianisch- Apok(difptischen Iloffnungen des Judcntums. Strassburg, 1903. Dalman, The Words of Jesus, 234-324. A. Haus- rath, A Hist or jj of the New Testament Times, I, 191-204. London, 1878. The New SchafF-IIerzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, ATI, 323-9. Oeuvres diverses de Mr. Pierre Baijle. By La Ilaye, I, 156. Amsterdam, 1727.
86 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Midrash and Midrashic Literature in Hastings' E.R.E., yill, 6^6. China (Jews in), lb., Ill, 558. Ages of the World (Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Roman), lb., I, 190- 205. Judaism, lb., VII, 595.]
The Talmud has done much to keep alive this faith in Judaism by constant reference to the Messiah and by pic- turing the conditions that betokened his coming :
" The generation that will bring the Messiah will consist of but few learned men. As to those few, their eyes will waste because of their grief and sighing over the many sor- rows that will overtake them. There will be new mandares daily pregnant with evil ; before the effects of the one have gone, another will come. The seven years preceding the Messiah's coming will be marked by great untoward events, and at the end of the seventh year Messiah will make his appearance. Although the untoward events have happened before and Messiah did not come, it must be remembered that they have not yet happened in the order and in the succession described. Again, at his coming the very schools where the Torah was taught will become houses of ill fame, the large cities will become desolate, and those who taught others religion will themselves become notorious sinners. The dwellers of Palestine will become fugitives, will wander from place to place without exciting pity. Men of learning and piety will be despised: men of distinction will be looked upon as dogs, and there will be a total absence of truth. The young will abuse the old and the grey-headed will rise for the young, and give them every honor. The daughter will rise against her own mother and the son will be shame- less in the presence of his father. Even those known as the most honoured and the most honourable will be full of duplic- ity. Whilst there will be abundant wine harvests, there will be a very great rise in the price of wine owing to the huge consumption, as drinking will go on to an alarming extent. Scepticism will be the order of the day and there will be no rebuking of the evil-doer. And when all will be afflicted with the leprosy of sin, then Messiah will appear. Even as with the leper when his leprosy had covered all his flesh, the Priest pronounced him clean.
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 87
" There is yet another period fixed for the coming of Mes- siah : when we Jews will be quite helpless ; when many will slander us and denounce us to the powers that be and we will be in abject poverty. Or again, when all hope of Mes- siah's appearance will be quite abandoned, when all hope will seem to be gone for ever, then Messiah will put in an ap- pearance. And amongst the varied opinions, one is that this world was to last six thousand years, divided into three series of two thousand years each, during the last series of which Messiah was to come. Another opinion has it, that it would be idle to hope for the arrival of Messiah before eighty- five jubilees have passed over the world. R. Samuel b. Nachmina is inclined to censure those who fix a time for Messiah's appearance, inasmuch. as if he does not arrive at the time fixed, the hope deferred may destroy the faith in his coming at all, and that would be a grievous sin, as it is our duty to believe in his coming and patiently await his arrival. Yet another opinion exists, that there is no fixed time for the coming of Messiah, since it entirely depends on Israel's re- pentance." [Senhedrin, 97, 11 and 98. See S. Rapaport, Tales and Maxims from the Talmud, New York, 1910. S. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbijiic Theology, passim. New York, 1910.]
" May he establish his Kingdom in your days " is the prayer of the Qaddish ; while in the Sabbath Morning Service many a Jewish heart echoes the words : " There is none to be compared unto thee, O Lord our God, in this world, neither is there any beside thee, 0 our King, for the life of the world to come; there is none but thee, O our Redeemer, for the days of the Messiah."
Hopeless, then, of man's assistance, we have searched the proph- ets o'er, Seeking promise in the judgments which our fathers writ of yore.
This has been the practical answer to the question of the Hasidim, or Law, " Why standeth thou so far off, O Jah- weh?"
[The lines quoted are not Jewish but are taken from a Moorish ballad of 1568, written for the comfort of the
SS Messiahs: Clwistiaji and Fagan
Moriscos prior to the Rebellion of Granada. H. C. Lea, The Morucos of Spain, 43-i-7. Pliiladelpliia, 1901.]
" Cooped up as the Jews were in former ages in Ghettos, isolated from the rest of the population not only locally and socially, but also economically and intellectually, they led a life of their own, self-contained if not always self-con- tented, in which they cultivated their traditional ideals and customs and fostered and developed their cultural posses- sions. Although they had no land of their own they made of their Ghetto a little Zion, pending the call of the Messiah whom they were willing at any moment to follow to the his- toric Zion: although they no longer dwelt on the banks of the Jordan or at the foot of ]Mount Carmel their lives were colored by customs and visions of the Holy Land, and all their sufferinofs were soothed bv the thoucrht that thev would one dav be crathcred a^ain to the land of their ancestors. Living as they did in the midst of all nations, and exposed on every side to obloquy and hostility, they nevertheless had the surest guarantee of survival, for they lived a life of their ovm and were sustained by the hope of a national restora- tion." [Israel Cohen. Jezi'ish Life in Modern Times, 310-11.]
