The Name of God and the Name of the Messiah: Jewish and Christian Parallels in Late Antiquity

This study argues that there is a tradition, arising from a ‘Jewish milieu’, based around the exegesis of select biblical passages, indicating that the messiah bears the Divine Name. This tradition appears to predate the Christian movement, and is referenced also in rabbinic literature. In the first section we highlight a tradition regarding the relationship between the Name of God and the messiah, the righteous and Jerusalem, a tradition which is shared by the Talmud and the New Testament book of Revelation. The next section will look at the pre-existence of the messiah’s name, which appears to be known by several groups in the early centuries of the Common Era. The fact that several different groups share this tradition points to the existence of an important idea which may be independent of each of these specific manifestations, whether Enochic, rabbinic or Christian, as this tradition was common across several Jewish sects in Late Antiquity.