preoccupations and expectations 215
not because Josephus tried to suppress information about Jewish hopes
for a messianic leader, for, as we have seen in Chapter 5, in fact he
emphasized in his narration of the destruction of Jerusalem that ‘what
more than all else incited them to the war was an ambiguous oracle ...
to the effect that at that time one from their country would become
ruler of the world’. This oracle was indeed of particular significance for
Josephus, since what he took as its correct meaning, ‘the sovereignty of
Vespasian, who was proclaimed emperor on Jewish soil’, had first been
recognized by Josephus himself through divine grace and had led to the
dramatic reversal of his fortunes which accounted for his freedom to
write about these events in comfort in Rome. Josephus was well aware
of the Greek term Christos, ‘anointed one’, as a translation of the Heb-
rew mashiah, but he used it only in reference to Christians, and not for
any of the other religious enthusiasts whose role in first- century Judaea
he documented.^20
According to Acts, the name Christianoi was first accorded to
Christians – by others – in Antioch in the mid- first century, to mean ‘fol-
lowers of Christos ’. Christians are the only group known to have been
characterized by messianic beliefs in this way. Eschatological hope did
not require expectation of a role for a messianic figure. It is striking that
the fullest depiction in any of the Dead Sea scrolls of the battles of the
last days, laid out with graphic detail in the War Scroll, envisages the
Sons of Light under the leadership of a Prince and a priest and God
himself:
And when [Belial] girds himself to come to the aid of the sons of darkness,
and when the slain among the foot- soldiers begin to fall by the mysteries of
God, and when all the men appointed for battle are put to ordeal by them,
the Priests shall sound the trumpets of Summons for another formation of
the reserve to advance into battle; and they shall take up their stand between
the formations. And for those engaged [in battle] they shall sound the
‘Retreat’. Then the High Priest shall draw near, and standing before the
formation, he shall strengthen by the power of God their hearts [and hands]
in His battle. Speaking he shall say ... the slain, for you have heard from
ancient times through the mysteries of God ... This is the day appointed by
Him for the defeat and overthrow of the Prince of the kingdom of wicked-
ness, and he will send eternal succour to the company of His redeemed by
the might of the princely Angel of the kingdom of Michael. With everlast-
ing light He will enlighten with joy [the children] of Israel ... He will raise
up the kingdom of Michael in the midst of the gods, and the realm of Israel