*• None of the Messiahs,'- declares Schindler, " ever im- proved the state of affairs ; on the contrary, they all left the nation in still greater misery than they had found it. This, too. is a cause why so very little is known of any of them. Had they lived in times of prosperity, when their actions could have been iud^ed in calmness; had thev been able to improve the condition of their friends, morally or materially, we should have heard much more of them. But the hard- ships of their times were so great that nobody thought of fixing dates or of establishing a historical fame for them.'* \_Messianic Expectations, loo.]
It was a wise forethought on the part of ^laimonides when, after inserting, in the creed still followed by orthodox Judaism, a plank in favor of the messianic expectations, he added a warning against giving such aspirations a practi- cal turn. TMs warning, as we have amply demonstrated, has been little heeded, but, on the contrary, has been honored
The Messianic Movement in Judaism 89
in the breach. Schindler goes beyond the facts when he insists •' that the idea of the advent of a Messiah has died of late ; is stone dead now, and ought to be buried by the side of similar defunct ideas, in spite of all opposition which may be raised against its final interment " : and that " there is not one among us who expects the advent of a Messiah." [Solo- mon Schindler, Messianic Expectations and Modern Judaism, 4-5, 86. Boston, 18'86.]
Even the social obligation to marry was strengthened in Israel by the belief that the Messiah would not come until all souls stored up for the earthly life had been bom, nor has this motive entirely disappeared in orthodox Judaism. [I. Abrahams, in art. Marriage, in Hastings' Ency. Rel. and Ethics, VIII, 460.]
CHAPTER II
THE MAHDI: THE MESSIAH OF MOHAMMEDANISM
MOHAMMEDANISM awaits a Mahdi, or " Director " who is now somewhere concealed and will some day re- appear. Upon his reappearance, in true messianic fashion, injustice w411 disappear, a millennium of happiness will be ushered in, and the law will be restored. Whether or not this Mahdi belief was borrowed by the IMohammedans from the Jews, and, in fact, paved the way to the acceptance of Mohammed himself as well as of later Mahdi, as seems prob- able, it shows a marked resemblance to the Jewish messi- anic hope. [Sell, Essays on Islam, 50. Wherry, Commen- tary on the Koran, I, 139-5. Margoliouth, Early Develop- ment of Mohammedanism (London, 1914), 18. MacDonald, Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and Constitutional Theory, 27, 114 (New York, 1903). Hughes' Dictionary of Islam, 304, 540, 574 (1885). W. Muir, Life of Mahomet, 112-3, 152. Art., " Mahdi," in Ency. Britt. (11th ed.) ; in Hast- ings' Ency. of Religion and Ethics ; The New International Ency. Assassins, in Hastings' E.R.E., II ; Incarnation, (IntVoductorv) (Muslim), lb., VII, 183-4, 197-8. A. Gil- man, The Saracens, 50, 100, 268, 311-2, 414 (1908). E. C. Sykes, Persia and Its People, 134, 141. Mcaken, The Moors, 351. London, 1902. J. W. Buel, Heroes of the Dark Continent, 330-50. San Francisco, 1890. M. F. Von Op- pcnheim. Von Mittelmeer zum Persichen Golf, I, 121-2. Ber- lin, 1899. A. J. B. Wavell, A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca, 24. London, 1913. Ameer Ali Syed, A Short History of the Saracens, 295. London, 1900. H. C. Lukach, The Fringe of the East, 211-2, 264. London, 1913. Art. on Islam, in Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, III. Tubingen, 1912. B. Meakin, Moorish Empire, 68. Paul Carus, The Pleroma, An Essay on the Origin of Christianity, 111, 1909.
90
The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 91
H. S. Jarrett, History of the Caliphs^ p. 5. Calcutta, 1881. William Muir, The Caliphate, 557-63. Edinburgh, 1915. Napier Malcolm, Five Years in a Persian Town, 73-5. New York, 1907. Ella C. Sykes, Persia and Its People, 134, 14-1. London, 1910. P. M. Sykes, Ten Thousand Miles in Persia or Eight Years in Iran, 192. New York, 1902. The true Imam is hidden away to be revealed by the Lord later. J. B. Pratt, India and Its Faiths, 310. Ghair Mahdi, Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 189. The Shias believe he will conquer all re- ligions and take vengeance on the wicked. V. Piquet, Les Civilisations de VAfrique du Nord, 74-6.] Mohammed car- ried his religion to a people already expecting a Mahdi and confident of his arrival. Here, too, disasters precede the dawn of better times. ^
It has been asserted — and denied — that Waraka, an Arab acquainted w^th Hebrew, and later a Christian convert, a contemporary of Mohammed, had entertained the persua- sion that some messenger from heaven, a Mahdi, was about to come into the world. Some scholars believe this expec- tation of a Messiah or Mahdi was entertained by the Arabs of Medina as early as a. d. 621, thus insuring a favorable reception of Mohammed's mission. His followers could not believe him dead, but awaited his return, and, until rebuked by Mohammed's father-in-law, were ready to worship him as a god. There can be no doubt that the soil was prepared for the sowing of the seeds of the messianic faith. [Hutton Webster, Early European History, 372. New York, 1917. A. Gilman, The Story of the Saracens, 50-1, 63, 100.]
