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List of messiah claimants

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This is a list of people who have been said to be a messiah either by themselves, or by their followers. The list is divided into categories, which are sorted according to date of birth (where known).

Jewish messiah claimants

Main article: Jewish messianic claimants. Note that for messiahs lacking articles, there may be more detail there.

The Jewish Messiah originally meant a divinely-appointed king; David, Cyrus the Great, and Alexander the Great[1] are examples of such. Later, especially after the failure of Bar Kokhba's revolt, it came to represent a figure who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in a new world.

  • Simon (ca. 4 BC), a former slave of Herod the Great who rebelled.
  • Athronges (ca. 3 BC)
  • Judas of Galilee (?), son of Hezekiah/Ezekias, a member of the Zealots faction who led a bloody revolt against a Roman census in AD 6. (JA18)
  • Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 4 BC - AD 30-?), a wandering prophet and teacher who was crucified by the Romans; Jews who believed him to be the Messiah were the first Christians, also known as Jewish Christians.
  • Theudas (? - 46), who attempted a short-lived revolt against the Romans before being slain. (JA20.5.1)
  • "Egyptian Prophet", c.55, (an allusion to Moses[citation needed]), with 30,000 unarmed Jews doing The Exodus reenactment massacred by Procurator Antonius Felix (JW2.13.5, JA20.8.6, Acts 21:38)[2]
  • Menahem ben Judah (?), allegedly son of Judas of Galilee, partook in a revolt against Agrippa II before being slain by a rival Zealot leader.
  • Vespasian, c.70, according to Josephus[3]
  • Simon bar Kokhba (?- ca. 135), founded a short-lived Jewish state before being defeated in the Second Jewish-Roman War.
  • Moses of Crete (?), who in about 440-470, convinced the Jews of Crete to attempt to walk into the sea to return to Israel; he disappeared after that disaster.
  • Ishak ben Ya'kub Obadiah Abu 'Isa al-Isfahani (684-705), who led a revolt in Persia against the Umayyad Caliph 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan.
    • Yudghan (?), a disciple of Abu 'Isa who continued the faith after Isa was slain.
  • Serene (?), who around 720 claimed to be the Messiah and advocated expulsion of Muslims and relaxing various rabbinic laws before being arrested; he then recanted.
  • David Alroy (?), born in Kurdistan, who around 1160 agitated against the caliph before being assassinated.
  • Nissim ben Abraham (?), active around 1295.
  • Moses Botarel of Cisneros (?), active around 1413; claimed to be a sorcerer able to combine the names of God.
  • Asher Lemmlein (?), a German near Venice who proclaimed himself a forerunner of the Messiah in 1502.
  • David Reubeni (1490-1541?) and Solomon Molcho (1500-1532), adventurers who travelled in Portugal, Italy, and Turkey; Molcho was eventually burned at the stake by the Pope.
  • A mostly unknown Czech Jew from around the 1650s.[4]
  • Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676), an Ottoman Jew who claimed to be the Messiah, but then converted to Islam; still has followers today in the Donmeh.
    • Barukhia Russo (Osman Baba), successor of Sabbatai Zevi.
    • Jacob Querido (?-1690), claimed to be the new incarnation of Sabbatai; later converted to Islam and led the Donmeh.
    • Miguel Cardoso (1630-1706), another successor of Sabbatai who claimed to be the "Messiah ben Ephraim."
    • Mordecai Mokia (1650-1729), "the Rebuker," another person who proclaimed himself Messiah after Sabbatai's death.
    • Löbele Prossnitz (?-1750), a proven fraud who nevertheless attained some following amongst former followers of Sabbatai, calling himself the "Messiah ben Joseph."
  • Jacob Joseph Frank (1726-1791), who claimed to be the reincarnation of King David and preached a synthesis of Christianity and Judaism.
  • Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994), a Chabad Rabbi who tried to "prepare the way" for the Messiah; some followers believe him to be the Messiah.

Christian messiah claimants

See also: Second Coming and List of people who have claimed to be Jesus

Verses in the Bible tell that Jesus will come again in some fashion; various people have claimed to, in fact, be the second coming of Jesus. Others have been styled a new Messiah still under the umbrella of Christianity.

Muslim messiah claimants

Main article: People claiming to be the Mahdi

Islamic tradition has a prophecy of the Mahdi, who will come alongside the return of Isa (Jesus).

  • Syed Mohammad Jaunpuri (1443-1505), who travelled Northeastern India; he influenced the Mahdavia and the Zikris.
  • Báb (1819-1850), who declared himself to be the promised Mahdi in Shiraz, Iran in 1844.
  • Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908) of Qadian, 'the Promised Messiah' return of Jesus as well as the 'Mahdi', founder of the Ahmadiyya religious movement. He preached that Jesus christ had survived crucifixion and died a natural death. Interestingly he was the only person to have claimed to be both, the promised return of Jesus as well as the promised Mahdi.
  • Muhammad Ahmad ("The Mad Mahdi") (1844-1885), who declared himself the Mahdi in 1881, defeated the Ottomans, and founded a short-lived empire in Sudan.
  • Sayyid Mohammed Abdullah Hassan (1864-1920) of Somaliland, who engaged in military conflicts from 1900 to 1920.
  • Rashad Khalifa (1935-1990), a numerologist who analyzed the Qu'ran; claimed to be the "Messenger of the Covenant" and founded the "Submitters International" movement before being murdered.
  • Juhayman al-Otaibi (1936-1980), who seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca in November 1979 and declared his son-in-law the Mahdi.

Other/combination messiah claimants

This list features people who are said, either by themselves or their followers, to be some form of a messiah that do not easily fit into only Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

See also

References

  1. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Messiah: Alexander as Messiah
  2. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Pseudo-Messiahs: "Another, an Egyptian, is said to have gathered together 30,000 adherents, whom he summoned to the Mount of Olives, opposite Jerusalem, promising that at his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall down, and that he and his followers would enter and possess themselves of the city. But Felix, the procurator (c. 55-60), met the throng with his soldiery. The prophet escaped, but those with him were killed or taken, and the multitude dispersed (ib. xx. 8, § 6; "B. J." ii. 13, § 5; see also Acts xxi. 38)."
  3. ^ "What more than all else incited them [the Jews] to the [1st Roman] war was an ambiguous oracle ... found in their sacred scriptures, to the effect that at that time one from their country would become ruler of the world. This they understood to mean someone of their own race, and many of their wise men went astray in their interpretation of it. The oracle, however, in reality signified the sovereignty of Vespasian who was proclaimed Emperor on Jewish soil" — Josephus' Jewish War 6.312-13 in Crossan's Who Killed Jesus?, page 44, ISBN 0-06-061479-X
  4. ^ A page from the Jewish Museum of Prague about Solomon Molcho mentions this nameless Czech Jew.
  5. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Dositheans: "Origen states that "Dositheus the Samaritan, after the time of Jesus, wished to persuade the Samaritans that he himself was the Messias prophesied by Moses" (Contra Celsum, VI, ii); and he classes him with John the Baptist, Theodas, and Judas of Galilee as people whom the Jews mistakenly held to be the Christ (Hom. xxv in Lucam; Contra Celsum, I, lvii)."
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ [2]
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