neilgodfrey wrote:
You have not given any evidence at all for your claim that Jews generally believed or were preoccupied with a belief that a messiah was to come and rescue them. None.
Traditional NonChristian Judaism's teaching over the last two millenia of such a belief about a Moschiach ben David in the Tanakh is "evidence".
When Christians and NonChristian Jews have traditionally agreed on some major theological point about the Tanakh for the last two millenia, that is major "evidence" that 1st c. Judaism taught such a belief too.
For more quotes, click the link above.The Targums were Aramaic translations of the Hebrew OT, that apparently circulated during the time of Jesus (e.g. there are Targums of Job and Lev. in the Dead Sea Scrolls). Although these documents were written down AFTER the NT period, these represent typically VERY ancient understandings of OT passages. If the Targums interpreted OT passages messianically, this generally indicates that ancient Jewry had messianic expectations. We also know that Targums circulated BEFORE the NT times, since some of them were found at Qumran.
...source: S.H. Levey, The Messiah: An Aramaic Interpretation, Monograph of the Hebrew Union College 2: Cincinnati: 1974.--cited with chart at NWNTI:108.].
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2 Sam 23.1-5: "...Said David, the son of Jesse, said the man who was anointed to the Messianic Kingship by the Memra of the God of Jacob...God spoke to me...and He decided to appoint for me a king, he is the Messiah, who is destined to arise and rule in the fear of the Lord..."
http://www.osyministries.com/index.php? ... s&Itemid=1
I don't see much point in edification in debating whether 1st c. Jews believed in the concept of Messiah ben David. The concept is one of the 13 necessary fundamentals of Judaism according to RAMBAM.
^ Those passages were around in 1 AD.Belief in the eventual coming of the mashiach is a basic and fundamental part of traditional Judaism. It is part of Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith, the minimum requirements of Jewish belief. In the Shemoneh Esrei prayer, recited three times daily, we pray for all of the elements of the coming of the mashiach: ingathering of the exiles; restoration of the religious courts of justice; an end of wickedness, sin and heresy; reward to the righteous; rebuilding of Jerusalem; restoration of the line of King David; and restoration of Temple service.
Modern scholars suggest that the messianic concept was introduced later in the history of Judaism, during the age of the prophets.
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The following passages in the Jewish scriptures are the ones that Jews consider to be messianic in nature or relating to the end of days. :
Isaiah 2, 11, 42; 59:20
Jeremiah 23, 30, 33; 48:47; 49:39
Ezekiel 38:16
Hosea 3:4-3:5
Micah 4
Zephaniah 3:9
Zechariah 14:9
Daniel 10:14
If you want to know how Jews interpret the passages that Christians consider to be messianic, see Jews for Judaism
http://www.jewfaq.org/mashiach.htm
It's like arguing that 1st c. Jews didn't believe a fundamental concept that Christians, NonChristian Jews, and scholars agree that 1st c. Jews believed.
Even Muslims have the concept of Messiah, as they call Jesus "Al-Masih", the Arab Christian word for Mashiach.
No serious reason to debate whether 1st c. Jews had a concept of Messiah ben David IMO.