Messianism

ערב רב: פנים וחוץ בוויכוח הפרנקיסטי הוא ספר מרתק וחדשני החושף את סיפורה הייחודי של התנועה הפרנקיסטית, תנועה יהודית אפיקורסית שצמחה בפולין והתפשטה במרכז אירופה במחצית השנייה של המאה ה-18.

בעיני רוב היהודים פרנק היה 'משיח שקר' ידוע לשמצה. בעיני נוצרים נאורים ומיסיונרים מילנריסטים היה יהודי-נוצרי ואדם חופשי בדעותיו, שלו קשרים מסתוריים והוא משתמש במגיה ובמאגרי עושר סודיים. עבור מאמיניו היה למבשר שחרור מן המסגרות המקובלות המדכאות של מגדר, הלכה, מעמד, משטר ודת.

התנועה הפרנקיסטית עוררה הדים והיתה סלע מחלוקת גם בקרב גורמים דתיים ופוליטיים לא יהודיים: יוזף השני, קתרינה הגדולה, גתה, קזנובה ואחרים. תורותיו של יעקב פרנק, מנהיג התנועה, הציבו אתגר בפני היהדות הנורמטיבית, אך גם בפני האסלאם וזרמים בנצרות. הספר מברר מחלוקות פנימיות ביהדות המודרנית אך דן גם ביחסים בין יהודים לסביבתם במאות ה-18–ה-19.

ערב רב מבוסס על מקורות פנימיים שחיברו פרנק ומאמיניו, על מקורות יהודיים פולמוסיים אנטי פרנקיסטיים, ועל מקורות שכתבו גורמים לא יהודיים בני הזמן. דרכו המוקצנת של יעקב פרנק עוררה עניין רב בו ובתנועתו, ולקורא מוגש ניתוח מעמיק של פרשה היסטורית ייחודית זו.
המחבר, ד"ר פאבל מצ'ייקו מן האוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, חוקר את תולדות היהודים בפולין-ליטא בעת החדשה. נולד בוורשה וקיבל תואר דוקטור מאוניברסיטת אוקספורד. פרסומיו הרבים זיכו אותו בפרסים, במלגות ובמענקי מחקר רבים. שימש מרצה אורח באוניברסיטאות שונות, בארצות הברית, בצרפת, בגרמניה ובפולין.

A Pre-teaching Interpretation Paper:
Today, the word “Messiah” commonly incites George Handel’s renowned oratorio or the person of Jesus Christ, whose second name is a Greek translation of the word. This is understandable given the pervasiveness of Christianity as a religion in the world. However, not only has the word been understood differently in different circles, it has also been attributed to and claimed by different individuals throughout the history. This paper seeks to evaluate the claim made by third-century Rabbis Bar Kappara and Hillel II that King Hezekiah of Judah is the Messiah.  In order to do that, what the word means to Jews in Ancient Near Eastern and Rabbinical contexts needs to be considered.
Although Rabbi Joseph has refuted Hillel II’s claim,  it is still a worthy endeavor to give the claim a second hearing, especially as Mika Pajunen noted that “there was renewed interest in these traditions,” referring to Deuteronomistic and Chronistic traditions, “to highlight the unity of the people and hence also their common heritage” after the destruction of the second temple.  Therefore, the account of Hezekiah in Chronicles will be exegeted, highlighting its uniqueness from that in Kings and, by extension, Isaiah, and drawing implications if the thesis, “King Hezekiah is the fulfillment of Yahweh's promise for THE Messiah,” is supported by Chronistic perspective.

The messianism expressed in 11QMelch is not idiosyncratic, as is often thought, but conforms to other sectarian works from Qumran which anticipate two Messiahs (one royal and another priestly) and a patron angel (known by various aliases: Melchizedek, the Prince of Lights, Michael, etc.). The author of 11QMelch finds references to these three figures in Isa 52:7 by interpreting the term měbaśśēr (“herald”), which occurs twice in the verse, as referring to the two Messiahs. The author then interprets the phrase mālaḵ ělohāyiḵ (“your god reigns”) as a reference to the angel Melkî-ṣedeq (“king of righteousness”). Several other terms in this verse are interpreted in similarly atomistic fashion: “the mountains” = “prophets”; “Zion” = “the community of all the sons of the righteous.”