A work written at Mecca in 1883, by a Sherif of that city, bearing the title. The Conquests of Islam, gives the following means of identifying the true Mahdi:
1 According to Mohammedan belief, and as a result of Judeo-Christian influence. Antichrist will overrun the earth mounted on an ass, and fol- lowed by 40,000 Jews. " His empire will last forty days, whereof the first day will be a year long, the duration of the second will be a month, that of the third a week, the others being of their usual length. He will devastate the whole world, leaving Mecca and Medina alone in security, as these holy cities will be guarded by angelic legions. Christ at last will descend to earth, and in a great battle will destroy the Man-devil." [S. Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 172. Al-Ash'ari, Hastings' E.R.E., I, 112.]
\)'2 Mt'ssiaJi.s: Christian iind Pikjuh
" The greatest of these signs shall he that he shall he of the line of Fatinia (i.e., a Sherif, or deseendant of the Pro])het ) ; that he shall he proclaimed Mahdi against his will, not seeking such })r()elaniation for liimself, and not caus- ing strife amongst the faithful to ohtain it, nor evrn yielding to it till threatened with death hv them. IK' shall he ])ro- claimed in the Mosque of Mecca, not elsewhere; he shall not appear save when there is strife after the deatii of a Khalifa; he shall neither come nor he ]iroclaimed until such time as there is no Khalifa over the Mcislcms. His advent shall coincide with that of Anti-Christ, aftrr whom .Jesus will de- scend and .join himself to the Mahdi. "^I'liesc an* the signs of his coming. 'V\\v otlurs are imaginary or disputed, and wliosocver shall, of his own will, dtclarc himsilf to Ik- the Mahdi and try to assert himself hy force, is a pntender, such as have already a})peare(l many times." | (^)note(l hy the Karl of Cromer, Moilcru K(/i/j>t, I, .'5.51 '>!. |
As the following pagi's will show, most of tlu' Mahdi who have ap})eared from time to time have not U-en distinguished hy the stigmata givin l)y this Sherif, almost all of them ha\i!ig h«'(n silf-proclamnd.
TJii' Mahdi in Spain, Afrud, and Ar(d)ia
The revolt of the Shiites against the Abhasids in tlie sec- ond century a. n. was a messianic movement in Mohamme- (hmism closely ])aralleling those of .Judaism. The revolt came about tlie middle of tliis century, when the Abhasids were hard-pressed, and when the heavens themselves seemed to lurald tlieir downfall. There were great sliowers of shoot- ing stars which lK)th })arties inter])reted as heralding the downfall of the ruling Abhasids.
" Messianic lioj^e was alive, and a Maluh, a Ciuided of God, was h)oked for. Tliis liad long been the attitude of the Alids, and the Abhasids began to feel a necessity to gain for their de facto rule the sanction of tlieocratic hojies. In 143 n alley's comet was visible for twenty days, and in l-i-T there were again showers of shooting stars. On the part of the Abbasids, homage was solemnly rendered to tlie eldest
The Mahili: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 93
son of Al-Mansur, the Khalifa of the time as successor of his father, under the title of al-Mahdi, and several sayings were forged and ascribed to the Prophet which told who and what manner of man the Mahdi would be, in terms which clearly pointed to this heir-apparent. The Alids, on their side, were urged on to fresh revolts." [MacDonald, Muslim ThtoJogii, etc., J34-5.]
It was during the time of ()j)prrssi()n when Othman was Cali})h (654— 5 a. d.), that Ibn Saba, or Ibn as-Sanda, a Jew from the south of Arabia, appeared in Al-Basra and ex- pressed a desire to embrace the Islamic faith. It was not long before the astute Mohanmiedans discovered that lie was a firebrand of sedition, steeped in disaffection toward the existing goverimient and they forcibly removed him. From Al-Basra he went to Al-Kufa. Kxpelied from Al-Kufa he sought refuge in Syria. From here, too, he was expelled, but not until he had given a dangerous impulse to the already discontented classes of that province. lie found a safer re- treat in I-'gypt, and here he set forth strange and startling doctrines. Mohammed was to come again, as was also the Messiah. *' Meanwhile Ali was his legate. Othman was a usurper, and his governors a set of godless tyrants. Im})ietv and wrong were rampant everywhere; truth and justice could be restored no otherwise than by the overthrow of this wicked dynasty. Such was the preaching which daily gained ground in Egypt ; by busy correspondence it was sj)read all over the Empire, and startled the minds of men already foreboding evil from the sensible heavings of a slumbering volcano." [Sir William Mulr, The Caliphate — Its Rise, Decline and Fall ^l(>-7. Edinburgh, 1915.]
The first Mahdi seems to have been Mohammed Ibn al Hanafiyah, son of Ali, though not of Fatima. He was pro- claimed by one Mukhtar in the reign of Alxl al ]\Ialik (685- 705), after the murder of Hasain, Ali's son. The Persian followers refused to believe him dead, declaring that he would return at the end of seventy years. [A. Oilman, Story of the Saracens, 311.]
