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Title: The First Messiah: Investigating the Savior Before Jesus by Michael O. Wise ISBN: 0-06-069645-1 Publisher: Harpercollins Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Savior before Christ: Judah, Teacher of Righteousness?
Comment: THE FIRST MESSIAH provides interesting speculation regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls that were unearthed in 1948. Many scholars point them out as being the documents of an early Christian community, or possibly the Essenes. A lot of tension has been raised by those who claim to be reverting back to the originial Christian Church structure, closer in keeping with Jesus' teachings. Actually, Jesus' message was bastardized from the start, because such concepts as "if you do not have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one," and the kingdom of heaven being taken by violence, and Christ's admonition to "whosoever will not have me as king over them, drag them forth and slay them before me," did not come to frutition until the medieval period.
The book starts out with a description of various cults and messianic delusions dispersed in world history in many different cultures: David Koresh, the Millerites (19th century version of today's Christian fundamentalism), Cargo cults, Flagellants, the 1890 Ghost Dance, Sabbatai Sevi, etc. One common element in these cults is that the world is about to end [violently], and only those who are in some way mystically united to the cult's leader/Christ figure, who will return from the dead after being persecuted, will survive the apocalypse and be united with the Christ-figure in glory.
In the case of the Dead Sea texts, especially the Thanksgiving Psalms and the Damascus Document, this apparent messiah is known as "Judah." No apparent justification is given to "Judah" being named this, but otherwise the author's speculations are reasonably well based and grounded in original insight into the texts he is analyzing. Judah was a Sadducee, connected to the Jerusalem Temple and the Priesthood around 150 BC. At that time, there was much infighting among the Judeans between the Sadducees (the elite Temple Priesthood and their supporters; we see them on TV as 'the GOP'), and the Pharisees (teachers with their own [false] interpretations of the Pentateuch that garnered widespread popular support; i.e.the Democrats). The Pharisees gained the upper hand, and Judah was brought before them on trial for his un-orthodox teachings. He was exiled from Jerusalem, and a sizable band of his disciples together with their familes fled with him into the wilderness in Syria where they became brigands. Later, Judah attempted to return to Jerusalem but was apparently killed in a battle. His followers expected Judah to come back from the dead, and felt that the world was about to end. Their cult lasted for the next 200 years or so in isolated areas in Palestine and it developed its own religious literature, including their interpretations of Biblical texts along with Judah's own writings and introspections. Judah came to believe himself a messiah, the branch of David, by studying the Bible and convinced a large and sometimes influential group of people to follow him. If above story is true, then the Dead Sea Scrolls tell the first historical account of a radical cult coming into conflict with society led by a charismatic leader which are now notorious in the past 200 years.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Genesis of the Messiah Meme
Comment: Michael O. Wise's "The First Messiah" offers a conjectural history of the first Messiah, over a century before the arrival Yeshua of Nazareth on the Judean scene. Beginning with cross-cultural comparisons to other, more recent messianic movements, Wise then applies his insights to reinterpret several of the books of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He finds in the obscure "Teacher of Righteousness" a self-conscious Messianic figure who leads a schismatic sect into the desert - to become bandits!
Very interesting, if almost science fictional. Wise does not back up all his conjectures to my satisfaction (to say the least) but he does provide much food for thought. He claims to tell the genesis of the idea of the Messiah, but he does not adequately relate it to Jewish thought before and after the period he is dealing with. In particular, his discussion of Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth, called by current followers "Jesus Christ") is weak, and the Jewish reception of this would-be Messiah and writing about him later (see the "Toldoth Jesu") is not dealt with in all its ramifications.
Also not adequately explained is Wise's selection of the name "Judah" for the unnamed figure in the Dead Sea Scrolls. He admits that the name is conjectural, but does not give much reason for his particular conjecture. This comes off as arbitrary, and tacked on more for literary than scholarly reasons.
One of the great joys of Jesus Movement studies is the wildly different non-falsifiable explanations one can concoct out of the scanty, contradictory evidence. Wise's book, if nothing else, adds another dimension to this joyous complexity!
Rating: 4
Summary: Speculative but fascinating...
Comment: Based on some of the Dead Sea Scrolls material, and with a lot of imagination filling in the blanks, Wise has reconstructed the rise and fall of a Messianic movement led by a figure apparently named Judah, about a century and a half before a very different and unrelated movement, Christianity, became well known in Jerusalem, in the form of a cult led by a character named James, who claimed to be the brother of the cult's little-known, dead founder, Yeshua (Jesus).
The Judah cult deteriorated in a particularly fascinating way, into a gang of border bandits! We could wish that other religions had such an escape from the usual tedium and dullness of self-satisfied piety.
I found this a fascinating book. It would be nice to see similar studies of some of the five or six other Messiahs who were roughly contemporary with the legendary Christian Messiah, and who are mentioned in greater or lesser detail by contemporary historians and commentators. If this period followed "Sturgeon's Law," we can assume that the cult that emerged triumphant out of this chaotic fermit, Christianity, was probably one of the least interesting, least intellectually stimulating, and capable of the most negative impacts on later history... the MacDonald's Hamburger of cultic offerings.
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Title: The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Israel Knohl, David Maisel ISBN: 0520234006 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Incredible Shrinking Son of Man: How Reliable Is the Gospel Tradition? by Robert M. Price ISBN: 1591021219 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: 101 Myths of the Bible: How Ancient Scribes Invented Biblical History by Gary Greenberg ISBN: 1570718423 Publisher: Sourcebooks Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Dead Sea Scrolls : A New Translation by Michael O. Wise ISBN: 0060692014 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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Title: Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From? by William G. Dever ISBN: 0802809758 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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