תיקון שבתי צבי / יונתן מאיר. ההרצאה מבקשת להציג תמונה מורכבת ביחס לשבתי צבי, מכתיבתו הקבלית של נתן העזתי על המשיח הנפוּל, דרך ניסיונות תיקון נשמתו בידי הבעש"ט, ועד לשילובו בנרטיב הלאומי בידי זלמן שז"ר וחוקרים שבאו אחריו. יהא זה ניסיון למשוך קו במחשבה ובהיסטוריוגרפיה היהודית העומד מנגד לתפיסת הצרה בדבר "משיח שקר"

Au fil de sa lecture du Coran, de la tradition musulmane et de discussions avec des musulmans, Odon Lafontaine (dit Olaf) n’a pu empêcher la montée d’un sentiment diffus de malaise et d’incompréhension vis à vis de cette religion à mesure qu’il en découvrait ce qui était pour lui des contradictions et des invraisemblances, historiques comme logiques.

Pour tâcher de les expliquer, il a voulu en apprendre davantage sur les origines historiques de l’islam. C’est ainsi qu’il a découvert le travail d’Édouard-Marie Gallez c.s.j., docteur en théologie et histoire des religions, et qu’il s’est mis à son école. Sa thèse, intitulée Le Messie et son Prophète, et leurs échanges lui ont fait découvrir quantité de recherches historiques passionnantes. Elles ont transformé sa vision de l’islam en révélant une tout autre histoire que celle que le discours ambiant veut faire croire : l’islam n’est pas le résultat d’une révélation divine – ou de la prédication de Mahomet – mais celui d’un processus très long et très complexe de réécriture de l’Histoire, s’enracinant dans des croyances juives et chrétiennes dévoyées, et manipulées par les califes pour satisfaire leurs visées de domination politique.

Cette découverte restait encore à ce jour quasi inconnue du public. La faute sans doute à la complexité du sujet et à son caractère très sensible qui l’ont confinée dans les cercles discrets de la recherche. Comment alors la rendre accessible au plus grand nombre ? Comment l’expliquer et la replacer dans une perspective historique ? Comment s’articule-t-elle avec les recherches les plus récentes à ce sujet et les découvertes nouvelles qui ne cessent de s’accumuler ces dernières années ? C’est ce à quoi tente de contribuer cette importante mise à jour « 2020 » de l’ouvrage de vulgarisation qu’est Le Grand secret de l’islam, fruit d’un long travail personnel d’Odon Lafontaine et de sa collaboration avec Édouard-Marie Gallez et d’autres chercheurs.

Au monde de découvrir maintenant quel est le grand secret de l’islam

“Riso limpo de fortes dentes tratados a fumo e cinza, da inefável doçura daquela moça irradiava-se contudo estranha energia, inexplicável mistério. Do contrário, a esbeltez de seu porte endoidaria irremediavelmente os homens, para a quase totalidade dos quais é pecado desejá-la como fêmea, impossível, por santa, derrubá-la no caminho da fonte. Daí o suplício dos insofridos, ainda que só em pensamento acuados entre o abrasamento da carne e os interditos da fé. Pois eis uma coisa que alguns não alcançaram compreender direito: se feita apenas para servi-Lo, por que Deus não a despiu de tão sumarentos apelos, de tão sublimes encantos?” As palavras do literato Antônio José de Moura descrevem Benedita Cipriano Gomes, sertaneja inculta que liderou centenas e encantou milhares. De singela menina à linda mulher, de santa do povo à bruxa do Rio do Peixe, de profeta de Deus à louca, comunista e histérica. Na década de 1920, após sua suposta ressurreição, surgiu no interior de Goiás o mais importante movimento religioso de caráter messiânico do estado. “Santa Dica”, como ficou conhecida, acreditava conversar com anjos, através dos quais curava, profetizava, abençoava, batizava e até mesmo casava aqueles que a procuravam em seu reduto. Seus ritos, embora muito confundidos com práticas do espiritismo, se deram de maneira híbrida, uma vez que mesclou tanto características do catolicismo, como do próprio espiritismo. Em face do caráter não somente religioso, mas político e social do movimento, uma união informal entre Estado, Igreja Católica e coronéis locais culminou na abertura de um processo criminal, resultando em uma violenta invasão policial no reduto onde o movimento ocorria, em outubro de 1925.Por trás deste desfecho, entretanto, a ação dos missionários católicos da Congregação Redentorista chama a atenção não somente pela ação condenatória do movimento em si, mas por sua minuciosa articulação com o Estado para pôr fim às atividades da “santa”. Mais que isso, o conflito religioso aqui esboçado abre espaço para a compreensão de condicionamentos estruturais de agentes e instituições religiosas que servem de base para importantes reflexões teóricas no âmbito da Sociologia e História. A presente obra, portanto, analisa o movimento messiânico de Santa Dica, especialmente em suas relações de conflito com a Igreja Católica em Goiás, tomando por base a reflexão histórico-sociológica de elementos como o carisma, a legitimidade e a dominação religiosa. As páginas aqui contidas versam-se tanto em uma análise minuciosa das estruturas religiosas do movimento de Santa Dica e sua relação com seus opositores, quanto na maneira como as disputas locais por poder religioso podem ser encaradas histórica e sociologicamente a partir do prisma weberiano. Neste sentido, o leitor encontrará nesta obra tanto interpretações originais das fontes ainda pouco exploradas sobre o movimento de Santa Dica, como recursos para se pensar a História e Sociologia da Religião a partir de elementos teóricos estruturais como o carisma, a legitimidade e a dominação religiosa.

