in the abstract, but from out of the union of textual musings and shifting political fortunes.1 To be sure, Israel’s life under the successive iron hands of the Ptolemies, Seleucids, and Romans proved to be highly problematic, both theologically and practically. But even if the ‘Gentile problem’ was a necessary condition for the rise of messianic speculation, this was not in itself a sufficient condition. The ancient Jewish faith was a religio-political reality, and so as important as it was to rid