Messianism is one of the great themes in intellectual history. But because it has done so much important ideological work for the people who have written about it, the historical roots of the discourse have been obscured from view. What did it mean to talk about "messiahs" in the ancient world, before the idea of messianism became a philosophical juggernaut, dictating the terms for all subsequent discussion of the topic? In this book, Matthew V. Novenson offers a revisionist account of messianism in antiquity. He shows that, for the ancient Jews and Christians who used the term, a messiah was not an article of faith but a manner of speaking. It was a scriptural figure of speech, one among numerous others, useful for thinking about kinds of political order: present or future, real or ideal, monarchic or theocratic, dynastic or charismatic, and other variations besides. The early Christians famously seized upon the title "messiah" (in Greek, "Christ") for their founding hero and molded the sense of the term in certain ways; but, Novenson shows, this is just what all ancient messiah texts do, each in its own way. If we hope to understand the ancient texts about messiahs (from Deutero-Isaiah to the Parables of Enoch, from the Qumran Community Rule to the Gospel of John, from the Pseudo-Clementines to Sefer Zerubbabel), we must learn to think not in terms of a world-historical idea but of a language game, of so many creative reuses of an archaic Israelite idiom. In The Grammar of Messianism, Novenson demonstrates the possibility and the benefit of thinking of messianism in this way.

In this book, Novenson gives a revisionist account of messianism in antiquity. He shows that, for the ancient Jews and Christians who used the term, a messiah was not an article of faith but a manner of speaking: a scriptural figure of speech useful for thinking kinds of political order.

The essays reproduced in this volume have been selected on the basis of their common theme: Messianism in the Septuagint. The aim of the papers is to answer the following basic questions: Does the Septuagint enhance the messianic hope developed in the Masoretic text? Does it reflect a stage in the development of Israel's messianic expectations, perhaps preparing for Christianity and its Messiah? Questioning a theory accepted by many scholars, the author argues that the Septuagint as a whole does not exhibit an increased interest in royal messianism. While some texts offer literal translations, others display a weakening of the royal messianic character of the translated passages, or perhaps more correctly, several relevant passages in the Septuagint are witnesses to an earlier Hebrew version in which the messianic accents were less pronounced than in the final Masoretic text.

This work re-examines the traditional messianic texts in Isaiah used by later Judaism and/or Christianity. Older modern historical criticisms tended to focus on the historical origins of Israelite traditions so that most of the texts traditionally regarded as messianic came to be understood as non-messianic. However, Heskett uses various historical-critical methods and other contextual methodologies to show how smaller units of non-messianic tradition in the prehistory of the book gained a new messianic significance when they became part of the book of Isaiah as a whole. From that pespective, there are arguments for some messianic promises within the book of Isaiah showing that within the book's scriptural context the texts themselves provide a warrant for messianic readings. This study takes into account the important similarities and differences in Jewish and Christian perceptions of the same.

This book is a valuable contribution to the study of messianism and millenarianism in the history of Muslim Spain and pre-Modern Morocco presented in a broader framework of research on Muslim eschatological beliefs and Islamic ideas on legitimate power.

Drawing together renowned scholars of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Who Do You Say That I Am? focuses on the identity and ministry of Jesus. This distinctive collection provides an ecumenical forum in which adherents of some of the world's major religions comment on the tradition of Christian engagement with fundamental questions of Christology. The essays in this volume were delivered at an international conference at the Tantur Institute for Ecumenical Studies in Israel during May 2000. Contributors to this volume write on varied topics, including the Christological creeds and confessions of the early church, the confessions of the Councils, the many and various titles given to Jesus in the New Testament, the relationship between the biblical confessions and the creedal confessions of the Councils, a theology of the poor, Christology and inter-religious dialogue, and a comparative theology of mutual illumination among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. While covering diverse themes, the essays in this volume are united by the conviction that the faith of the Church is by its very nature open to development and understanding.

In The Messiah, leading scholars offer succinct and illuminating essays on currents of messianic thought in the formative centuries of Judaism and Christianity. Special features designed with the student in mind include a map, a glossary of terms, and a timeline of significant events. Book jacket.

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), Gershom Scholem (1897-1982), and Emmanuel Levinas (b. 1906) each have had enormous influence on contemporary ideas about language, history, and interpretation in a variety of fields from literary criticism to religious studies, philosophy, and social theory. Handelman studies their ideas and, in a broad framework, their relation as Jews to modernism and postmodernism in general. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR