Satan: Lifting the Veil - Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?

Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?

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What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
In the last post, we explored the first two temptations of Jesus in the desert.  I introduced the idea that these trials were not coming from a being of pure evil, but were in fact the conventional wisdom of the day on what a Messiah should look like - and Jesus had to wrestle with this ethos and counter it throughout his entire ministry. 

Before we examine the third and final of Jesus’ trials in the desert, I think it would benefit us to examine what would have been a very well known and popular story of another figure who would have been considered a model for a successful Jewish messiah in many ways.  You see, as I’ve pointed out before, the Jews expected their messiah to establish a physical kingdom - the “kingdom of God”, which would have been a restoration of Israel to her former glory - and if this did not happen within a messiah claimant’s life, his followers scattered after his death: a dead messiah was a failed messiah. 

But Jesus breaks this mold.

Maccabean revolt

But in order to understand why it was so hard for Jesus to do so, we must understand a very popular Jewish image - Judas Maccabeus.  It is rather unfortunate that the two books of Maccabees have been removed from the canon, as they provide a context to Jesus’ ministry that enlightens us to many of the messianic misconceptions that he was contradicting throughout his ministry.

The first book of Maccabees tells the story of a revolt led by the sons of Mattathias - especially focusing on Judas Maccabeus as the main protagonist.  This book has become known especially as the origin story of the feast of Chanukah.  The story is set during the reign of  Antiochus IV Epiphanes - ruler of the Seleucid Empire.  Previously, Judea had been under the reign of Alexander the Great, and had been affected by the Hellenization of their culture, begun by Alexander himself. 

The story told in this book is one that could work very well as a modern action adventure movie - full of testosterone and manly feats of military might.  But there is one element that is surprisingly absent from this Jewish story - the presence of God. 

First Maccabees starts with a summary of the period between the Persian conquest of Alexander the Great to the date when Antiochus took the throne, 137 years later.  During this period, Alexander’s kingdom had become divided into two - the Seleucid Empire in which this story is set, and the Ptolomies.  But this is covered in a very small section in the beginning - the immediate issue at hand in the beginning of the story is what can be described as a culture war - between the Jews who wished to accommodate to the Hellenization, and those who felt that this was a sellout of the purity codes of torah.  John J. Collins writes that the Hellenizers "undoubtedly saw their actions as a liberalization and updating of Judaism. Throughout the Hellenistic world the Jews were regarded as strange and inhospitable because of the exclusivity of their religion." (Quote taken from "Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now")

The writer of First Maccabees, as well as the protagonists of the story, belong to the first camp of the Jews - the purists.  The Hellenizer camp are portrayed in the story as ones who came out as a “wicked root”, and who “sold themselves to do evil” (1 Macc. 1:11, 16).  The main symbol of sellout that bothered this camp at the time of the story was the desire to build a gymnasium - where naked athletes would compete, giving rise to the desire of the Jews to cover up their now-visible difference: the circumcised penis.  This would have been accomplished by a very painful procedure called an epispasm, which would involve stretching the existing skin over the head in order to resemble a foreskin.  This symbolically shows how the Jews, in their captivity, desired to accommodate the current domination system so badly that the physical pain of this procedure was preferable to the psychological pain of being different.

The narration of 1 Maccabees continues by painting a picture of Antiochus as a double-talking tyrant who made deceitful attempts to make peace with Israel, only to turn around and show his true colors by attacking and plundering the city, setting fires within, destroying houses and walls, kidnapping women and children and stealing livestock (1 Macc. 1:30-32). He then proceeded to outlaw the traditional Jewish practices of sacrifice, commanding them to offer pagan sacrifices in their place under the threat of death (1 Macc. 1:45-50).  He also outlawed the possession of copies of the torah, and anyone who was found with one would be put to death (1 Macc. 1:56-57).  And if that weren’t enough, he outlawed circumcision, and sons who were found to be circumcised would be killed along with their families (1 Macc. 1:60-61).  All of this was done under the seemingly benevolent desire to make his empire “one people” (I Macc. 1:41). 