In the latter part of the eighth century. Hakim Ibn Allah, or Al Mokama, " the Veiled," was regarded as divine and
94 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
was worshipped for centuries, despite the fact that during his lifetime his armies were disastrously defeated by Mahdi, the third Abbasid Caliph. That his followers might be able to recognize him, he promised to reappear at his subsequent reincarnation as a gray man riding a gray beast.
One of the earliest Moroccan Mahdi was Mudhdhen of Tlemcen. In 851 he forbade the cutting of the hair or nails, and the wearing of ornaments. This addition to or detrac- tion from the natural person was a reflection upon the Al- mighty. He secured many proselytes in Africa and in Spain but was eventually captured and crucified by the Ameer of Andalusia.
The next Mahdi was Hameem. He proclaimed his mes- siahship in 936 in Ghomara and secured a goodly following. The hours of prayer were reduced from the orthodox five to two — one at sunrise and one at sunset. At each prayer there were to be weepings and three prostrations, the hand being held between the head and the floor. The devotee was to begin his prayer with the words, " Deliver me from sin, O Thou who givest eyes to see the Universe. Deliver me from sin, O Thou who drewest Jonah from the stomach of the fish, and Moses from the flood." To the ordinary confession he was to add, " And I believe in Hameem, and in his companion, Abn Ikhlaf, and I believe in Tabia, aunt of Hameem." He provided fasts for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Frida3^s dur- ing the ten days of Ramadan and the ten of the feast of Shoowal. To break the fast on Thursday was to incur a fine of three bullocks, and to break it on Tuesday a fine of two bullocks. Sows were now permitted as food, but eggs and the heads of animals were, among other things, forbidden. Pilgrimages and certain purifications were abolished. This Mahdi also met with crucifixion and his head was sent to Cordova.
During the Muwahhadi Period (1149-1269) Mohammed Ibn Hud assumed the title of El Madi, " the Director," and secured a large following, though he, too, was overthro^vn. In this same period, while Abd El Mumin was in charge of aff*airs in Spain (1130-1163) there arose in the western part of that country a Mahdi. He was, however, forthwith
The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 95
captured, and, upon his explanation and confession that he was the " false dawn," was pardoned. [B. Meakim, The Moorish Empire, 87-8. London, 1899.]
Early in the tenth century (90S) Abn Abdallah (or Obeidalla) found the Berbers of Algeria ready for the call. He drew vast crowds after him and, by their help, defeated the Aghlabid d3masty, getting possession of the capital of the kingdom. " He preached the impending advent of the Mehdi (Mahdi), and, to meet the expectation so raised, sum- moned Sa'id the son of his deceased master Mohammed. Sa'id came, but not under his real name. He claimed to be descended from the Imam Iswa'il, and called himself Obei- dallah. The adventures of this Mahdi in his flight through Egypt and wanderings as a merchant with a caravan to Tripoli, are little less than a romance. Suspected by the Aghlabis, he was cast into prison, and so remained until re- leased by the victorious Abn Abdallah, who for a time pro- fessed to be in doubt whether Obeidallah were the veritable Mahdi or not. At last, however, he placed him on the throne, and himself reaped the not infrequent fruit of dis- interested labours in the founding of a dynasty, for he was assassinated by command of the monarch who owed to him his throne, but had now become jealous of his influence. As- suming the title. Commander of the Faithful, Obeidallah, in virtue of his alleged descent from the Prophet's daughter Fatima, became the Fatimid Caliph of a kingdom which em- braced both the dominions heretofore held by the Aghlabid dynasty, and the nearer districts of the Caliphate bordering on the Mediterranean. Its capital was Al-Mehdiga — near Tunis — the ' Africa ' of Froissart. The name means ' be- longing to the Mehdi.' He made repeated attempts to gain Egypt also, but was repulsed by Mumis, Al-Muktadir's com- mander there." [Sir William Muir, op. cit., 562-3. B. Meakim, 41, 87. Jeremiah Curtin, The Mongols, 205. Bos- ton, 1908'. A. Oilman, The Saracens, 414-6.]
The Mad Hakim (996-1020), most famous of the earlier Egyptian Mahdi, " disappeared " rather than died, and his reappearance is still confidently awaited by the Druses in the Lebanon Mountains and the Hauran. The Ismaili sect, also.
96 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
is inspired by this idea and awaits the return of a Mahdi, Mohammed Ibn Ismail, of the family of All, as, similarly, do the Carmations. [Art. on Druses in Ency. Britt., 11th ed.]
"At the beginning of the sixth century (twelfth century A. D.) a certain Berber student of theology, Ibn Tumart by name, travelled in the East in search of knowledge. An early and persistent western tradition asserts that he was a favorite pupil of al-Ghazzali's, and was marked out by him as showing the signs of a future founder of empire. This may be taken for what it is worth. What is certain is that Ibn Tumart went back to the Maghrib and there brought about the triumph of a doctrine which was derived, if modi- fied, from that of the Ash'arites.
" Ibn Tumart started in life as a reformer of the corrup- tions of the day, and seems to have slipped from that into the belief that he had been appointed by God as the reformer for all time. As happens with reformers, from expectation it came to force; from preaching at the abuses of the govern- ment to rebellion against the government. That govern- ment, the Murabit, went down before Ibn Tumart and his successors, and the pontifical rule of the Muwahlids, the asserters of God's tawhid or unity, rose in its place.
