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The Encyclopaedia of Judaism is unavailable, but you can change that!

The Encyclopaedia of Judaism provides a full and reliable account of Judaism, the religion, its diverse history, literature, beliefs, observances, practices, and its place in the context of society and culture from ancient Israelite times to our own day. By reason of its antiquity, influence on other world religions, power to persuade the faithful of its truth, and contemporary vitality, Judaism...

writings of Philo and Josephus—use the term “messiah” infrequently and inconsistently. On their basis, there is no reason to think that the Jews of first century Palestine were anticipating a messiah. The idea of the messiah is barely present in the Mishnah, the foundational document of Rabbinic Judaism. A key reason for the unclarity about the messiah in these texts is that the Temple-centered religion practiced in Jerusalem and described in Scripture, which dominated ancient Judaism and is the
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