Apocalypse of Zerubbabel
Encyclopedia
Sefer Zerubbabel is a medieval Hebrew apocalypse
written at the beginning of the 7th century in the style of biblical visions (e.g. Daniel
, Ezekiel
) placed into the mouth of Zerubbabel
, the last descendant of the Davidic line
to take a prominent part in Israel
's history, who laid the foundation of the Second Temple
in the 6th century BCE. The enigmatic postexilic biblical leader receives a revelatory vision outlining personalities and events associated with the restoration of Israel
, the End of Days, and the establishment of the Third Temple.
between 629 and 636 during fierce struggles between Persia
and the Byzantine Empire
for control of the Holy Land
(qq.v. Byzantine-Arab Wars
, Muslim conquest of Syria
). These wars touched Palestine and stirred Messianic hopes among Jews, including the author for whom the wars appear to be eschatological events leading to the appearance of the Messiah. However, firm evidence of the work's existence prior to the tenth century is elusive. The Zohar
is cognizant of the legend of Hefzibah whom the apocalypse first names as the mother of the Davidic Messiah. Rabbis Saadia Gaon
(892–942) and Hai ben Sherira Gaon (939–1038) probably knew the book, but never mention it by name.
Sefer Zerubbabel is extant in a number of manuscript
and print recension
s. The first publication was in 1519 in Constantinople
within an anthology called Liqqutim Shonim. It was reprinted again along with the Sefer Malkiel in Vilna in 1819, and again by Adolph Jellinek in his Bet Ha-Midrasch (1853–77) and S. A. Wertheimer in his Leqet Midrashim (Jerusalem, 1903). The fullest edition of the work was prepared by Israel Levi in his book L'apocalypse.
Because the book gave an unequivocal date (1058 CE) for the return of the Messiah, it exerted great influence upon contemporary Messianic thought. The book is mentioned by Eleazar of Worms and supposedly by Rashi
. Abraham ibn Ezra
criticized the book as "unreliable."
One edition of the Pirke Hekalot gave a figure of 890 years until the return of the Messiah, making the Messianic year 958
CE, within a decade of the birth of Saadia Gaon. That date perhaps led to a message sent by Rhenish Jews to Palestine inquiring after rumors of the Messiah's advent.
Armilus
, who is the leader of Rome
and Christianity
, and the Messiah ben Joseph
, who fails in battle but paves the way for the Davidic Messiah and the ultimate triumph of righteousness
. The original author expected the Messiah would come in the immediate future; subsequent editors substituted later dates.
Set after Nebuchadnezzar
's destruction of Jerusalem, the book begins with Zerubbabel, whose name was associated with the first restoration
, receiving a vision after praying for "knowledge of the form of the eternal house." In the vision he is transported by the angel
Metatron
to Ninevah, the "city of blood" representing Rome
by which the author likely means Byzantium
. There he finds in the marketplace
a "bruised and despised man" who reveals himself to be the Messiah, Menahem ben 'Amiel, doomed to abide there until his appointed hour. Zerubbabel asks when the lamp of Israel
would be kindled. Metatron interjects that the Messiah would return 990 years after the destruction of the Temple
(approximately 1058 CE).
Five years prior to the coming of Hefzibah, who would be the mother of the Messiah ben David, the Messiah ben Joseph, Nehemiah ben Hushiel
, will appear but he will be slain by Armilus. Afterwards, the Messiah ben David will resurrect
him.
In the narrative Zerubbabel is led to a "house of disgrace" (a church), a kind of antitemple. There he sees a beautiful statue of a woman (the Virgin Mary). With Satan
as the father, the statue gives birth to the Antichrist Armilus. Forces associated with Armilus and the antitemple come to rule over the entire world. But in the end these forces are defeated. The work concludes with Zerubbabel's vision of the descent of the Heavenly Temple to earth. Thus the "form of the eternal house" is revealed; unlike the Second Temple it is made in heaven
.
According to Martha Himmelfarb (2002) alongside from a passage in the Tractate Berakhot
2.4 10ff in the Talmud Yerushalmi, dealing with the mother of the Messiah Menahem ben Ammiel
, Sefer Zerubbabel is the only early Jewish text to import a mother of the Messiah into Judaism. In the Sefer Zerubbabel Menahem is Menahem ben Ammiel, and his mother is Hephzibah, the same name as the wife of Hezekiah
and mother of Manasseh
.