" The success of Ibn Tumart, if halting at first, was even- tually complete. As a simple lawyer who felt called upon to protest — as, indeed, all good Muslims, in virtue of a tradition from Muhammad — against the abuses of the time, he accomplished comparatively little. As Mahdi, he and his supporter and successor, Abd al-Mu'mim, swept the country. For his movement was not merely Imamite and Muslim, but an expression as well of Berber nationalism. Here was a man, sprung from their midst, of their own stock and tongue, who, as Prophet of God, called them to arms. They obeyed his call, worshipped him and fought for him. He translated the Qur'an for them into Berber ; functionaries of the church had to know Berber; his own theological writings circulated in Berber as well as in Arabic. As Persia took Islam and moulded it to suit herself, so now did the Berber tribes."
Ibn Tumart, as a personality, is no less interesting be-
The Malidi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 97
cause of the departure from tradition which he effected, first within himself, and, secondly, within the larger social unit. The current theology explained the anthropomorphic pas- sages of the Koran literally, while he gave them a meta- physical interpretation and in this manner explained away the stumbling blocks. As he had power to deliver from na- tional enemies so, by virtue of his own divinity, he could pro- claim the truth in his own strength. " Such a leader, then, could claim from the people absolute obedience and credence. His word must be for them the source of truth." He accord- ingly dispensed with all the prevailing analogical arguments. The new theology as entertained by his followers may deserve the epithet of " a strange jumble," but it was a new system and one imposed by this remarkable personality. " With them, the Zahirite system of canon law, rejected by all other Muslim peoples, enjoyed its own brief period of power and glory. Shi'ite legends and superstitions mingled with philo- sophical free thought." Ibn Tumart is one of the most re- markable figures that appear upon the stage of Moorish his- tory. [MacDonald, 244^9. B. Meakim, 65-70. Art. on Ibn Tumart in Hastings' Ency. Rel. and Eth., VII, 74-5. Berbers and North Africa, lb., II, 506-19.]
Hallaj was executed at Bagdad in a. d. 922 on the charge of pretending to be an incarnation of the Deity and of hav- ing disciples who accepted this claim. His head was sent to Khurasan to be shown to his followers there and the ashes of his cremated body were thrown into the Tigris. But many of his followers refused to believe their lord and master dead and confidently expected his reappearance. They based their faith on a passage in the Koran (IV, 156) regarding Christ's reappearance, declared Hallaj trans- ported to heaven, and asserted that the victim of the exe- cution of the supposed Hallaj was one of his enemies changed by God into a likeness of their master, or, said others, of a horse or a mule. [Art., Hallaj, in Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 480-2.]
" In Hakim a final appeal was made to mankind, and after the door of mercy had stood open to all for twenty-six years, it was finally and forever closed. W^hen the tribula-
98 Messiahs: Christian- and Pagan
tion of the faithful has readied its lieight, Hakim will re- appear to conquer the world and render his religion supreme. Druses believed to be dispersed to China will return to Syria. The combined body of the Faithful will take ]\Iecca, and finally Jerusalem, and all the world will accept the Faith."
A defender of Hakim, Moktana Baba ud-Din, whose writ- ings were known from Constantinople to India, addressed a letter to Constantinc VIH, and one to ]\Iichael the ra])lila- gonian, in which he endeavored to prove that the Christian Messiah had reappeared in the person of Hanza. Hakim had believed himself in direct intercourse with the Deity and even an incarnation of divine intelligence. In 1016 his claims, su}i})orted by Ismael Darazi (whence, possibly, the name "Druse'-), were made known in the mosque at Cairo. They received some small su])port in the Lebanons, where they are still championed by the Druses, and also, to a slight extent, among Mohannnedan sects in Persia. When Hakim was assassinated in 105^0 his vizier and apostle, Hanzi ibn Ali ibn Ahmed, announced that Hakim had but withdrawn for a season, and encouraged his followers to look forward with confidence to his trium})hant return.
Shortly after the middle of the twelfth century Rashid-ad- Din Sinan announced himself as the Imam, and as God in- carnate, the all-powerful Mahdi. His lameness was a stum- bling block to some who expected a Mahdi unblemished physically as well as spiritually, but among the sect of the Isma'ili he won many followers. [Assassins, in Hastings' E.K.E., II, 141. For a detailed account see S. Gu^^ard in Journal Asiatique, 1877.]
Khidr, " the green one," is the name, or title, of a Mo- hammedan saint whom Islam believes is still alive and to whom, along the coast of Syria, numerous sanctuaries have been built wherein sacrifices and the first-bom of animals are still offered to him. ^lohammedan literature has, at times, identified him with the Messiah, and he has been regarded as a mediator, an ever present help in time of trouble, a balm to the afflicted. [Khidr, in Hastings' E.R.E., VH, 693-5. S. I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day.^
Ibn Khaldun, the great theologian of the fourteenth cen-
Th£ Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 99
tur}', discountenances the belief that Khidr is ahve, brand- ing it as a superstition. [Ameer Ali, Short History of the Saracens, 295. London, 1910.] But popular belief in Mo- hammedan lands, as in more cultured regions, outstrips the limits of conservative dogma.
