Scarce Beginnings

Any word on messianism in the early rabbinic literature? Here is where it gets interesting. Let’s start with the translations.

As mentioned in a previous post here, the Onkelos translation of the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Bible, the books of Moses - considered to be from the years 150-200 AD, translates the “star of Jacob” in Numbers 24:17 as (translated back) “the star of Jacob the messiah…” 

In the prayer book, there are several mentions of messiah - but I will treat them all as borderline. They are not acute messianism, but rather of a messiah that is the Son of David, like in the biblical texts and in the 2nd Temple literature besides the New Testament - the ideal king anticipated and hoped for, but not quite the apocalyptic redeemer. 

Here are the famous 2 almost-messianic components of the 18/19 benedictions, the Amida, one after the other: 

And return in mercy to Jerusalem, Your city, and dwell therein as You have spoken; and rebuild it soon, in our days, as an everlasting structure, and may You speedily establish the throne of David therein. Blessed are You, Adonai, Builder of Jerusalem.

Speedily cause the sprout of David, Your servant, to flourish and exalt his power/horn with Your deliverance. We hope all day for Your deliverance. Blessed are You, Adonai, Who causes the power/horn of salvation to sprout.

Do you agree? These are very significant, and more than anything show how much the anticipated Davidic king was central to the Jewish faith. But I can't say this is next level messianism.  

We could say these are messianic, but on the low end of the spectrum - if messiahs are perceived anywhere between a normal man Davidic king, this then is the human minimalistic natural type, versus, on the other end, would be a quasi-divine supernatural apocalyptic redeemer, which is the model we have already seen historically in the 2nd Temple period in the New Testament. 

Tracing the Evidence

Now onwards with the Mishna, which has a lot of material, but out of all that material, here are the most, if not only, messianic passages found, which I will present here, out of context:

In the morning he recites two blessings before it and one after it; in the evening two before it and two after it, one long and one short. Where they [the sages] said that a long one should be said, he may not say a short one; where they said a short one he may not say a long one [Where they said] to conclude [with a blessing] he is not permitted to not conclude; where they said to not conclude [with a blessing], he may not conclude…

They mention the Exodus from Egypt at night. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: "Behold, I am almost a seventy-year old man and I have not succeeded in [understanding why] the Exodus from Egypt should be mentioned at night, until Ben Zoma explained it from a verse (Deuteronomy 16:3): ‘In order that you may remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life…’ 

‘The days of your life’ refers to the days. ‘All the days of your life’ refers to the nights. And the sages say: ‘the days of your life’ refers to this world. ‘All the days of your life’ includes the days of the Messiah. (Mishna, Berakhot 1:4-5)

This text uses the phrase “days of Messiah”, at the end of a discussion bit on prayer and reciting the Shma (Hear O’Israel…), when to pray in what format, this way or that way. It leads associatively to a homiletic interpretation of a biblical passage with the phrase “all the days of your life”, and it is said that this is alluding to the days of Messiah. That’s it. 

We don’t know from this context what is meant by that. We may include other sources to interpret this phrase. The phrase implies a messianic faith, a faith in a messiah, a concept of the world to come, perhaps the redeemed world, redeemed by the messiah, and so these are the messianic days. 

Rabbi Phineas ben Yair says: when the Temple was destroyed, scholars and freemen were ashamed and covered their head, men of wondrous deeds were disregarded, and violent men and big talkers grew powerful. And nobody expounds, nobody seeks, and nobody asks. Upon whom shall we depend? Upon our father who is in heaven. 

Rabbi Eliezer the Great says: from the day the Temple was destroyed, the sages began to be like scribes, scribes like synagogue-attendants, synagogue-attendants like common people, and the common people became more and more debased. And nobody seeks. Upon whom shall we depend? Upon our father who is in heaven. 

In the footsteps of the messiah insolence will increase and the cost of living will go up greatly; the vine will yield its fruit, but wine will be expensive; the government will turn to heresy, and there will be no one to rebuke;

the meeting-place will be used for licentiousness; the Galilee will be destroyed, the Gablan will be desolated, and the dwellers on the frontier will go about from place to place without anyone to take pity on them;

the wisdom of the learned will rot, fearers of sin will be despised, and the truth will be lacking; youths will put old men to shame, the old will stand up in the presence of the young, “For son spurns father, daughter rises up against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law a man’s own household are his enemies” (Micah 7:6). 

The face of the generation will be like the face of a dog, a son will not feel ashamed before his father. Upon whom shall we depend? Upon our father who is in heaven.

Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair says, “Heedfulness leads to cleanliness, cleanliness leads to purity, purity leads to separation, separation leads to holiness, holiness leads to modesty, modesty leads to fear of sin, fear of sin leads to piety, piety leads to the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit leads to the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of the dead comes from Elijah, blessed be his memory, Amen.” (Misha, Sotah 9:15)

This text utilizes the phrase “footsteps of Messiah”, from Psalm 89, alluding to the catastrophic phase, following the destruction of the Temple, and the deterioration of all levels of society and religious faith. These days are the meaning of the footsteps of the Messiah, apparently. 

It all connects to Elijah - this passage quotes Micah of the Bible, going off on the rebellious sons and daughters… which is itself a theme in the Bible itself, in Malachi, a text we encountered in previous posts, leading up to the day of the LORD, and Elijah the messenger will be sent, and his role is to “return” or “repent” the sons and daughters to their parents. 

In other words, the Mishnah acknowledges that the footsteps of Messiah is messianic and apocalyptic and these are connected to the Elijah messenger apocalyptic and these are the themes where there is great strife and other ills preceding Elijah preceding Messiah. 

While the prayer literature was mainstream but relatively normal messianic hero, this rare Mishnaic textual evidence seems similar, perhaps more advanced, but still not full blown fantastic messianism.

Obscure Fantastic

I will next jump forward to show an example from the Agada literature, which is quite obscure, but displays fantastic messianic material.

[By the way, without getting ahead of ourselves too much, the Agada literature probably overlapped with ancient Jewish “apocalyptic” literature, and apparently there was some overlap or entry points between the ancient Jewish Christian literature and that ancient apocalyptic literature.]

Here is a nice example from the Agada literature, from later, perhaps the third century, at the earliest. This bit relates a messianic idea, and it will make it in the Talmud as well, in some shape or form, Bereshit (Genesis) Rabbah 1:4:

“In the beginning, God created” – six items preceded the creation of the world; some of them were [actually] created, and some of them God contemplated creating, [though He did not actually do so]. The Torah and the Throne of Glory were created. Torah, from where is it derived? As it is stated: “The Lord made me at the beginning of His way” (Proverbs 8:22). The Throne of Glory, from where is it derived? “Your throne stands firm from earliest time, [You are from eternity]” (Psalms 93:2). 

The patriarchs, Israel, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah – God contemplated creating them [before the world, but did not]. The patriarchs, from where is it derived? “Like grapes in the wilderness [I found Israel, like a first fruit on the fig tree, at its beginning [bereshitah] I saw your fathers]” (Hosea 9:10). Israel, from where is it derived? “Remember Your congregation, that You acquired from old times” (Psalms 74:2). The Temple, from where is it derived? “Throne of glory, exalted from the beginning, [is the place of our Temple]” (Jeremiah 17:12). 

The name of the messianic king, from where is it derived? “May his name endure forever…” (Psalms 72:17).

The text is saying that the name of Messiah, perhaps his essence, like other things, were created before this world (as we know it) was created, and plays this and other items created before this world off of biblical verses.

It is telling us that the Messiah, his name and being and essence, is primordial. The messianic name is the sixth final item, meaning that the homily is pointing to the meaning of Messiah, that is the purpose of this passage, the peak. 

Besides the fact that this idea is quite interesting historically and raises questions as to when and where such a thing came about within Judaism.

Even though we are far away from the 2nd Temple era, it feels like a mix of apocalyptic literature and Messiah, but not from the New Testament.

Compare now to the variation in the Talmud, Pesachim 54a (skipping analysis of the context, who said this was said by when and why… because that is beyond our purpose, though normally that is what you do when studying Talmud):

Wasn’t it taught in a baraita: Seven phenomena were created before the world was created, and they are: Torah, and repentance, and the Garden of Eden, and Gehenna, and the Throne of Glory, and the Temple, and the name of Messiah.

Torah, as it is written: “The Lord made me as the beginning of His way” (Proverbs 8:22). Repentance, as it is written: “Before the mountains were brought forth” and it is written “You return man to contrition; and You say: Repent, children of man” (Psalms 90:2–3).

The Garden of Eden, as it is written: “And God planted the Garden of Eden in the east [mikedem]” (Genesis 2:8). (The term: In the east [mikedem] is interpreted as: Before [mikodem], i.e., before the world was created.) Gehenna, as it is written: “For its hearth is ordained of old” (Isaiah 30:33).

The Throne of Glory and the Temple, as it is written: “Your Throne of Glory on high from the beginning, in the place of our Sanctuary” (Jeremiah 17:12). The name of Messiah, as it is written: “May his name endure forever; his name existed before the sun” (Psalms 72:17).

Our slightly later example here above is interesting in regard to textual traditions and in regards to messianism. We find variations of the same homily in different books, passed along in one way or another, over many generations. And we see different levels of fantastic messianism.

Beyond that we will leave for now the meaning of this example for messianism. But I want to emphasize as an introduction to this chapter in the evolution of messianism, a general question, to contextualize, what is happening here…