Artykuł jest próbą wykazania, że filozofia polityczna Augusta Cieszkowskiego  ma charakter istotowo nowoczesny. Cieszkowski bowiem porusza się w ramach nowoczesnego paradygmatu myślowego zarówno na poziomie głębokiej struktury nowoczesności, jak i w bardziej szczegółowych obszarach swej teorii. Za przykład służy tutaj porównane stylu myślenia polskiego mesjanisty oraz dwudziestowiecznych twórców teorii modernizacji. W szerszym kontekście, celem artykułu jest zwrócenie uwagi na to, że traktowanie polskiego mesjanizmu jako reliktu czasów przednowoczesnych jest bezzasadne.

Summary:  In the present note, I discuss Jesus as ‘the root of Jesse’.  Isaiah 11.1’s reference to Jesus as a branch from the root of Jesse finds its fulfilment in the two Messianic ancestries recorded in Matthew and Luke.  In the aftermath of Jehoiachin’s curse, YHWH raises up a new Messianic ‘branch’ from Jesse’s roots, namely Jesus’ Lukan ancestry.  Keywords:  Jesus, Matthew 1, Luke 3, genealogies, Jesse, root, branch, Messiah, Isaiah.  Date:  Nov. 2019.

In diesem Buch wird Hegels Phänomenologie des Geistes als ein literarischer Text gedeutet, der seine Überzeugungskraft aus der Lektüre anderer Texte schöpft. Untersucht werden die politischen und ästhetischen Konsequenzen dieser Interpretation. Das dialektische Philosophieren ist ein Bedürfnis, die vergangenen Gedankensysteme – die Texte – in ihrer eigenen Logik als mangelhafte aufzuweisen und zu überwinden, um dadurch die letzte spekulative Synthese zu etablieren. Aber dieselbe Operation macht – so die Hauptthese des Buches – das Spekulative selbst verwundbar, das damit in seiner unselbständigen Verfassung und in seinem Scheitern aufgewiesen wird. Die im Buch dargestellten Gesten des Anleihens und der Affinität sind nicht nur für Hegels Stil prägend. Sie können auch das Dialektische selber neu bestimmen – als eine verschwindende, fast unmögliche Stimme, eine Bemühung, aus der Verschränkung unvereinbarer, konfligierender Diskurse einen Sinn zu gewinnen.

The story of the Samaritan woman at the well in the Gospel of John provides one of the clearest expositions on the messiahship of Christ in the New Testament. “In a momentous self-disclosure that is unique to any Gospel narrative prior to Jesus’ trials, Jesus acknowledges that he is the Messiah.”  Suppose though, there had been another. What if the Jewish messiah, as they had expected him to be, had come, had ruled, and had failed one hundred years before the coming of Christ? He had come as a warrior king who reconstituted Judea, restored the temple and was purported to commune with the Divine - the fourth Hasmonean ruler, John Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus is not a name found in the Bible, nor known by many outside of biblical scholarship, but whose importance cannot be understated.  Edward Wicher, in his article, Ancient Jewish Views of the Messiah, makes the astounding claim that for a short time in Jewish history under the rule of Hyrcanus, “the pious Israelite imagined that the reign of Messiah had already begun upon the earth.”  But who was John Hyrcanus, how is his story linked to Jesus’ meeting with an outcast Samaritan at Jacob’s well and what implications does this have on Christ’s messiahship?