The Shiites expect the return of the last Imam, Moham- med al Mahdi, who died in a. d. 873, and never mention his name without adding, " May God hasten his glad advent." This last Imam or INIahdi, when a boy five 3'ears of age, pined for his father, who had been deported from Medina to Sa- marra by the tyrant Mutawakkil, and there detained until his death. In his distress the child entered, in search of his father, a cavern not far from the lad's home. From this cavern he never returned. " The pathos of this calamity culminated in the hope — the expectation which fills the hearts of Hassan's follow^ers — that the child may return to relieve a sorrowing and sinful world of its burden of sin and oppression. So late as the fourteenth century when Ibn Khaldun was writing his great work, the Shias (Shiites) were wont to assemble at eventide at the entrance of the cavern and supplicate the missing child to return to them. After waiting for a considerable time, they departed to their homes, disappointed and sorrowful. This, says Ibn Khal- dun, was a daily occurrence. Wlicn they were told it was hardly possible he could be alive, they answered that as the prophet Khizr (Khidr) was alive, why should not their Imam be alive too.'* . . . This Imam is therefore called the Mun- tazzar, the Expected One, the Hujja, or the Proof (of the Truth), and the Kaim, the Living." [Ameer Ali, Short History of the Saracens, 295. London, 1900. Art., Kaim, in Hastings' E.R.E. A. Oilman, Story of tJie Saracens, 266, 311-2, -il^.]
The Carmations, a religio-political sect of the Shi'ites which arose about the middle of the third century a. h., has been productive of many Mahdi. The tenet of this order is that L^niversal Reason and the Universal Soul have mani- fested themselves in human form, and that this human form is subject to a series of reincarnations. The last of these reincarnations will be realized in the Mahdi, at which time the
100 McssiaJis: Chrintian und Pnydii
end and fullness of hunuin life will be realized. AbdHllah ibn Maiinuni (died a. h. 180), of this sect, did not die but bi'canie invisible, so to remain until his reapi)earance as the Mahdi. [Art., C'annations, in Ilastincrs' E.K.E., III, ^1^22-5, contains a descri})tion of other Mahdi of this sect.)
One of the most remarkable of the African Mahdi Nvas Mohammed Ahmed Ibn Seyvid Alxlullah, born 1S4S in Don- galo, in the Sudan. After a varied religious career of revolt against religious authority he pronuilgated new religious and social laws and declared himself the Mahdi. His followers were greatlv oj)j)re^sed bv tlu- tax gatherers and other of- ficials of the Turkish and Egyptian governments. Among them his doctrines met with notable success. Aftir thrice defeating the government troops, which the Sudanese had regarded as incomparably superior and not to Ix.' coped with, his claims received increasing attention and res])ect.
Numerous miracles were credited to him, and his claims that the bullets of the enemy would become water wlun they struck the bodies of his followers seemed for a tinu- to have some foundation in fact. I'he rebellion which he raised against the Turks and English was not (juelled until (Jordon had Ixen massacred and Kitchnur had apjjrarcd at Khar- toum.
Tlu' Turki>h forces which attacki-d the Dongahi, the Mahdi's followers, shared the superstition that these follow- ers were impervious to ordinary bullets, and declared they saw tlu HI fall from the Dongala as rain drops off one's bodv. The Turks were more successful with silver bullets whiih they made out of dollar pieces, and, almost as effica- cious as these, were ordinary bullets hollowed out, a ])eg of ebonv-wood or of cop])er being then firmly fastened in them. These gave new courage to the soldiers who believed them capable of killing the devil himself and, with them, they returned to the attack with renewed vigor and bravery. [ A. J. Mounteney-Je])hson, ?lmin Pashn, 2(>T. New York, 1891.^]
No better descri])tion of this Sudanese Mahdi and the be- liefs inspired by him can be given than that contained in a
[ 1 A similar belief had been current in Scotland. Clavcrhonse was considered proof against bullets but was eventually killed by a silver
The Mahdi: llic Messiah of Mohammedanism 101
letter written bv one of his followers, Omar Saleh, to Mehincd Emin, Mudir of Iltitalastiva. After the ordinary Moham- medan greetings and ])reliniinary observations upon the chan<^efulness and temporality of life and the world, and the absoluteness of Allah, in whose hands are the keys of all things, the letter proceeds to its main purpose: "We be- long to God's army," writes Omar, " and follow His word only ; with our army is the victory, and we follow the Imam, Mahomed el Mahdi, the son of Abdullah — before whom we bow — the Khalifa and Prophet of God — to whom we offer our f^reetin^irs, and of whom the Master of all has said, * And in those days there shall be raised from my seat a man who shall fill the earth with justice and lif^ht as it was filled before with injustice and darkness' (the Koran). We have now come bv his order, and there is no ]:)ossil)le result but what is ^ood from his connnandments in this chanceful world. We have f^iven ourselves, our children, and possessions to him as an olt'erini^ to (Jod, and He has accepted them from us. He has boui^rht His true believers, their souls and ])osses- sions with His Woid, and Paradise belongs to them. If they are killed, they arc kilhd as an offering to God, and if they kill, tluy kill in His cause, as it is written in the Old Testa- ment, in the N<'W Testament, and in the Koran.
