Thesis
Rabbinic Judaism’s Messianic shift: understanding the Messiah without a temple
University of Iowa
Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
Spring 2021
DOI: 10.17077/etd.006084
Abstract
Jews of the Second Temple Period make manifold, clear references to the binary system of messianic expectation, yet by the Rabbinic period both emerging Christianity and contemporary Judaism were focused only upon one of these expected messiahs. While Christians were engaged in developing a theology that presented Jesus of Nazareth as the expected royal messiah that would serve in a royal capacity, the Rabbis gravitated more toward what the priestly messiah would manifest—one who embodied and fulfilled the Tanakh, and instituted a world guided by the laws of Moses applied to the daily lives of all faithful Jews. For the Rabbis, the importance of a kingly messiah faded into obscurity and was discarded as the role played by the royal messiah—that of defeating the occupying foreign force and handing control of daily religious and civic governance over to the priestly messiah—had already been achieved through the Pharisaic practices of Torah study and interpretation, the replacement of Temple sacrifice with individual sacrifice, prayer, purity laws, and the application of many priestly rules to the daily lives of all Jews.How did the Rabbis promote their brand of (dual) messianism and “flip” the messianic expectation of other Jewish groups? Investigating the Mishnah and other early Rabbinic and Second Temple literature, this thesis will provide context and background that helps shed light on this question. This Rabbinic messianic expectation that assumes that the Pharisees had already engendered the religious regulations that the priestly messiah would have introduced, thereby rendering the priestly messiah unnecessary and the royal messiah therefore irrelevant, is unique within Judaism. The resulting messianic expectation contributes to the admittedly confusing and often contradictory Rabbinic views on the messiah and the afterlife and is distinctive from the prevailing messianic thought of the day and therefore ripe for further analysis. This thesis attempts to explain how and why this messianic shift occurs, and how it might inform scholars interested in early Rabbinics regarding how these ideas were formed.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Rabbinic Judaism’s Messianic shift: understanding the Messiah without a temple
- Creators
- Michael Noel MacDougall
- Contributors
- Robert R Cargill (Advisor)Paul Dilley (Committee Member)Jordan A Smith (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Arts (MA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Religious Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2021
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.006084
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- vii, 88 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2021 Michael Noel MacDougall
- Language
- English
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 84-88).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
While it is common understanding for Christians, Jesus of Nazareth, better known as Jesus Christ, is their Messiah, or Savior figure. For Jewish people, however, the topic is more complicated. Modern Judaism places no importance on a messiah; there is no singular savior. The Judaism of 2000 years ago is a different landscape. From around 163 BCE–200 CE, the idea of a Jewish messiah changed drastically in response to social and political forces at play, including the growing popularity of storied about the birth, life, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, and the subsequent popularity he enjoyed from Jewish people still looking for a messiah.
Also, during this time, Judaism was shifting from a leadership of priests, a tribally affiliated (Levitical) tradition based on the cultic worship practices surrounding the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, to a leadership of Rabbis, a lay-movement focused on study of the Hebrew Bible and the application of the tenets prescribed therein to the daily lives of all Jews. This new group brought forth new ideas of the role of a messiah and began to use their theological interpretative lens to change how Judaism would look for, and accept, a messiah should one appear. In this thesis I explore this so-called Rabbinic Shift, diagnose its causes, and demonstrate its outcome. The main culprit of this change in theology was political events that made some prophetic texts in the Hebrew Bible irrelevant, compelling the Rabbis to evolve the Jewish faith into something that could withstand recent changes in its immediate political and social structures.
- Academic Unit
- Religious Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984097171002771
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