When journalists and political analysts talk about the opium issue in South-East Asia, they usually emphasize the responsibility of the “opium farmers” in the international market of heroin, in particular the responsibility of the Hill-Tribe peoples in too famous “Golden Triangle” . The devastation caused by opium addiction among Hill-Tribes is often exaggerated with the intention of showing the weakness of their “morality” as far narcotic uses are concerned. In this article, the author reveals the diversity of opium uses in Hmong culture (medicine, pleasure, way of committing suicide). Special attention is paid to the social status and the motivations of the users and also to the linguistic expression and perception of the Hmong. Direct and tacit social pressures are also analysed to show the strength of social control in this small and segmentary society. At the end the analysis shows an increase in drug-addiction in some villages, where the family structure is strongly weakened, but it also indicates the awakening of a new sterner morality in some recent messianic movements.

Key words : Hmong, South-East Asia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, opium, opium uses, opium addiction, social pressures, marriage, suicide, history, opium trade.

ZUSAMMENFASSUNG: Unter den im Hintergrund des Neuen Testaments stehenden außerbiblischen Texten wird der pseudepigraphischen Sammlung Psalmen Salomos in der biblischen Forschung eine besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet. Vor allem die Psalmen 17 und 18 ragen durch ihr messianisches Interesse hervor. Der „Davidsohn“-Titel und der „Christos Kyrios“-Titel stehen im Fokus der Forschung einerseits, anderseits wird das Theologumenon der Gerechtigkeit Gottes untersucht. Diese beiden Themen der Psalmen Salomos (PsSal) berühren sich mit den Evangelien und den paulinischen Briefen. Die vorliegende Studie versucht in eine dritte, bisher weniger berücksichtigte Richtung zu schauen, um die möglichen Beziehungen zwischen den PsSal und der Johannesoffenbarung zu
diskutieren. Die vergleichende Untersuchung betrifft vor allem die Vorstellung des „militanten Messias“, um die Frage zu beantworten, inwiefern die Messiasbilder der beiden behandelten Schriften zu der Tradition des kriegerischen, gewalttätigen Messias gehören.

SCHLÜSSELWORTE: Psalmen Salomos, Offenbarung (Apokalypse) des Johannes, Rezeptionsgeschichte, Messiaserwartungen, militanter Messias, Lamm Gottes.

The article offers a critical overview of nine views common in academia related to Russian messianism. The main premise of messianism which is important for its political dimension, is: Providence has a plan along which History unfolds, and in this plan the chosen one (individual or collective) has a special role to play (mission). Under «mission» we understand that a certain community (state/nation) is exceptional and that this exceptionality manifests itself in its special destiny. I discern three distinctive, but interconnected, features of «mission»: (1) the conviction of having a special destiny, (2) a sense of moral superiority, (3) the conviction that the state’s activity is motivated not only by its own national interest but also by a higher cause important for a broader
(regional, global etc.) community. The first two components of mission express exceptionalism of the mission-beholder, while the third component refers to the universalistic nature of the calling.
This selection of nine views is not a complete catalogue but it does include the core concepts that may be encountered while reading about Russian messianism. The article seeks to verify and put in order the existing body of knowledge on this topic. The critical verification is based on the material that comes from two main sources. The first
is the existing body of academic literature (in English and Russian) which is used to identify and cross-examine the views circulating among academia. The second source comes with the material gathered as a result of the content and discourse analysis of the official statements of Vladimir Putin. The article is structuralised along the enumeration
of nine popular views on Russian messianism. Each view is critically combined with the academic literature and the empirical data. The views discussed in the article tend to essentialise Russian messianism and essentialise Russia as well.

