Messiah ben Joseph

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Messiah ben Joseph (Hebrew: משיח בן יוסף) is a Messianic figure peculiar to the rabbinical apocalyptic literature. The earliest mention of him is in Suk. 52a, b, where three statements occur in regard to him, for the first of which Rabbi Dosa (c. 250) is given as authority. In the last of these statements only his name is mentioned, but the first two speak of the fate which he is to meet, namely, to fall in battle (as if alluding to a well-known tradition).

1 Details
2 People Considered the Messiah ben Joseph
3 Notes
4 Bibliography
5 External links

[edit] Details

Details about him are not found until much later, but he has an established place in the apocalypses of later centuries and in the midrash literature—in Saadia's description of the future (Emunot we-De'ot, ch. viii.) and in that of Hai Gaon (Ṭa'am Zeḳenim, p. 59). According to these, Messiah b. Joseph will appear prior to the coming of Messiah ben David; he will gather the children of Israel around him, march to Jerusalem, and there, after overcoming the hostile powers, reestablish the Temple-worship and set up his own dominion. Thereupon Armilus, according to one group of sources, or Gog and Magog, according to the other, will appear with their hosts before Jerusalem, wage war against Messiah b. Joseph, and slay him. His corpse, according to one group, will lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem; according to the other, it will be hidden by the angels with the bodies of the Patriarchs, until Messiah b. David comes and resurrects him (comp. Jew. Encyc. i. 682, 684 [§§ 8 and 13]; comp. also Midr. Wayosha' and Agadat ha-Mashiaḥ in A. Jellinek, B. H. i. 55 et seq., iii. 141 et seq.).

When and how this Messiah-conception originated is a question that has not yet been answered satisfactorily (as of 1906). It is not possible to consider Messiah b. Joseph the Messiah of the Ten Tribes. He is nowhere represented as such, though twice it is mentioned that a part of the Ten Tribes will be found among those who will gather about his standard. There is a possibility, however, as has been repeatedly maintained, that there is some connection between the Alexander saga and the Messiah b. Joseph tradition, for, in the Midrash, on the strength of Deut. xxxiii. 17, a pair of horns, with which he will "strike in all directions," is the emblem of Messiah b. Joseph (comp. Pirḳe R. El. xix.; Gen. R. lxxv.; Num. R. xiv.; et al.), just as in the apocalyptic Alexander tradition in the Koran (referred to above) the latter is called "The Double-Horned" ("Dhu al-Ḳarnain").

[edit] People Considered the Messiah ben Joseph

Hayyim Vital (1543–1620) was claimed to be Messiah ben Joseph in a 1574 letter of Abraham Shalom. See Jewish Messiah claimants.

Joshua Heschel Zoref (b.1633): Claimed to be the Messiah ben Joseph, with Shabbetai Zvi as the Jewish Messiah.

Judah Leib Prossnitz (d.1750): Claimed to be the Messiah ben Joseph, with Shabbetai Zvi as the Jewish Messiah.

Joseph Smith (1805–1844): Though probably not even aware of the concept in Jewish folklore, the nineteenth century Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith has been proposed by some followers as the fulfillment of the Messiah ben Joseph.^[1] Some similarities to the legend include claiming to be preparatory to Messiah ben David, gathering the children of Israel around him (Most Mormons believe they are literal descendants of Israel), seeking to restore the Jews and the temple to Jerusalem, and being killed because of his religion. Latter-day Saint patriarchs in different parts of the world claim certain people are of different lineages of the Ten Tribes, thus fulfilling those who gathered around his standard.

[edit] Notes

^ Truman G. Madsen, Joseph Smith the Prophet [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1989], 106.

[edit] Bibliography

This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.

The JE cites the following works.

- R. Smend, Alttestamentliche Religionsgesch.;
- W. Nowack, Die Zukunftshoffnung Israels in der Assyrischen Zeit;
- Hühn, Die Messianischen Weissagungen;
- Fr. Giesebrecht, Der Knecht Jahwe's in Deutero-Jesaia;
- Schürer, Gesch. 3d ed., ii. 29;
- W. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im Neutestamentlichen Zeitalter, part 3, ch. ii.-v.; part 6, pp. 474 et seq.;
- P. Volz, Jüdische Eschatologie von Daniel bis Akiba, §§ 34-35;
- H. J. Holtzmann, Lehrbuch der Neutestamentlichen Theologie, i. 68-85;
- W. Baldensperger, Die Messianisch-Apokalyptischen Hoffnungen des Judentums;
- F. Weber, Jüdische Theologie auf Grund des Talmud, etc., ch. xxii.-xxiii.;
- G. H. Dalman, Der Leidende und der Sterbende Messias;
- idem, Die Worte Jesu, pp. 191 et seq.;
- Kampers, Alexander der Grosse und die Idee des Weltimperiums in Prophetie und Sage;
- B. Beer, Welchen Aufschluss Geben die Jüdischen Quellen über den "Zweigehörnten" des Korans? in *Z. D. M. G. ix. 791 et seq.