Яһуди дінінде Мессия ұғымы және тарихы

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The Messiah in Judaism means anointed one; it included Jewish priests, prophets and kings such as David and Cyrus the Great. Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BCE) and the Jewish–Roman wars (66–135 CE), the figure of the Jewish Messiah was one who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in an Olam HaBa ("world to come") or Messianic Age. Some people were looking forward to a military leader who would defeat the Seleucid or Roman enemies and establish an independent Jewish kingdom. Others, like the author of the Psalms of Solomon, stated that the Messiah was a charismatic teacher who would give the correct interpretation of Mosaic law, restore the monarchy of Israel, and judge mankind. This is a list of notable people who have been said to be the Messiah ben David, either by themselves or by their followers. The list is divided into categories, which are sorted according to date of birth (where known).

Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 BC–30/33 CE), in Galilee and the Roman province of Judea. Jews who believed him to be the Messiah were the first Christians, also known as Jewish Christians. As of 2015, it is estimated that there are 2.3 billion Christians in the world, making Jesus of Nazareth the most widely followed and most famous Jewish Messiah claimant in human history. Aside from Christians, Muslims also believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah but not the Son of God. Aside from the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth is mentioned by Josephus in the Antiquities of the Jews and by Tacitus in his Annals. Several Jewish rebels and military leaders lived in the 1st century, including Judas of Galilee, Theudas, Simon of Peraea, and Athronges, all of whom are only documented by Josephus in surviving accounts. None of them was explicitly stated to have been thought of as a Messiah but some scholars make this as an inference.

With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the appearance of Messiah claimants ceased for a time. Sixty years later a politico messianic movement of large proportions took place. Simon bar Kokhba (also: Bar Kosiba) (?– died c. 135), led a revolt against the Roman Empire in 132–135 CE. Bar Kokhba was hailed as Messiah king by Rabbi Akiva, who referred to him using Numbers xxiv. 17: "There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab," and Hag. ii. 21, 22: "I will shake the heavens and the earth and I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms " (Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 97b). His messiahship was doubted by some, but bar Kokhba led a rebellion and founded a short lived Jewish state. He was killed in the siege of Betar, which was the final battle of the Third Jewish–Roman War that devastated Judea.

Moses of Crete. The unsuccessful conclusion of the Bar Kokhba revolt put an end for a while to messianic movements, but messianic hopes were nonetheless cherished. In accordance with computations found in the Talmud, the Messiah was expected to appear in the years 440 (Sanh. 97b) or 471 ('Ab. Zarah 9b). This expectation in connection with the disturbances in the Roman Empire attendant upon invasions may have raised up hopes of the Messiah. Moses of Crete appeared about this time and won over many Jews to his movement. He promised to lead the people, like the ancient Moses, dry shod through the sea back to Israel. In about 440–470, his followers, convinced by him, left their possessions and waited for the promised day, when at his command many cast themselves into the sea to return to Israel, many found death while others were rescued. The putative Messiah himself disappeared. Socrates of Constantinople states that Moses of Crete fled, while the Chronicle of John of Nikiû claims that he perished in the sea. While he called himself Moses, the Chronicle gives his actual name as 'Fiskis'.

The Khuzestan Chronicle records an otherwise unknown messianic claimant who arose alongside the Muslim conquest of Khuzestan. This Messiah led the Jews in destroying numerous Christian churches in Iraq and coastal Iran.