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
written at the beginning of the 7th century in the style of biblical visions (e.g. Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...
, Ezekiel
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....
) placed into the mouth of Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel
Zerubbabel was a governor of the Persian Province of Judah and the grandson of Jehoiachin, penultimate king of Judah. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews, numbering 42,360, who returned from the Babylonian Captivity in the first year of Cyrus, King of Persia . The date is generally thought to...
, the last descendant of the Davidic line
Davidic line
The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to the King David referred to in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the New Testament...
to take a prominent part in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's history, who laid the foundation of the Second Temple
Second Temple
The Jewish Second Temple was an important shrine which stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem between 516 BCE and 70 CE. It replaced the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE, when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon...
in the 6th century BCE. The enigmatic postexilic biblical leader receives a revelatory vision outlining personalities and events associated with the restoration of Israel
Land of Israel
The Land of Israel is the Biblical name for the territory roughly corresponding to the area encompassed by the Southern Levant, also known as Canaan and Palestine, Promised Land and Holy Land. The belief that the area is a God-given homeland of the Jewish people is based on the narrative of the...
, the End of Days, and the establishment of the Third Temple.
History
The groundwork for the book was probably written in PalestinePalestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
between 629 and 636 during fierce struggles between Persia
Sassanid Empire
The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
and the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
for control of the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
(qq.v. Byzantine-Arab Wars
Byzantine-Arab Wars
The Byzantine–Arab Wars were a series of wars between the Arab Caliphates and the East Roman or Byzantine Empire between the 7th and 12th centuries AD. These started during the initial Muslim conquests under the expansionist Rashidun and Umayyad caliphs and continued in the form of an enduring...
, Muslim conquest of Syria
Muslim conquest of Syria
The Muslim conquest of Syria occurred in the first half of the 7th century, and refers to the region known as the Bilad al-Sham, the Levant, or Greater Syria...
). These wars touched Palestine and stirred Messianic hopes among Jews, including the author for whom the wars appear to be eschatological events leading to the appearance of the Messiah. However, firm evidence of the work's existence prior to the tenth century is elusive. The Zohar
Zohar
The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...
is cognizant of the legend of Hefzibah whom the apocalypse first names as the mother of the Davidic Messiah. Rabbis Saadia Gaon
Saadia Gaon
Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period.The first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature...
(892–942) and Hai ben Sherira Gaon (939–1038) probably knew the book, but never mention it by name.
Sefer Zerubbabel is extant in a number of manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
and print recension
Recension
Recension is the practice of editing or revising a text based on critical analysis. When referring to manuscripts, this may be a revision by another author...
s. The first publication was in 1519 in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
within an anthology called Liqqutim Shonim. It was reprinted again along with the Sefer Malkiel in Vilna in 1819, and again by Adolph Jellinek in his Bet Ha-Midrasch (1853–77) and S. A. Wertheimer in his Leqet Midrashim (Jerusalem, 1903). The fullest edition of the work was prepared by Israel Levi in his book L'apocalypse.
Because the book gave an unequivocal date (1058 CE) for the return of the Messiah, it exerted great influence upon contemporary Messianic thought. The book is mentioned by Eleazar of Worms and supposedly by Rashi
Rashi
Shlomo Yitzhaki , or in Latin Salomon Isaacides, and today generally known by the acronym Rashi , was a medieval French rabbi famed as the author of a comprehensive commentary on the Talmud, as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh...
. Abraham ibn Ezra
Abraham ibn Ezra
Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....
criticized the book as "unreliable."
One edition of the Pirke Hekalot gave a figure of 890 years until the return of the Messiah, making the Messianic year 958
958
Year 958 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.-Africa:* The Fatimid general Gawhar al-Siqilli takes the capital of the rebellious Kharijite Banu Ya'la tribesmen, Ifgan. Gawhar in the following two years conquers most of the North of modern Morocco and Algeria...
CE, within a decade of the birth of Saadia Gaon. That date perhaps led to a message sent by Rhenish Jews to Palestine inquiring after rumors of the Messiah's advent.
Contents
The sefer describes the eschatological struggle between the AntichristAntichrist
The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...
Armilus
Armilus
Armilus is an anti-Messiah figure in late-period Jewish eschatology, comparable to the Christian Antichrist and Muslim Dajjal, who will conquer Jerusalem and persecute the Jews until his final defeat at the hands of God or the true Messiah...
