Spirit Jesus

Birth Pangs in Judaism

Ancient Judaism taught that a seven-year period of time will immediately precede the Messiah’s coming to rule the world. The Babylonian Talmud states, “Our Rabbis taught: In the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come. . . at the conclusion of the septennate the son of David will come.”

Raphael Patai, writing on the Messianic texts said, “The idea became entrenched that the coming of the Messiah will be preceded by greatly increased suffering. . . This will last seven years. And then, unexpectedly, the Messiah will come.” According to The Babylionian Talmud “the advent of the Messiah was pictured as being preceded by years of great distress.”

The Dead Sea Scrolls and other literature called the severe troubles of the seven years before the Messiah’s coming “the birth pangs of the Messiah.” Millar Burrows pointed this out in his book on the Scrolls” “A prominent feature of Jewish eschatology, as represented especially by the rabbinic literature, was the time of trouble preceding Messiah’s coming. It was called ‘the birth pangs of the Messiah,’ sometimes more briefly translated as ‘the Messianic woes’ “.

Why call these future troubles “the birth pangs of the Messiah”? Because travail precedes birth, and this travail “precedes the birth of a new era” — the Messianic Age. Just as a woman must go through a period of agony before her child is born into the world, so the world will go through birth pangs before the Messianic Age is born into the world.

Martin Buber wrote in Gog and Magog that “the world-body must be in labor, must suffer great pain, must come to the brink of death, before Redemption can be born. For its sake God permits the earthly powers to rise up against Him more and more. . . until the struggle be intensified into the pangs of the Messiah.” Those birth pangs, according to the Apocalypse of Abraham, will involve such things as the sword (war), famine, pestilence, and wild beasts. In addition:

The pangs of the Messianic times are imagined as having heavenly as well as earthly sources and expressions. From Above, awesome cosmic cataclysms will be visited upon the earth: conflagrations, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, hail and snow, thunder and lightening. These will be paralleled by evils brought by men upon themselves: insolence, robberty, heresy, harlotry, corruption, oppression, cruel edicts, lack of truth, and no fear of sin. All this will lead to internal decay, demoralization, and even apostasy. Things will come to such a head that people will despair of Redemption. this will last seven years. And then, unexpectedly, the Messiah will come.

Some rabbis have taught that the Messiah will not come until the birth pangs become so severe that the Jews will “despair of the Redemption. . . When, as it were, Israel will have neither supporter nor helper.”

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