Scriptural Qualifications
- "And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City." Some Jews[8] interpret this to mean that the Sanhedrin will be re-established." (Isaiah 1:26)
- Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4)
- The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:11–17)
- He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:8–10, 2 Chronicles 7:18)
- The "spirit of the Lord" will be upon him, and he will have a "fear of God" (Isaiah 11:2)
- Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)
- Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)
- He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)
- All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)
- Death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)
- There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)
- All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)
- The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)
- He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)
- Nations will recognize the wrongs they did to Israel (Isaiah 52:13–53:5)
- The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)
- The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)
- Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39:9)
- The people of Israel will have direct access to the Torah through their minds and Torah study will become the study of the wisdom of the heart (Jeremiah 31:33)[9]
- He will give you all the worthy desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4)
- He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful (Isaiah 51:3, Amos 9:13–15, Ezekiel 36:29–30, Isaiah 11:6–9)
John, Bishop of Nikiu, Chronicle (5th c. CE)
CHAPTER LXXXVI. 1. And there was a Jew named Fiskis who in his own person played the role of impostor, saying: 'I am Moses the chief of the prophets; for I have been sent from heaven by God. 2. I have come to conduct the Jews who dwell in this island through the sea, and I will establish you in the land of promise.' 3. And by these means he led them astray, saying unto them : 'I am he that delivered your fathers out of the hand of Pharaoh when they were in bondage to the Egyptians.' 4. And he spent an entire year in traversing Crete and proclaiming this event and leading them astray in all the cities and villages. 5. And he prevailed on them to abandon their industries and to despise their goods and possessions. And so they dissipated all that they had. 6. And when the day which he had fixed for leading them out drew near, he commanded them to come with their wives and children and follow him to the sea-shore, and cast themselves into the sea. And many perished, some through the fall and others from being engulfed in the depths of the sea. 7. But God who loves mankind had compassion on His creatures and saved them lest they should all perish by this hard fate. 8. And many Christians who were present on the spot at the time in order to see (what would happen) saved a large number from being drowned in the sea. The rest who had not cast themselves into the sea were saved by this means. 9. And when they saw that the false prophet had perished,161 engulfed in the sea, they recognized thereupon that he |104 was an impostor, and forthwith abandoned their erroneous belief.
The Dark Ages
In the 12th and 13th centuries CE., the Crusades lead to a radical revitalization of Messianism, and claimants range in the dozens. Most famous of them all was Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (b. 1240), who was an Italian Kabbalist. His studies of Zohar prompted him to believe himself to be a prophet at first and then the Messiah. He was excommunicated by Italian congregations and his end is unknown.
The Mystical Messiah - Shabbatai Tzvi
Born in Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire (present day Izmir, Turkey), 1626. Studied in Yeshiva of Smyrna, where he first studied Kabbalah and the works of the Ari Z"L
He is ordained as a rabbi and begins to gain a following of Kabbalists. At 22, he makes his first Messianic claims. He does so by pronouncing the Tetragrammaton while leading prayer and study for his congregants.
The Rabbis of Smyrna excommunicate him and exile him from Smyrna. He travels to Constantinople where me meets Abraham Yachini, who becomes a loyal follower and forges a manuscript that attests to Tzvi's claims called, "The Great Wisdom of Solomon," which reads as follows:
"I, Abraham, was confined in a cave for forty years, and I wondered greatly that the time of miracles did not arrive. Then was heard a voice of proclaiming, 'a son will be born in the Hebrew year 5386 (1626 CE) to Mordecai Tzvi; and he will be called Shabbatai. He will humble the great dragon; ... he, the true Messiah, will sit upon My throne."