*' In the month of Ramadan, l!^9S, God revealed the ex- pected Mahdi, and made him sit on His footstool, and fjirded him with the sword of victory. He told him that whoever was his enemy was unfaithful to (iod and His Prophet, and should suffer in this world and in the next, and his children and rroods should become the prey of the true Moslems, and lie (the Mahdi) should be victorious over all his foes, though they were as numberless as the sands of the desert ; and who-
button made into a t)ulkt. Tliis wjis during the reign of William and Mary.
Relief in immunity from Imllcts was current in ttie Plains area during the ()utl)reak of tiic Sioux in 1890.
Again imnuinity from bullets was promised his followers by the Moorisb Pretender. Jilali el Zarhoumy, "Father of the She- Ass," who disturbed the peace of Morocco early in the present century, and was a forerunner of the Mahdi. A. J. Dawson, Things Seen in Morocco, 308, 3K\ New York, 190k]
102 Messiahs: Christian and Fag an
soever should disobey him should be punished by God. And God showed him his angels and saints, from the time of Adam till this day, and all the spirits and devils. He has before Him an army — its chief is Israel — to whom our greetings ; and He ever goes before the victorious army, a distance of forty miles. Besides this God related to him many miracles. It was impossible to count them, but they were as clear as the sun at midday, whose light is seen by all. And the peo- ple flocked to him by the order of God and His Prophet.
" He commanded the people to collect and assist him against his foes from all parts of the country, and he wrote to the Governor-General at Khartoum, and to all tlie gover- nors in the Soudan, and his orders were fulfilled. He wrote to every king, especially to the Sultan of Stamboul, Abdul Hamid, to Mahomed Tewfik, Vali of Eg3'pt, and to Victoria, Queen of Brittania, because she was in alliance with the Egyptian Government. Then the people came from every side and submitted to liis rule, and told him they submitted to God and His Prophet, and to him, for there is only one God, and He is supreme, and they promised they would ab- stain from all evil, and tliat they would neither steal nor commit adulter}^, nor do anything wliich was forbidden by God. They would give up the world and strive only for God's Word, and make war for their Holy Belief for ever.
" xVnd we have found him, the i\Iahdi, more compassionate to us than a pitying mother ; he lives with the great, but has pity for the poor; he collects the people of honour around him and honours the generous ; he speaks only the truth and brings people to God, and relieves them in this world, and shows them the path to tlie next." [Quoted by A. J. Mounte- ney-Jephson, Emin Pasha, S45-8.]
The letter concludes with a detailed account of the Mahdi's successes over his various enemies, and an exhortation to join the host of this triumphant one.
The Soudanese Mahdi roused a tremor throughout tlie downtrodden Mohammedan world. During the Egyptian war Mohammedans from Assma and Lucknow looked to Arabi to restore their fortunes, " for," said they, " we are in a desperate strait and need a deliverer." In Yemen and
The Malidi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 103
in Hcjaz tlie Arabs, weary of Turkish rule, were ready to join the Mahdi sliould lie cross the Red Sea. [Blunt, India Under Hipon, ^03. 1909. For accounts of this Soudanese Mahdi, see article on Mahommed Ahmed in Enc. Britt. (11th ed.) ; F. R. Win^ate, Ten Years Captivity in the Mahdi' s Camp. London, 1892, esp. Ch. I; lb., Fire and Srvord in tlie Sudan. London, 181)6, Ch. IV, XX; lb., Mahdiism in the Sudan. London, 1889; A. J. B. Wavell, A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca, 24- ; Hist, of All Nations, XX, 385-6. Sir Harry Johnston, Africa, 348. London, N. D. ; S. Low, Egypt in Transition, 12-34, 82; K. M. ]51iss, Turkey and the Arme- nian A trocities, 62, 327-9 ; De Bunscn, The Soul of the Turk, 205, 258; M. M. Shoemaker, Islam Lands, 25, 37, 45, 48-52, r^H, 71-3, 89-91, 98-102. E. Fothcrrrilj, Five Years in the Sudan, 15-39, 229. .Alford and Sword, Egyptian Soudan, ("h. 11. London, 1898. A. H. Atteridr^e, Towards Khar- toum, Ch. XLX. London, 1897. W. S. Churchill, The River War, I, 12-116, II, 99, 212. B. Alexander, From the Niger to the Nile, II, 357. New York, 1907. W. E. Curtis, Egypt, Burma and British Malaysia, 186-7. 1905.]
It is often deemed advisable to fight fire with fire and to overcome divine aid by countervaiHnir supernatural sanction. Accordinfrly^ when Gordon arrived in Egypt to quell the Mahdi uprising, he was instructed by the Khedive to embark on the divine mission of subduing the false Mahdi and pre- paring the way for the True Messiah. Gordon himself seemed impressed with the supernatural sanction attaching to his mission and his diary has been likened, by Moncure D. Conway, to what one might expect in the diary of Peter the Hermit; containing such verses as " I take this prophecy as my own " ; " And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of Hosts in the Land of Egypt." Hence, con- cludes the venerable commentator, " I reached the conclusion that if one scratches the Englishman with a Moslem spear he will find a Crusader." \^My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East, 347-8. 1906. See, in confirmation, the pub- lished diary of Gen. Gordon.]