The article discusses the paradoxical status of messianism in Giorgio Agamben’s political philosophy. This status conveys most of all in the specific location that messianism assumes with regard to religion. Agamben himself, as well as main interpretations, conceive messianism as a “limit point” in which “religious experience passes beyond itself”, and therefore as a non-religious phenomenon. After briefly summing up the main conceptual line that led Agamben towards such a conclusion, the article shows how Agamben’s concept of the messianic must be read having as its background his reading of Freud’s fetishist disavowal from his early work Stanzas, where Agamben argues in favour of the latter insofar as he understands fetishism as a privileged weapon against the metaphysics under which he subsumes modern semiology as well as the psychoanalytic concept of interpretation of the repressed unconscious content. Although Agamben’s reading of Freud may seem convincing, he nevertheless misreads a rather crucial moment in Freud’s theory, represented by the concept of primal repression. Considering this concept, fetishist disavowal appears rather as an operation that holds the subject within metaphysics and interpretation at the point in which the subject may encounter its limit, represented exactly by the primal repression, which marks the moment of incompleteness or non-totalisability of interpretation as such. In this sense, according to Lacan’s reading of Freud, fetishism, by fixing the image and projecting it on the veil, rather constitutes the phallic realm “beyond” the veil, which makes interpretation infinite. With this as its basis, the article finally turns back to the initial question and claims that messianism is neither a religious nor a non-religious concept, but rather the interval in which religion overcomes itself – yet this overcoming, insofar as it is traversed by eternal postponement, cannot accomplish itself.

Поставлен вопрос: присутствуют ли во внешней политике постсоветской России отсылки к ее особой миссии по отношению к славянам. Анализ содержания официального дискурса российской внешней политики в 2000–2018 гг. позволяет заявить, что мессианский нарратив не является сегодня основным, однако существует на краю риторики государственных институтов. Кроме того, в рамках реконструированных миссий, приписываемых России сегодня ее дипломатами, историческая роль покровителя славян уступила место «особой ответственности» по отношению к исповедующим православие или, шире, к христианам.

The concept of “return” is an apparent phantasm throughout Derrida’s work with each new notion introduced, returning to the question alluded from the start of “Faith and Knowledge”: what is it, to talk of a “return”?  Derrida asks, “when we speak, we Europeans, so ordinarily and so confusedly today about “a return of the religious”, what do we thereby name?” . In this paper, I attempt to answer Derrida’s question by reversing it into “what we do not name” to discuss how is the “return” religious and what is religious in the “return”. Firstly then, the paper will focus on religious character of the “return” and then explore religious elements: how it comes to mean faith, promise and messianicity – a blind awaiting of a “to-come” that we do not name.

Introdução Nos cem anos da destruição do arraial de Canudos, inúmeras publicações, debates, eventos e seminários voltam a colocar Antônio Conselheiro e seus estimados 20 mil seguidores na ordem do dia. O espanto diante da forma violenta empregada para debelar irmãos nordestinos tão despreparados, aliado ao mistério que há um século desafia estudiosos do Brasil e de várias partes do mundo quanto às verdadeiras motivações para a reunião dos sertanejos na Fazenda Belo Monte, fizeram com que o chamado movimento de Canudos recebesse variadas e, muitas vezes, contraditórias explicações. Uma dessas tentativas de explicação, e provavelmente a mais recorrente, foi a que associou a luta sertaneja de Canudos à luta pela terra, contra o latifúndio e a opressão, transformando Antônio Conselheiro num líder dos sem terra avant la lettre. Nessa perspectiva, a atualidade dessa chave interpretativa tornaria o movimento sertanejo destruído pelas armas do exército uma referência obrigatória e secular da trágica história dos conflitos de terra no Brasil. A base dessa avaliação progressista e explicitamente política para Canudos surgiu basicamente entre as décadas de 1950 e 1970, momento em que a ques-tão da terra e a necessidade urgente de uma reforma agrária tornaram-se bandeiras de luta da esquerda no Brasil. Exemplo mais conhecido dessa interpretação, o livro Cangaceiros e Fanáticos, de Rui Facó, entendeu que os movimentos messiânicos brasileiros foram estruturados contra o latifúndio e desenvolveram, implicitamente, uma postura revolucionária cuja via de

4Q390 is a document akin to but not identical with Apocryphon of Jeremiah C. It presents the exilic and postexilic era of history of Israel as a period of 70 x 7 = 70 + 7 x 49 + 70 + 7 years of forced theocracy. 4Q390 may partially account for the rise of Messianic expectations in Israel ca. 200-175 B.C. and ca. 103-96 B.C.

