from their pagan oppressors. For an undeterminable number of Jews the yearning centered on the future saving acts by a divinely appointed, and anointed, supernatural man: the Messiah. This eschatological figure will inaugurate the end of all normal time and history. I, therefore, use the term “Messiah” in its etymological sense, to denote God’s eschatological Anointed One, the Messiah.4 The adjective “messianic” refers to images, symbols, or concepts either explicitly or implicitly linked to ideas