The Cosmic Characters of the Messianic Time – Jewish Expectations

Jewish theology always insisted on drawing a sharp line between the Messianic days and the final days of God’s sole kingdom. Hence the characteristic baraita counting ten world-rulers, beginning with God before Creation, then naming, Nimrod, Joseph, Solomon, Ahab, Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander the Great, the Messiah, and ending with God last as He was the first (Pirḳe R. El. xi.; Meg. 11a is incomplete). There are, however, in the personality of the Messiah supernatural elements adopted from the Persian Soshians (“Savior”) which lent to the whole Messianic age a specifically cosmic character. An offspring of Zoroaster, born miraculously by a virgin of a seed hidden in a lake for thousands of years, Soshians is, together with a number of associates, six, or seven, or thirty, to bring about the resurrection, slay Angro-mainyush and his hosts of demons, judge the risen dead, giving each his due reward, and finally renew the whole world (Bundahis, xxx.; Windischmann, “Zoroastrische Studien,” 1863, pp. 231 et seq.; Böcklen, “Die Verwandtschaft der Jüdischchristlichen mit der Parsischen Eschatologie,” 1902, pp. 91 et seq.). Similarly, the Messiah is a being existing from before Creation (Gen. R. i.; Pesiḥ. R. 33; Pirḳe R. El. iii.; Pes. 54a, based on Ps. lxxii. 17), and kept hidden for thousands of years (Enoch, xlvi. 2 et seq., xlviii. 6, lxii. 7; II Esd. xii. 32, xiii, 26; Syriac Apoc. Baruch, xxix.; Midr. Teh. xxi.; Targ. to Micah iv. 8). He comes “from a strange seed” ( : Gen. R. xxiii., with reference to Gen. iv. 25; Gen. R. li., with reference to Gen. xix. 34; Gen. R. lxxxv.; Tan., Wayesheb, ed. Buber, 13, with reference to Gen. xxxviii. 29; comp. Matt. i. 3); or from the North ( , which may also mean “concealment”: Lev. R. ix.; Num. R. xiii., after Isa. xli. 25; comp. John vii. 27).

The Messiah’s immortal companions reappear with him (II Esd. xiii. 52, xiv. 9; comp. vi. 26). Derek Erez Zuṭa i. mentions nine immortals (see Kohler, in “J. Q. R.” v. 407-419, and comp. the transposed [hidden] righteous ones in Mandäan lore; Brand, “Die Mandäische Religion,” 1889, p. 38). They are probably identical with “the righteous who raise the dead in the Messianic time” (Pes. 68a). Prominent among the companions of the Messiah are: (1) Elijah the prophet (see Elijah in Rabbinical Literature), who is expected as high priest to anoint the Messiah (Justin, “Dialogus cum Tryphone,” viii., xlix.; comp. Targ. to Ex. xl. 10; John i. 21); to bring about Israel’s repentance (Pirḳe R. El. xliii.) and reunion (Targ. Yer. to Deut. xxx. 4; Sibyllines, v. 187 et seq.), and finally the resurrection of the dead (Yer. Shab. i. 5-3c; Sheḳ. iii. 47c; Agadat Shir ha-Shirim, ed. Schechter, to Cant. vii. 14); he will also bring to light again the hidden vessels of Moses’ time (Mek., Beshauah, Wayassa’, 5; Syriac Apoc. Baruch, vi. 8; comp., however, Num. R. xviii.: “the Messiah will disclose these”); (2) Moses, who will reappear with Elijah (Deut. R. iii.; Targ. Yer. to Ex. xii. 42; comp. Ex. R. xviii. and Luke ix. 30); (3) Jeremiah (II Macc. xv. 14; Matt. xvi. 14); (4) Isaiah (II Esd. ii. 18); (5) Baruch (Syriac Apoc. Baruch, vi. 8, xiii. 3, xxv. 1, xlvi. 2); (6) Ezra (II Esd. xiv. 9); (7) Enoch (Enoch, xc. 31; Evangelium Nicodemi, xxv.), and others (Luke ix. 8; comp. also Septuagint to Job, end). The “four smiths” in the vision of Zech. ii. 3 (i. 20, R. V.) were referred by the Rabbis to the four chiefs, or associates, of the Messianic time; Elijah and the Messiah, Melchizedek and the “Anointed for the War” (Messiah ben Joseph: Pesiḥ. v. 51a; comp. Suk. 55b). The “seven shepherds and the eight princes” (Micah v. 4 [A. V. 5]) are taken to be: Adam, Seth, Methuselah (Enoch was stricken from the list of the saints in post-Christian times), Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, with David in the middle, forming the set of “shepherds”; Jesse, Saul, Samuel (?), Amos (?), Hezekiah, Zedekiah, Elijah, and the Messiah, forming the set of “princes” (Suk. 52b). These, fifteen in number, correspond to the fifteen men and women in the company of the Persian Soshians. The Coptic Elias Apocalypse (xxxvii., translated by Steindorf), speaks of sixty companions of the Messiah (see Bousset, l.c. p. 221).