Introduction to Messianic Judaism provides a description of what the Messianic Jewish community looks like today at its center and on its margins. The first section of the book traces the ecclesial contours of the community, providing a socio-historical and theological snapshot of the community's origins, where it is presently and where it is heading. Alongside these chapters, the book also includes a number of essays on biblical and theological issues central to the identity of Messianic Judaism. The twelve contributors to the first part of the book are recognized leaders in the Messianic Jewish community. They work with various organizations, including the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues, the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council, Tikkun International, Chosen People Ministries, Messianic Jewish Theological Institute, Israel College of the Bible and the New School for Jewish Studies. Fourteen scholars from a wide spectrum of Christian backgrounds have written essays for the second part of the book. Their participation signals a growing academic and ecclesial interest in Messianic Judaism. Since the 1970s, a sea change has taken place in New Testament studies that has far-reaching implications for how the church evaluates Messianic Judaism. A broad reassessment of the New Testament writers’ view of Judaism has occurred since the publication of E. P. Sanders’s seminal work Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), and this reevaluation continues unabated. The contributors to the second part of Introduction to Messianic Judaism draw from this recent scholarship and demonstrate how post-supersessionist interpretation of the New Testament results in readings of the biblical text that are consistent with Messianic Judaism. The final section of the book is written by Joel Willitts who provides a summary and synthesis of the essays, explaining how they shed light on the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of Messianic Judaism.

In this research paper, we intend to offer the reader the possibility of becoming more familiar with the main types of biblical commentaries through an exegetic exercise centred round Psalm 2. The choice of the supporting text is not at all random since, even from ancient times, the psalms have benefitted from the attention of an impressive number of interpreters and have been the beginning of both dialogue and controversy between religions (Christianity and Judaism) and Christian denominations. Throughout the exegetical analysis, we took into consideration the rigors of the school of criticism which we correlated with the rabbinic and patristic commentaries in order to accomplish a very ample interpretation. Even if these commentators were not entirely in agreement, rather than bringing to relief their interpretative differences, we tried to underline the common elements existing in the specific manner of interpretation of each exegetical school. Thus, the complexity of this isagogic, exegetical and theological study resides in the fact that it approaches the text of the psalm from a literary, allegorical and spiritual point of view and it can become a hermeneutical paradigm for those who wish to study the Holy Scriptures with scientific and spiritual accuracy.

Άρδην, τεύχος 24, Μάρτιος - Απρίλιος 2000

Ι.Α. Τσουκαλά, Όνειρο ή εφιάλτης;
Γ. Σχίζας, Μετά τον άνθρωπο, το χάος
Σπ. Μάνδρος, Ο μύθος του μετανθρώπου
Το Λεξικό του Μετανθρωπισμού
W. Singer, Η εξέλιξη δεν προγραμματίζεται
Neil Gross, INTERNET, ο εγκέφαλος του κόσμου
Kai Wou, Η επιστροφή του Προμηθέα
Θ. Ζιάκας, Μετά το άτομο τι;
V. Vinge, Η επερχόμενη τεχνολογική μοναδικότητα
Γ. Ζαμιάτιν, Εμείς
Αλ. Χάξλεϋ, Ο θαυμαστός καινούργιος κόσμος
Γ. Καραμπελιάς, Στο σταυροδρόμι της ανθρώπινης ιστορία
Σιμόν Ντέιβις,  Άννα Νόβα, η κυβερνοπαρουσιάστρια

