Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud

by Peter Watson

The Messiah (mashiah) was an important factor in apocalyptic eschatology. There are some thirty-nine references to such a figure in the Old Testament where, to begin with, the term means king. ‘Jewish tradition gave pride of place to the expectation that a descendant of David would arise in the last days to lead the people of God…A human descendant of David would pave the way for a period of bliss for Israel.’61 At this time, the Israelites would return to the vegetarian diet they had at the Creation.62 This Messiah figure was not a supernatural phenomenon at first; in the Psalms of Solomon (Apocrypha), for instance, he is a man like other men–there is no doubt about his humanity.63 The Messiah only became supernatural because the political situation of the Jews deteriorated, became ‘so bleak that only a supernatural act could rescue them’.64