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Class Prep
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What "Christ" Can Mean
- The concept of a messiah, a savior, a Christ, has deep roots in our culture. In part a figure of hope or fantasy, the messiah is imagined as one who will remedy social ills and restore past glory. The word "Messiah" is from the Hebrew meshiach, and today we will trace the term in the Jewish Tanak and into the Christian New Testament
to explore the many different meanings this figure has accrued over time. We cannot appreciate who Jesus was understood to be without doing this preliminary mythic spade-work first. (When we turn to Islam, we will find a parallel concept in the mahdi, the rightly guided one expected by many Muslims to be part of the restoration of Islam and the final judgment.)
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- Read the primary (biblical) texts first. Use this chart, which lists the 10 passages in a left column (the two Acts passages are treated as one passage). In the right column, next to each passage, summarize briefly what or who the messiah is, and/or what he does, in that passage. We'll explore the different images together in class. Note that your Bible may use any number of words to translate the term messiah, from "anointed one" (its literal meaning) to "christ" (christos is Greek for anointed one). Also, the promise to King David that his dynasty will last forever is part of this concept as well, since the king was one type of "anointed" office. In early Christian texts (in the list below, Romans and following), be alert to additional titles or terms being added to—or even replacing—the specific term "messiah."
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- The Swenson and Collins readings help explain the claims that Jews and Christians were making about the messiah—the claims you listed in your chart. They may also discuss some other passages relevant to the topic, and you are welcome to add these to your chart (though it's not required). Consider these two questions as you do the reading:
- According to Swenson, how did the experience of Jesus alter the concept or myth of the messiah for his Jewish followers? That is, why and how did they alter earlier Jewish notions? And why would their alterations have been considered heretical by other Jews?
- Collins quotes the Jewish scholar Gershom Scholem, who thought that the different interpretations of the messiah in Judaism and Christianity represent an "essential conflict" between the two religions. Collins goes on to say that this conflict stems in part from the Christian view that messianism was a central belief of all Jews in Jesus' time, and that all Jews believed the same thing about the messiah as well. Collins thinks that Jews in Jesus' time thought different things about the messiah, so that there could be legitimate differences of opinion among Jews about whether Jesus was one. Be able to identify the "four basic messianic paradigms" he discusses; do these fit the ten passages in your chart?
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- You can opt to do your journal before or after this reading. The question is a kind of cosmic existential question—does the world need saving, and can one person do it? Can God? Consider the state of the world and how you imagine its problems will be solved. Even if you don't believe in a messianic figure, you have to admit that a lot of people seem to yearn for leaders who will solve insurmountable problems or survive extraordinary challenges. Reflecting on the human desire for such leaders and how such hopes often morph into messianic expectation has obvious applications in politics, business leadership, and the collective cultural fantasies visible in marketing campaigns, in films, in (comic and other) books and in the media (see, for example, the 2011 article in The Daily Beast [Newsweek], "Wanted: A New Messiah," by Andrew Romano).
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- Assigned Readings
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- Primary: Review 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Isaiah 45:1-2; read Psalm 2:2; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Daniel 9:25-26; Romans 1:1-4; Acts 2:32-36; 3:19-21; John 1:1-3; Hebrews 1:2-3; Philippians 2:6-8
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- Secondary: Swenson, Bible Babel 210-216, 257-60; John J. Collins, "Messianism and the Scrolls," in The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature (Anchor Bible Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1995) 1-14 (Camino)
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- Slides from Lecture
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- Further Reading
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- Collins, John J. The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature, Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
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- Halperin, David J. Sabbatai Zevi: Testimonies to a Fallen Messiah, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007.
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- Lenowitz, Harris. The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
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- Ravitzky, Aviezer. Messianism, Zionism, and Jewish Religious Radicalism, trans. Michael Swirsky and Jonathan Chipman, Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996; original, Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1993.
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- Scholem, Gershom. The Messianic Idea in Judaism and Other Essays on Jewish Spirituality, trans. Michael A. Meyer and Hillel Halkin. New York: Schocken, 1971.
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- --------. Sabbatai Sevi, trans. R. J. Zwi Werblowsky. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1976; Hebrew original, Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1957.
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- Links
- Artifacts Related to the Historical Jesus - students in Prof. Murphy's Historical Jesus class are building wiki pages on each of 15 artifacts associated with the historical Jesus, in which they describe the artifact and assess its legitimacy.
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- Sources
- Photographs:
- Cover Art posted on Amazon.com page for X-Men: Messiah Complex, by Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Peter David, and illustrated by Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Chris Bachalo, Humberto Ramos, and Scot Eaton, Amazon.com, online http://www.amazon.com/X-Men-Messiah-Complex-Ed-Brubaker/dp/0785123202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8
&qid=1317847414&sr=8-1, 5 October 2011.
- Cover art for Kate Egan, The World of the Hunger Games (New York: Scholastic, 2012). Online, http://www.amazon.com/World-Hunger-Games-Kate-Egan/dp/0545425123.
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