From the early 1430's, and during the course of the century that followed, Jewish society was rife with tales and reports of the rediscovery of the ten tribes. Rumor had it that the courageous and invincible tribesmen had departed their exilic abode of the previous 2100 years, engaging and conquering their neighbors and adversaries, and were now poised to assume a significant political and military role in the international arena. Since the tribesmen's ultimate objective was the reestablishment of an independent Jewish kingdom in the Land of Israel, these rumors assumed messianic significance. It was further claimed that high ranking political forces in Europe and the Islamic world were aware of this process while attempting to contend with it and that portents observed in various places established and corroborated these reports. These rumors surfaced in an intensive correspondence comprising 30 letters from the 1402 to the 1532, exchanged between Italy and the Land of Israel and also circulated within Italy and dispatched to additional countries, dealing with various reports and rumors of the impending redemption
Based on an analysis of these letters I argue that the Jewish expectations for a redemption led by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were influenced by European hopes that Prester John would come to their help to eradicate the Ottoman-Islamic threat. These hopes flourished in Italy from the 1430's on due to the political convergence between Italy and Ethiopia, perceived as the land of Prester John, at that time.
I also indicate a shift in the image of the ten tribes, from an image, common between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, of religious piety and complete detachment from what was happening outside their world, to a belligerent military image. This new image is explicitly expressed in the rumors, from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, that the tribes are on their way to become, once more, an active political and martial factor in the world history.
The new militant image, I claim, stems from a Jewish reading of the German anti-Semite traditions of the "Red Jews". According to these traditions the Ten Tribes are wild and fierce warriors and barbarian cannibals. They were prisoned in a remote and isolated place because they endanger the mere existence of the civilized (Christian) world. The Christian traditions of Prester John and the Red Jews, when read through Jewish eyes, have become a source for consolation and messianic hope.
Sixteenth century Jewish messianism was a historical messianism. It was affected by the international and geo-political situation, and envisioned as the rise of a political and martial Jewish power (the ten tribes) as a new and significant player in world politics.

How do the miracle stories in the Synoptic Gospels contribute to our understanding of Jesus and his ministry? 
Since the first witnessing of them and through the thousands of years that followed, throughout the world, the miracles of Jesus have become a major point of discussion.  Using the synoptic gospels as the key text and by referring to the works of scholars such as Alexander Balmain Bruce, James Kallas and others, this essay seeks to contribute to our understanding of Jesus and his ministry, with the intent of drawing out their significance.

Eine der wichtigsten biblischen Quelle der christlichen Lehre über Jesus Christus ist die Textgruppe der messianischen Königsprophetien. Nach einer Definition dieser Textgruppe wird in dem folgenden Aufsatz die Auslegungsgeschichte der messianischen Königsprophetien kurz vorgestellt, wie diese prophetischen Texte in dem Alten Testament (I.), im Schrifttum der zwischentestamentlichen Epoche (II.) und in dem Neuen Testament (III.) interpretiert wurden. Die messianischen Weissagungen, besonders ihre neutestamentiche Adaptation wird zu einem wichtigen Bezugspunkt der späteren Christologie, sowohl in den maßgebenden reformierten Glaubensbekenntnissen des Mittelalters, als auch in der neuzeitlichen christlichen Theologie (IV.).

A messiási királypróféciák a Krisztusról szóló keresztyén tanításnak egyik fontos bibliai forrását jelentik. Az alábbi tanulmányban e prófétai szövegcsoport definiálása után a messiási királypróféciák értelmezésének történetét mutatjuk be vázlatosan, vizsgálva ezeknek a szövegeknek ószövetségi értelmezését (I.), az intertestamentális kor értelmezéseit (II.), valamint az Újszövetség sajátos adaptációját (III.). A messiási királypróféciákat, különösen azok újszövetségi értelmezését aztán a keresztyén hittételekben fedezhetjük fel újra, ahol a Krisztusról szóló keresztyén tanítás fontos hivatkozási pontjaiként jelennek meg úgy a középkor mértékadó református hitvallásaiban, mint az újabb kori keresztyén dogmatikában (IV.).

This case study of Denton, Texas, a burgeoning, two-university metropolis birthed from a small-town history of theological white supremacy serves as analytic proof of J. Kameron Carter’s claims in 𝘙𝘢𝘤𝘦: 𝘈 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵, that the origins and sustaining theo-mythical structures of race and racism are best exposed when localized through the multifaceted lens of interdisciplinary scholarship that employs historical, genealogical, philosophical, and theological analysis over an “arc of time.”
By employing these localized interdisciplinary methodological approaches aimed at unveiling the theo-myth which underscores the modern American racial ontology, this study examines how theological white supremacy was homogenized into popular culture in Denton County Texas following the Civil War via a neo-Confederate Ku Klux Klan movement, (a distinct American phenomena beholden to the theo-mythology coined by Luther Rummel as “Ku Klux Konfederatism”), that continues its influence today through localized theo-political institutions, sociocultural systems and cultural ‘norms.’ Further, this study reveals how the same ancient theo-myth unveiled in Carter’s account of race underscores a popular Klanish culture which thrived in Denton County from the late-nineteenth century Reconstruction Era and well into the twentieth century with the rise of the Second-Generation Klan, just as it did throughout North Texas and the United States of America at large.