The claimants that followed played their roles in the Orient, and were at the same time religious reformers whose work influenced Karaite Judaism. Appearing at the first part of the 8th century in Persia:
Abu Isa. He lived in the reign of Marwan II (744–750). Known as Abu Isa, he claimed to be the last of the five forerunners of the Messiah and that God had chosen him to free Israel. Having gathered a large number of followers he rebelled against the caliph in Persia. He was defeated and killed at Rai. His followers claimed that he was inspired, offering as proof the fact that he wrote books even though he was illiterate. He founded the first sect that arose in Judaism after the destruction of the Temple, the 'Isawiyya. Yudghan, called "Al Ra'i" ("the shepherd of the flock of his people"), who lived and taught in Persia in the first half of the 8th century. He declared himself to be a prophet, and was regarded by his disciples as the Messiah. He came from Hamadan, and taught doctrines he claimed to have received through prophecy. According to Shahristani, he opposed anthropomorphism, taught the doctrine of free will, and held that the Torah had an allegorical meaning in addition to its literal one. He admonished his followers to lead an ascetic life, to abstain from meat and wine, and to pray and fast often, following in this his master Abu 'Isa. He held that the observance of the Sabbath and festivals was merely a matter of memorial. After his death his followers formed a sect, the Yudghanites, who believed he had not died but would return at a future date. Serene (his name is given variously in the sources as Sherini, Sheria, Serenus, Zonoria, Saüra, Severus) the Syrian was born a Christian. He preached in the district of Mardin between 720 and 723. Those Christian sources dependent on Theophilus's history report that "Severus" proclaimed himself Messiah; the Zuqnin Chronicle reports that he proclaimed himself Moses "sent again for the salvation of Israel". Serene promised "to lead you into the desert in order to introduce you then to the inheritance of the Promised Land which you shall possess as before"; more as a "prophet like Moses" than as a Davidic "anointed one" as such. The immediate occasion for his appearance may have been the restriction of the liberties of the Jews by the caliph Omar II (717–720) and his proselytizing efforts. Serene had followers even in Spain, where the Jews were suffering under the oppressive taxation of the new Arab rulers they had enthusiastically welcomed, and many left their homes for the new Moses. These Jews paid instead a tithe to Serene. Like Abu 'Isa and Yudghan, Serene also was a religious reformer. According to Natronai b. Nehemiah, gaon of Pumbedita (719–730), Serene was hostile to rabbinic Judaism laws. His followers disregarded the dietary laws, the rabbinically instituted prayers, and the prohibition against the "wine of libation"; they worked on the second day of the festivals; they did not write marriage and divorce documents according to Talmudic prescriptions, and did not accept the Talmudic prohibition against the marriage of near relatives. Serene was arrested. Brought before Caliph Yazid II, he declared that he had acted only in jest, whereupon he was handed over to the Jews for punishment. Natronai laid down the criteria by which Serene's followers might rejoin the synagogue; most of said followers then presumably did so.

Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (b. 1240–after 1291), the Kabbalist, began the series of putative Messiahs whose activity is deeply influenced by their Kabbalistic speculations. Because of his mystic studies, Abulafia came to believe first that he was a prophet; and in a prophetic book, which he published in Urbino (1279), he declared that God had spoken to him. It is thought, though not proven, that in Messina, on the island of Sicily, where he was well received, and won disciples, he declared himself the Messiah and announced 1290 as the year for the Messianic era to begin. Solomon ben Adret, who was appealed to with regard to Abulafia's claims, condemned him, and some congregations declared against him. Persecuted in Sicily, he went to the island of Comino, near Malta (c. 1288), still asserting in his writings his mission. His end is unknown. Two of his disciples, Joseph Gikatilla and Samuel, both from Medinaceli, later claimed to be prophets and miracle workers. The latter foretold in mystic language at Ayllon in Segovia the advent of the Messiah. Abulafia gained much modern notoriety as the name for the computer of a character in Umberto Eco's novel Foucault's Pendulum. Nissim ben Abraham (? ), another individual making claims of prophethood, active in Avila around 1295. His followers told of him that, although ignorant, he had been suddenly endowed by an angel with the power to write a mystic work, The Wonder of Wisdom, with a commentary thereon. Again an appeal was made to Solomon ben Adret, who doubted Nissim's prophetic pretension and urged careful investigation. The prophet continued his activity, nevertheless, and even fixed the last day of the fourth month, Tammuz, 1295, as the date for the Messiah's coming. The credulous prepared for the event by fasting and almsgiving, and came together on the appointed day. Instead of finding the Messiah, some saw on their garments little crosses, perhaps pinned on by unbelievers to ridicule the movement. In their disappointment some of Nissim's followers are said to have gone over to Christianity.

Moses Botarel of Cisneros (? ), active around 1413. After the lapse of a century another claimant came forward with Messianic pretensions. According to H. Grätz (l. c. viii. 404), identified as Moses Botarel. He claimed to be a sorcerer able to combine the names of God.

Asher Lammlein, Asher Kay (Käei) (? ), a German proclaiming himself a forerunner of the Messiah, appeared in Istria, near Venice in 1502, and announced that if the Jews would be penitent and practice charity the Messiah would come within half a year, and a pillar of cloud and of smoke would precede the Jews on their return to Jerusalem. He found believers in Italy and Germany, even among some Christians. In obedience to his preaching, people fasted and prayed and gave alms to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, so that the year came to be known as the "year of penitence." However, by the end of the year of penitence Lammlein had either died or disappeared. David Reubeni (1490–1541?) and Solomon Molcho (1500–1532) was an adventurer who travelled in Portugal, Italy, and Ottoman Turkey. He pretended to be the ambassador and brother of the King of Khaibar, a town and former district of Arabia, in which the descendants of the "lost tribes" of Reuben and Gad were supposed to dwell. He claimed he was sent to the Pope and the powers of Europe to secure cannon and firearms for war against the Muslims, who prevented the union of the Jews living on the two sides of the Red Sea. He denied expressly that he was a Messiah or a prophet (comp. Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 256), claiming that he was merely a warrior. The credence which he found at the papal court in 1524, the reception accorded to him in 1525 at the Portuguese court (whither he came at the invitation of John III, and where he at first received the promise of help), and the temporary cessation of persecution of the Marrano; all gave the Portuguese and Spanish Marranos reason to believe that Reuveni was a forerunner of the Messiah. Selaya, inquisitor of Badajoz, complained to the King of Portugal that a Jew who had come from the Orient (referring to Reuveni) had filled the Spanish Marranos with the hope that the Messiah would come and lead Israel from all lands back to Israel, and that he had even emboldened them to overt acts (comp. H. Grätz, l. c. ix. 532). Reuveni met Rabbi Solomon Molcho, a former Spanish Christian who had reverted to Judaism. Reuveni and Molcho were arrested in Regensburg on the orders of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain. He was taken to Mantua, in Italy where, having been baptized a Catholic, he was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in November, 1532. A spirit of expectancy was aroused by Reuveni's stay in Portugal. In Herrera del Duque, close to Puebla de Alcocer (Badajoz, Extremadura), a Jewish girl of 15 described ecstatic visions in which she spoke with the Messiah, who took her to heaven, where she saw those who had been burned seated on thrones of gold, and who assured her of his imminent return. She (known only as the Maiden of Herrera) was enthusiastically proclaimed a prophetess, and such was the commotion caused by her alleged visions that the Toledo Inquisition had her promptly arrested.

Sabbatai Zevi (שַׁבְּתַי צְבִי; born at Smyrna, 1626; died at Dulcigno, 1676), a Sephardic Jewish rabbi and Kabbalist who was proclaimed to be the Jewish Messiah in 1666 by Nathan of Gaza, and then forcibly converted to Islam in order to avoid the Islamic death penalty under the Ottoman sultan. He still has followers today among the Dönmeh (in Turkish: “Apostates”),
Barukhia Russo (1695–1740; Osman Baba), successor of Sabbatai Zevi. Mordecai Mokia (1650–1729), ("the Rebuker") of Eisenstadt, another follower of Sabbatai Zevi who remained faithful to him, Mordecai Mokiaḥ ("the Rebuker") of Eisenstadt, also pretended to be a Messiah. His period of activity was from 1678 to 1682 or 1683. He preached at first that Sabbatai Zevi was the true Messiah, that his conversion was for mystic reasons necessary, that he did not die but would reveal himself within three years after his supposed death, and pointed to the persecution of the Jews in Oran (by Spain), in Austria, and in France, and to the pestilence in Germany as prognostications of his coming. He found a following among Hungarian, Moravian, and Bohemian Jews. Going a step further, he declared that he was the Davidic Messiah. Shabbethai, according to him, was only the Ephraitic Messiah and was furthermore rich, and therefore could not accomplish the redemption of Israel. He (Mordecai), being poor, was the real Messiah and at the same time the incarnation of the soul of the Ephraitic Messiah. Italian Jews heard of him and invited him to Italy. He went there about 1680, and received a warm welcome in Reggio and Modena. He spoke of Messianic preparations, which he had to make in Rome, and hinted at having perhaps to adopt Christianity outwardly. Denounced to the Inquisition, or advised to leave Italy, he returned to Bohemia, and then went to Poland, where he is said to have become insane. From his time a sect began to form there, which still existed at the beginning of the Mendelssohnian era. Jacob Querido (died 1690), son of Joseph Filosof, and brother of the fourth wife of Sabbatai Zevi, became the head of the Shabbethaians in Salonica, being regarded by them as the new incarnation of Zevi himself. He pretended to be Shabbethai's son and adopted the name Jacob Tzvi. With 400 followers allegedly converted to Islam in 1687, following the forced conversion of Zevi himself, forming a sect called the Dönmeh (in Turkish: “Apostates”). Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch and son in law of the sixth Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (1880–1950); some of his followers believed that he was the Jewish Messiah during his lifetime, and some of them continue to believe so after his death in 1994. The number of believers grew in size after his death. Some of his followers believe that Schneerson never died.