Messianic Thought and Movements

Abstract

While the focus of this article is on Jewish messianism, messianic concepts, often interrelated, appear in many other religions besides Judaism, such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Modern movements such as socialism and Zionism have commonly been interpreted as secular forms of messianism. Messianism in its broadest sense is the belief in a messiah, redeemer, or savior figure expected by a religion. The Messiah is generally believed to appear at the end of days to introduce an eschatological age of earthly bliss and justice, often following catastrophe (in Judaism called the birth pangs of the Messiah, hevlei mashiah). In the Hebrew Bible, the term “messiah” (mashiah), literally meaning “anointed (one),” denotes kings and priests who were traditionally anointed with oil. Only in postbiblical times, when Israel eventually lost its sovereignty to the Romans, the Messiah became an ideal future king of Israel, descending from the line of David, who would restore the kingdom of Israel, rebuild the Temple, and gather the Jewish people from exile back into its ancestral homeland. His reign, the messianic age (yemot ha-mashi’ah), would be an era of universal peace and abundance. Although the Jewish Messiah is believed to act upon God’s call, in Judaism, unlike in Christianity, the Messiah is a human being; he is not considered to be God or a Son of God. Drawing on biblical roots (especially restorative and utopian images in the prophetic writings), messianic ideas further developed and diversified in the Second Temple period and in rabbinic literature, including such features of the eschatological drama as the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment, and the world to come (olam ha-ba), with the roles of the messianic herald Elijah, Messiah Son of Joseph, preceding Messiah Son of David. Both in times of peace and conflict, grounding in the exegesis of classical texts, gematria, or astronomy, apocalyptic speculation as to when redemption would come and what the last days would bring has flourished. Through today, spiritual and political messianic movements have played a vital role in Jewish history. While end-time prophets who claimed to pave the way for the Messiah or a person believed to be the long-awaited redeemer himself have attracted many followers, they have also excited opposition from within and outside the Jewish community. This is in part due to the fact that messianism is not a well-defined concept; rather, it has numerous facets, with conflictive ideas existing side by side, being repeatedly reinterpreted. Messianism is not even a universally accepted principle of Judaism for all Jews. There is a long debate on this issue, starting with the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), with some thinkers trying to expunge messianism from Judaism altogether, while others are trying to diminish its scope and to present it as an optional tenet of belief.