Recent years have seen the flourishing of research on Lithuanian Kabbalists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the point that some scholars speak of a defined and delineated stream of Kabbalah, a school unto itself dubbed "Lithuanian Kabbalah." Such scholars include within this stream all those who saw the Vilna Gaon as their teacher in Kabbalah (parallel to the position of the Baal Shem Tov in Hasidism) and they ascribe to it such fixed categories as its "Articles of Faith." In their conception, this stream was part and parcel of the broader and well-known nationalist-messianic current that had its source, supposedly, in the Vilna Gaon himself; this current reached its full fruition in the twentieth century, and so too has the smaller stream within it, now a clearly defined "school," developed in various ways until the present. As if this were not enough, scholars have joined the later ideological trend which seeks to revise the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a decidedly messianic way, presenting it in a continuous line from the Vilna Gaon to the emergence of Zionism and then to the founding of the State of Israel. Again, the Vilna Gaon is not merely presented as a "herald" of Zionism but as one who encoded within his Torah the secret of redemption, the beginning of which, apparently, we are witnessing today. The article conducts a critical analysis of the concept of "Lithuanian Kabbalah," and uses as its case study the life and teachings of Rabbi Shimon Tsvi Horowitz.


בשנים האחרונות צומח ועולה מחקר סביב למקובלים בני ליטא במאות התשע עשרה והעשרים, עד שיש כאלו המדברים על זרם מוגדר ומובחן, אסכולה בפני עצמה, המכונה 'קבלה ליטאית'. בתוך זרם זה כוללים את כל אלו שראו בגר"א את מורם בקבלה, כמעין בעש"ט לחסידות, ומונים קטגוריות מקובעות של 'עיקרי אמונה' של אותו זרם הרוכב על מהלך משיחי ולאומי ידוע שמקורו כביכול בגר"א עצמו והגיע לגמר בישולו במאה העשרים. עד שנוצר בעיני כמה חוקרים מעין 'חוג' ברור ומוגדר שמתגלגל באופנים שונים עד לימינו. אם לא די בכך, הרי שהמדברים על אותו זרם קבלי רוכבים למעשה על קו אידיאולוגי מאוחר שבא לפרש מחדש את ההיסטוריה של היישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל במאה התשע עשרה ברוח משיחית וליצור מעין המשכיות מימי הגר"א עד להופעתה של הציונות ולמאורעות שהתרחשו עם הקמת מדינת ישראל. שוב אין הגר"א מצטייר רק כ'מבשר' הציונות אלא כמי שצפן בתורתו את סוד הגאולה שאנו עומדים לכאורה בפתחה. המאמר עוסק בניתוח ביקורתי של המשוג "קבלת ליטאית" וכמקרה מבחן יש כאן דיון בדרכו של ר' שמעון צבי הורביץ

Summary:  Some notes on the concept of a rejected Messiah in Rabbinic thought and on ways in which David’s afflictions foreshadow those of Isaiah 53’s servant (Jesus).  Keywords:  Ruth Rabbah, David, Messiah, Isaiah 53, rejected, afflicted, Psalms.  Date:  Feb. 2021.

Nel Vangelo di Matteo Gesù è presentato come il «Messia». Ma quale figura messianica è presupposta nel lettore di Matteo e come viene ridefinita? Per rispondere a queste domande Malgioglio interroga i capitoli 14‒17 di Matteo, nei quali individua uno snodo fondamentale della teologia narrativa del Primo Vangelo. Prestando attenzione alla concatenazione dei vari reparti, e alla rilevanza comunicativa della composizione, l’Autore riapre il controverso dibattito su questa sezione dell’opera. Il frutto di questo sforzo è una ipotesi promettente, che consente di giungere a una più adeguata comprensione della figura messianica di Gesù.