Judaism has been plagued with a number of “false messiahs,” messianic claimants who generated great enthusiasm but whose followers in the end caused considerable damage.
First among them was Simon Bar Kochba, who led the Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 C.E., establishing an independent Jewish state of Israel which he ruled for three years as Nasi (“prince,” or “president”) before it was conquered by the Romans in 135 C.E.after a two-year war. Originally named Simon ben Kosiba, he was given the surname Bar Kochba by his contemporary, the Jewish sage Rabbi Akiva. Bar Kochba, Aramaic for “Son of a Star,” was a transparent reference to the messianic prophecy of a mighty liberator in Numbers 24:17: “A star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.” The Romans crushed the revolt with scorched-earth tactics; over a half-million Jews were killed, hundreds of thousands more were deported as slaves, Jerusalem was burned to the ground, and Jews were forbidden for a time from living anywhere in Israel, which the Romans renamed “Syria Palestina” or Palestine. After the failure of the revolt, many Jews referred to Bar Kochba as “Simon bar Kozeba” (“Son of the lie”).
Shabbatai Zevi (1626 – 1676) was a rabbi and Kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Enthusiasm for his messiahship created near hysteria in Jewish communities all over Europe. He married a former prostitute and proclaimed that with the advent of the Messiah, people were freed from the restrictions of the Jewish Law. Thus he founded the Jewish Sabbatean movement, which lasted until, imprisoned by the Sultan of Turkey, he converted to Islam. Despite the great disillusionment of millions of Jews, remnants of Sabbateanism survived and inspired the founding of a number of other similar sects, notably the Donmeh in Turkey.
Others who are said, either by themselves or their followers, to be the Jewish Messiah, included:
- Zerubbabel, for a brief time governor of Jerusalem (sixth century B.C.E.)
- Judas of Galilee (Ezekias) (c. 4 B.C.E.)
- Simon (c. 4 B.C.E.)
- Athronges (c. 4 – 2? B.C.E.)
- Jesus of Nazareth (c. 4 B.C.E. – c. 30 C.E.)
- Theudas (44 – 46 C.E.) in the Roman province of Judea
- Menahem ben Judah, partook in a revolt against Agrippa II in Judea
In A.D. 45 a man called Theudas had emerged. He had persuaded thousands of the people to abandon their homes and follow him out to the Jordan, by promising that, at his word of command, the Jordan would divide and he would lead them dryshod across. In A.D. 54 a man from Egypt arrived in Jerusalem, claiming to be the Prophet. He persuaded thirty thousand people to follow him out to the Mount of Olives by promising that at his word of command the walls of Jerusalem would fall down. William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible. 1 Corinthians 1:1-31