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Jewish Visions

Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 11:34 pm
by Hadassah
Hi All,

I was thinking today of Saint Paul and his vision of Jesus. I am wondering if there are other known cases of Jews throughout history who have spoken about visions of the Messiah (whether known to be Jesus or identified as the Messiah in general). I would be interested to know.

In Christ,
Hadassah

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 11:35 am
by Ariel
this would probably be a good question for Athol. Where is he anyway?
I'm sure there are plenty of Jews who had visions of the Messiah, but I'm no expert in the subject. I know one of the Ratisbonne brothers had a vision of the Virgin Mary..

Where Indeed...

Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 1:41 pm
by Hadassah
Hello Ariel,

Yes, it might be a good question for Athol. I don't even know where to begin to look into it. As far as your question goes, he seems to be back down undah and apparently, as far as my limited knowledge takes me, is in grand spirits. Although it seems that he may have forsaken those of us who might benefit from his body of knowledge :-).

Hadassah

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 4:55 pm
by Athol
Yes I am down under. John also had a vision of the glorified and resurrected Messiah Jesus at the beginning of the Book of Revelation which is very similiar to the vision of the Son of Man in Daniel. Yes many Jews have had visions of the Messiah and of Jesus through the ages. Some Rabbis had encounters with the Messiah as a leper as did the Baal Shem tov and Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. The Sefer Zerubbabel recounts a vision of the Messiah in regards to the end times linking him with Metatron.

cheers Athol

Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:51 am
by Hadassah
Hello,

Thank you, Athol, for the input. It gave me some bits with which to begin.

I have always known that Jewish teaching and thought about the Messiah has multiple facets, but I am wondering if the topic is more complex than I have thought. As an example, it seems to be that the Baal Shem Tov encountered the Messiah of a specific unworthy generation to which generation the Messiah chose not reveal himself. So this presents a particular theory about the Messiah's coming.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good (preferably concise) work which looks at various ideas about the Messiah in Jewish teaching? I've seen some book references along the way (e.g., The Messianic Idea in Judaism by Gershom Scholem; The Messiah Texts by Raphael Patai). But if someone can recommend something, that's always helpful. I am specifically interested in the extra-biblical.

Blessings,
Hadassah