, who is the leader of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, and the Messiah ben Joseph
Messiah ben Joseph
Messiah ben Joseph , also alternatively known as Messiah ben Ephraim , is a Messianic figure peculiar to the rabbinical apocalyptic literature. One of the earliest known mentions of him is in , where three statements occur in regard to him, for the first of which Rabbi Dosa is given as authority...
, who fails in battle but paves the way for the Davidic Messiah and the ultimate triumph of righteousness
Righteousness
Righteousness is an important theological concept in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism , Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
. The original author expected the Messiah would come in the immediate future; subsequent editors substituted later dates.
Set after Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadrezzar II
Nebuchadnezzar II was king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, who reigned c. 605 BC – 562 BC. According to the Bible, he conquered Judah and Jerusalem, and sent the Jews into exile. He is credited with the construction of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and also known for the destruction...
's destruction of Jerusalem, the book begins with Zerubbabel, whose name was associated with the first restoration
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
, receiving a vision after praying for "knowledge of the form of the eternal house." In the vision he is transported by the angel
Angel
Angels are mythical beings often depicted as messengers of God in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The English word angel is derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, a translation of in the Hebrew Bible ; a similar term, ملائكة , is used in the Qur'an...
Metatron
Metatron
Metatron or Mattatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christian mythology. There are no references to him in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Scriptures...
to Ninevah, the "city of blood" representing Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
by which the author likely means Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
. There he finds in the marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
a "bruised and despised man" who reveals himself to be the Messiah, Menahem ben 'Amiel, doomed to abide there until his appointed hour. Zerubbabel asks when the lamp of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
would be kindled. Metatron interjects that the Messiah would return 990 years after the destruction of the Temple
Siege of Jerusalem (70)
The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in...
(approximately 1058 CE).
Five years prior to the coming of Hefzibah, who would be the mother of the Messiah ben David, the Messiah ben Joseph, Nehemiah ben Hushiel
Nehemiah ben Hushiel
Nehemiah ben Hushiel was the son of the Jewish Exilarch, placed as the symbolic leader of Jewish troops within Sassanid army in 608 CE, according to Jewish sources. This army participated in Khasrau II's campaign in the Levant. The joint military effort of Sassanid troops and local Jewish militias...
, will appear but he will be slain by Armilus. Afterwards, the Messiah ben David will resurrect
Resurrection
Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...
him.
In the narrative Zerubbabel is led to a "house of disgrace" (a church), a kind of antitemple. There he sees a beautiful statue of a woman (the Virgin Mary). With Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
as the father, the statue gives birth to the Antichrist Armilus. Forces associated with Armilus and the antitemple come to rule over the entire world. But in the end these forces are defeated. The work concludes with Zerubbabel's vision of the descent of the Heavenly Temple to earth. Thus the "form of the eternal house" is revealed; unlike the Second Temple it is made in heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
.
According to Martha Himmelfarb (2002) alongside from a passage in the Tractate Berakhot
Berakhot
Berakhot, Brachot, or Brochos may refer to:*Berakhah, a Jewish benediction**Any one of the various benedictions; see List of Jewish prayers and blessings*Tractate Berakhot of the Talmud, which discusses benedictions, among other topics...
2.4 10ff in the Talmud Yerushalmi, dealing with the mother of the Messiah Menahem ben Ammiel
Menahem ben Ammiel
Menahem ben Ammiel, or ben Amiel, is a character in apocalyptic Jewish texts, the future Messiah of the Sefer Zerubbabel. He fights with Armilus, the Jewish apocalyptic counterpart of the Christian Book of Revelation's Antichrist....
, Sefer Zerubbabel is the only early Jewish text to import a mother of the Messiah into Judaism. In the Sefer Zerubbabel Menahem is Menahem ben Ammiel, and his mother is Hephzibah, the same name as the wife of Hezekiah
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was the son of Ahaz and the 14th king of Judah. Edwin Thiele has concluded that his reign was between c. 715 and 686 BC. He is also one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in the Hebrew Bible....
and mother of Manasseh
Manasseh
Manasseh is an ancient Hebrew male name, meaning "causing to forget". Manasseh may refer to:-Given name:*Manasseh of Judah, a king of the kingdom of Judah*Manasseh , a son of Joseph, according to the Torah...
.