EXAMPLES FROM JOSEPHUS
- [Josephus gives us much historical detail about self-proclaimed and
popularly-embraced 'messiahs' of the period. As such, these would only
document the popular belief in messianix, not necessarily his own. But
this will suffice for my point here--that there WERE significant (if
ill-formed) expectations of heaven-sent deliverance by one 'anointed'
and/or 'inspired by God' to the task. I will cite two texts from J. that
show BOTH the claimants' use of an appeal to being
'inspired/anointed/selected by God' for the task AS WELL AS a more
'legitimate' understanding of sovereignly-appointed leadership.
- Jewish War 2.258-60: "Besides these there arose
another body of villains, with purer hands but more impious intentions,
who no less that the assassins ruined the peace of the city. Deceivers
and impostors, under the pretense of divine inspiration fostering revolutionary changes,
they persuaded the multitude to act like madmen, and led them out into
the desert under the belief that God would give them tokens of
deliverance."
- Jewish War 6.312-13: "What more than all else
incited them to the war was an ambiguous oracle, likewise found in their
sacred scriptures, to the effect that at that time one from their
country would become ruler of the world. This they understood to mean
someone of their own race, and many of their wise men went astray in
their interpretation of it. The oracle, however, in reality signified
the sovereignty of Vespasian, who was proclaimed Emperor on Jewish
soil."
- [Notice in the above quote that J. HELD TO the belief of a prophesied emperor, but differed on the identification of the figure(!), and that the phrase 'many of their wise men' probably indicates that the messianic expectation was (a) widespread and (b) not confined to the less-educated populace.]
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