The Sudanese followers of the Mahdi may be said to have " returned the compliment " by looking upon Gordon as the
104« Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Anti-Christ whom their promised Mahdi was destined to de- stroy. [A. Gihnan, Story of the Saracens, 414. James Darmsteter, Le Mahdi depuis les origines de VIslam jusqu' a nos jour. Paris, 18'85. E. W. Latimer, Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century, 76-108. W. E. B. Du Bois, The Negro, 45-6. New^ York, 1915. E. B. Bronson, In Closed Territory, 181. London, 1907. A. B. Lloyd, Uganda to Khartoum, 303. London, 1907.]
Many persons had appeared in Egypt prior to 1881 claim- ing to be the ]\Iahdi, one of them in Upper Egypt during the time of Ismail Pasha, a contemporary of the Sudanese Mahdi. [Earl of Cromer, Modern Egypt, I, 35S, 356fF., 470; II, 20-30, 61-5. N. D. Harris, Intervention and Colonization in Africa, 97, 119, 332-44, 348. New York, 1914.]
In 1799 there appeared in Egypt a Mahdi who, though killed by the French, was expected by his followers to return. When the French soon afterward retired from Egypt they supposed that the Mahdi's prayers had been answered by Allah. [E. W. Latimer, 78.] For generations before the appearance of the Sudan iVIahdi the rumor had been abroad that in the latter part of this centurj^ a new prophet would arise, gather to himself the scattered forces of the faithful and restore the Moslem faith and power to their ancient height. This prepared the way for the announcement in 1881 of himself as the Mahdi foretold bj^ ^lohammed, whose advent had been predicted for that year, and gave persuasion to the message which he sent to the sheiks and fakirs round about, declaring his divine mission to reform Islam, establish universal equality, a universal law, a universal religion, and a community of goods ; with the accompanying threat that he would destroy all, both Mohammedan and Christian, who should refuse to accept his claims of being the true prophet. The ignorant and credulous Arabs found further proof of his genuineness in peculiar marks upon his face symbolic of a true prophetic character, and in difference in the length of his two arms, and in difference in the color of his two eyes — differences which pertained to Mohammed the Prophet. [G. M. Towle, England in Egypt, Ch. V. Boston, 1886. Another
The Malidi: TJie Messiah of Mohammedanism 105
tradition asserted that the Mahdi would have long hands. See Earl of Cromer, op. cit., I, 351.]
As already mentioned the excitement in the Sudan reverber- ated to Abyssinia. " There was an old prophecy in Abys- sinia, handed down from generation to generation, which said that in the fulness of time a king should arise in Ethiopia, of Solomon's lineage, who should be acknowledged to be the greatest king on earth; and his power should embrace all Ethiopia and Egypt. He should scourge the infidels out of Palestine and purge Jerusalem from all defilers. He should destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and his name should be Theodorus."
This prophecy brought to the fore a man who had been known as Kassai, but who now claimed that his name was Theodorus. Great successes attended his arms and he con- quered province after province. When the conquests of the Sudanese INIahdi had reached to the borders of Abyssinia he determined to advance on Omdurman and destroy Mahdiism. In this he was aided by another prophecy current among the Arabs to the effect that a king of Abyssinia should advance on Khartoum, his horsemen wading in blood, and that he should tie his horse to a lone tree standing on a certain hill near the city. When the war broke out belief in this proph- ecy caused almost a panic in Omdurman. Subsequent events, however, failed to justify it, for King John, as he was then known, was struck by a bullet and killed, his army defeated, and his head fell into the hands of the exulting enemy. [E. W. Latimer, op. cit., 229-48.]
The messianic movement initiated by the Sudanese Mahdi still lingers. In 1903 Mohammed-el-Amin, a native of Tunis, proclaimed himself the Mahdi and secured a following in Kordofan. He was captured by the governor of Kordofan and publicly executed at El Obeid. In April, 1908, Abdel- Kader, a Halowin Arab and ex-dervish, rebelled in the Blue Nile province, claiming to be the prophet Issa (Jesus). He murdered the deputy inspector of the province and the Egyptian mamur, after which the rising was promptly sup- pressed and Issa captured and hanged. [Cf. art., Sudan, in Ency. Britt., 11th ed.]
106 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
The Mahdi in India
Nor have Indian Mussulmans been without their redeemers, at once religious and political. In the eleventh century A. H. we find a remarkable movement among them, roused by the expected advent of the Imam Mahdi. [F. T. Wheeler, History of India, IV, Part I, 151-3. W. W. Hunter, in Our Indian Mussulmans, was the first to bring home to the English mind the political danger inherent in Mohammedan religious revivals. See also Sell, Essays on Islam.^ The revolution in Calcutta has been attributed in part to a reli- gious cause, namely, the uprising of a Mohammedan sect, the Arya Samaj ; there is