A Mahdi And Two Messiahs Will Fill Each Religion’s Hopes

Messiah son of Joseph (or Messiah ben Joseph) is a Messiah that we find in rabbinic literature. He comes from Galilee and dies, pierced by ruthless foes, at the gates of Jerusalem. He appears in scores of rabbinic texts, in hundreds of references. In the Targums and Talmud; in the exegetic midrashim; in the apocalyptic midrashim in the hekhalot literature and the Zohar Messiah son of Joseph is a standard and important part of rabbinic belief.

I think this individual is a messianic figure called by the rabbis: Messiah, son of Joseph, i.e. from one of the northern tribes, who precedes David’s son, and is killed in battle by the enemies of Israel. If we keep in mind both the Josephson messiah as well as the role of Israel/Jacob as God’s chosen servant, we will better understand Isaiah’s suffering servant prophecy.

The belief that there would be two different messiahs, one a moral political leader from the house of David (Davidson) and the other, a religious reformer from the house of Aaron (Aronson), as well as a special “end of days” prophet such as Elijah or Jeremiah (Matthew 16:14) is found in inter-testament literature. A Dead Sea scroll states that the Qumran community must continue to live according to the original discipline “until there shall come a prophet (Elijah) and the Messiahs of Aaron and Israel” (Manuel of Discipline 9:11).

There is also a rabbinic belief in a messianic figure from the northern tribes called a Josephson messiah who is killed by Israel’s enemies. This idea may be modeled on the example of Saul who reigned before David and was killed in battle by the enemies of Israel. Thus there could be as many as four individual messianic figures as well as the people of Israel who act as God’s agents in bringing about the Messianic Age.

Gentile rulers also play a role, first as destructive oppressors of the Jewish people, and second when their successors later acknowledge their error and are ultimately included in helping bring about the Messianic Age’s worldwide blessings. The Persian King Cyrus was such a non-Jewish messiah. (Isaiah 45:1)

All of this makes for a complicated future scenario that might take generations, or even centuries to develop. When people are persecuted, afflicted and oppressed as a community, and despised and rejected as individuals, they need hope for a much quicker and simpler process of redemption. This is why there is an overwhelming focus on the final stage Davidson messiah by most teachers, preachers, commentators and expositors. This is also the reason that those who believe in the imminent coming of the Davidson messiah always think it will occur soon within their lifetime (John 14:19, 21:22).

Islam adds to all these Messiahs the figure of a Mahdi (Arabic: ٱلْمَهْدِيّ al-Mahdī). A messianic figure in Islamic eschatology who will appear at the end of times to rid the world of evil and injustice. Said to be a descendant of Muhammad, and thus a descendant of Prophet Abraham, he will appear shortly before Prophet ʿĪsā (Jesus) and defeat the evil forces of Gog and Magog (Ya’juj and Ma’juj or Ajuj and Majuj). Gog and Magog appear metaphorically in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Islamic Quran as individuals, tribes, nations, catastrophes of nature; and in our own days as racist nationalist states and political movements.

The Quran mentions Gog and Magog twice: “He said: “This (barrier) is a mercy from my Lord: but when the warning of my Lord comes to pass, He will reduce it to dust (and Gog and Magog—the Colonialist Empires, the Nazi racists, and the Communists would be released into the world); and the promise of my Lord is true.” (Qur’an 18:98)

So Gog and Magog are destructive groups like the Colonialist Empires, Nazi racists, and the Communists, as well as widespread human pollution of Mother Earth, that near the time of the end of days will penetrate every part of the world like the persistently high levels of ozone pollution in Asia that are costing China, Japan and South Korea an estimated $63 billion annually in lost rice, wheat and maize crops.

The other mention of Gog and Magog in the Quran is: “But there is a ban on a town which We have destroyed: that they (the people of the town) shall not return (to reclaim that town as their own); until Gog and Magog are let through (the barrier), and swiftly spread out in every direction.” (Qur’an 21:95-96)

This verse refers to Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE, and only reclaimed 18 1/2 centuries later as the State of Israel’s capital, following the era of the defeat of the Nazis, the Communists, and the Colonialist Empires, who had been Gog and Magog for many generations.

Though the Mahdi is not mentioned in the Quran, and is absent from the two most-revered Sunni hadith collections: Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim – Mahdi is mentioned in other Hadith literature; and Islamic end-time images of Qiyamah, pre Judgement Days, natural catastrophes are similar to Christian and Jewish imagery of nature’s potential disruptiveness (plagues, famine, draught, earthquakes etc.).

There will be no peace until both Palestinians and Israelis declare the chant ‘From river to sea’ becomes an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, and not death, destruction, or hate. We can make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both peoples first, and the land second. “From river to sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘two peaceful states for two peaceful peoples sharing the land peacefully.’”

Life on Planet Earth had to begin somewhere, and scientists think that “somewhere” is LUCA—or the Last Universal Common Ancestor. True to its name, this prokaryote-like organism represents the ancestor of every living thing, from the tiniest of bacteria to the grandest of blue whales. While the Cambrian Explosion kickstarted complex life in a major way some 530 million years, the true timeline of life on Planet Earth is much longer. For years, scientists have estimated that LUCA likely arrived on the scene some 4 billion years, which is only 600 million years after the planet’s formation.

But now a study from an international team of scientists pushes that timeline back even further to some 4.2 billion years ago, while also discovering some fascinating details about what life for LUCA might’ve been like. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution in 2024.

LUCA on Planet Earth started 4.2 billion years ago but LUCA on other planets started billions of years earlier: ”Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “This ˹Quran˺ has been revealed by the One Who knows the secrets of heavens and earth. Surely He is All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”” (Quran 25:6)

In Islamic tradition creation describes a universe populated by three main intelligent beings created by Allah: Angels (from light), Jinn (from fire), and Humans (from earth clay). The Jinn were created millions of years before humankind, inhabiting hundreds of thousands of years before Humans.

Prophet Isaiah stated (2:2–4) 2 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it,

3 and many (but not all) peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He (God) shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

The Qur’an (46:12-14) states: “And before it (the Qur’an) was the Book of Moses (in Hebrew), a model and a mercy. And this (Qur’an) is a confirming Book, in the Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong; and good news for the doers of good. 13. Those who say, “Our Lord is God,” then lead a righteous life; they have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve. 14. These are the inhabitants of Paradise, where they will dwell forever; a reward for what they used to do.”

Prophets Moses and Aaron start revealing the name “YHWH” to all those who will commit to God’s covenant; now and in the ongoing future; it signals the inauguration of a commitment community, culminating at Mount Sinai; when all Israel, and all those outsiders who.wish to join Israel, will become a part of a chosen people.

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”… (Isaiah 19:23-5)