ast to the ground (Section XCV:vi). For the next three centuries and a
half, throughout the Persian and Greek periods, this type of Israel's
messianic hope was apparently silenced. The Maccabean struggles and
victories, however, and the oppressive rule of Rome stirred this
smouldering hope into a flame and gave it wide currency among the people
at the beginning of the Christian era. Again the nation came to the
forefront. In the beautiful prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, 10, which
apparently comes from the earlier part of the Maccabean era, is found the
noble picture of a peasant king, humble yet victorious, establishing with
the sword a world-wide kingdom. Memories of the glorious achievements of
the Maccabean leaders kindled the popular imagination. When in 63 B.C.
Rome's iron hand closed upon Palestine, the eyes of the Jews looked
expectantly for the advent of a champion like David of old, who would
crush the heathen, convict the sinful Jews, and gather the faithful
people, ruling over them in justice and with tender care. These hopes are
most plainly expressed in the Psalms of Solomon, which were written near
the beginning of the Roman period. These expectations in their more
material form inspired the party of the Zelots during the earlier part of
the first Christian century repeatedly to unsheathe the sword in the vain
effort to overthrow Rome and to establish at once the rule of the Messiah.
It was because this type of hope was so strong in the minds of the common
people that the false messiahs who rose from time to time were able
quickly to gather thousands about them in the vain expectation that the
moment of deliverance had at last arrived.

III. The Apocalyptic, Catastrophic Type of Messianic Hope. Another class
of thinkers in Israel looked not for a temporal but for a supernatural
kingdom. It is usually described in the symbolic language of the
apocalypse. The inauguration of this kingdom was not dependent upon man's
activity but solely upon the will of God. The exact time and manner of its
institution was clothed in mystery. Traces of this belief are found in
the references in Amos to the popular expectations regarding the day of
Jehovah. Evidently the Northern Israelites lived in anticipation of a
great universal judgment day, in which their heathen foes would be
suddenly destroyed and they themselves would be exalted. It was a belief
which Amos and the ethical prophets who followed him strongly combated,
for the