But there were many who resolved not to accomodate this Domination System - despite all they had endured and regardless of the threat of death (1 Macc. 1:62-63).  It is in the midst of this setting that the sons of Mattathias - including Judas Maccabeus - are introduced.  After their introduction in 1 Macc. 2:1-14, the king’s officers come to the town of Modein, where Mattathias and his sons live, to enforce the king’s decrees.  The officers address Mattathias directly and encourage him to set an example by obeying the king’s orders.  But Mattathias’ reply is a bold statement of defiance, where he declares that even if everyone else obey’s the king’s command, he and his family will continue to live by torah (1 Macc. 2:19-22). 

Mattathias

After saying this, one Jew comes forward to offer the pagan sacrifice and comply with the king’s decree.  When Mattathias sees this, he “burned with zeal”, “gave way to his righteous anger”, and proceeds to kill this Jew as well as the king’s officers (1 Macc. 2:24-26). 

Now, we might ask:
Was this God’s will, or just Mattathias’ anger?

But as I’ve mentioned before, God seems curiously absent from the story, and it plows right ahead with Mattathias assembling a guerilla army and hiding out in the hills (1 Macc. 2:28).  A group of Mattathias’ followers has also fled to the desert, and is pursued by the king’s men and killed on the Sabbath (1 Macc. 2:29-38).  Mattathias and his men mourn this turn of events, and in the deliberation that follows, they decide that if they continue to observe the law of the Sabbath, they will all be killed (1 Macc. 2:39-41).  So the logical - though ironic - course of action is that the Sabbath must be broken in order to save it, and they quickly organize a counterattack, in which they go around “tearing down the altars to other gods”, “forcibly circumcis[ing]” the uncircumcised boys they find along the way, and “hunt[ing] down arrogant people” (1 Macc. 2:42-47).  The story concludes with this line in verse 48:

They rescued the Law from the power of the Gentiles and kings, and they never let the sinner regain power.

Hooray - violence wins the day!  Right?  And we didn't compromise in the ways of torah at all!  Well...we broke the Sabbath when that became convenient...but we won, and that's all that matters, right?  

Except that this is not the end of the story.  What comes next is the death of Mattathias (presumably of old age), and on his deathbed he encourages his sons in verses 67 and 68 to:

Rally around yourselves all who observe the Law, and avenge wrong done to your people. Pay the Gentiles back in full, and obey what the Law commands.

This is exactly what Mattathias’ sons do, with Judas Maccabeus in the lead.  Judas is portrayed as a new Joshua, marching through the land and conquering territory after territory, and winning back the land for Israel.  The author revels in these victories, and you can feel the testosterone surging through your body as you read his descriptions of these acts of courage and might. 

Oh yeah, and there's elephant battles...

And yet, nowhere is God mentioned in this account - it is as if, rather than standing up for God, the Maccabees were standing up for culture. YHWH is never mentioned - not once - in the entire book!  And no one seems to ask if there was a better way to go about this quest - rather than resorting to violence!  And while the result of the conquest is that Israel has her own kingdom for a while, it doesn’t last long before there is a civil war, which ends in 63 B.C. when the Roman general Pompeus intervenes and turns Israel into a client kingdom of the new empire of Rome.  It’s almost as if the idea that violence can solve our problems was an infection which grew within the kingdom of the Maccabees and festered until it erupted into full blown sepsis. 

So one might ask - how much good did this violent revolt actually accomplish?  Or what if it didn’t really accomplish any good at all, but just replaced one Domination System with another, which would only fall to another system of the same kind later on?

We’re going to take another break, and in the next post I’ll explore Jesus’ third, and final temptation in the desert.

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Table of Contents:
Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Two Case Studies
Part 3: Serpent = Satan?
Part 4: What is Satan's Real Name?
Part 5: Accuser
Part 6: A Son of God?
Part 7: God's State Prosecutor
Part 8: God’s Sifter
Part 9: Azazel
Part 10: Desert Temptation
Part 11: What Does a Jewish Messiah Look Like?
Part 12: Bow Down to the Domination System
Part 13: Proclaiming Jubilee
Part 14: The Evil One
Part 15: The Angels of the Nations
Part 16: The Gerasene Demoniac
Part 17: Further Lessons on Exorcism in the Bible
Part 18: Driving Satan from Heaven
Part 19: The Unveiling of the Beast of Rome
Part 20: Unveiling the Beast Today
Part 21: Jesus and the Domination System
Part 22: Violence
Part 23: Death
Part 24: The Advocate
Part 25: Conclusions?