What were the primary messianic expectations of first-century Israel?

Answer 1

Functions of the Jewish Messiah that would be expected in the First-Century Israel (this list is not exhaustive):

• Setting up a lasting and Eternal Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28) -- Especially important since, seeing as the Temple was extant during this period, any Messiah should have been able to "keep it going eternally". There wouldn't even have been any need to rebuild it.
• Create a Jewish Kingdom (Isaiah 1:26) -- This refers to an actual physical country that would exist on the Earth and have authority over all Jews.
• Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 10:21-22 and 43:5-6) -- This should have been relatively easy since most Jews at that time were still in the Middle East. At the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century, the Jews were scattered all across the Roman Empire and later the entire world, which would make such migration more difficult.
• Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4) -- This is relatively straightforward. There will be WORLD PEACE. This is further elaborated in Isaiah 11:6-8, where even the animals are at peace with one another.
• Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world -- on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9) -- Everyone on Earth should naturally feel compelled to agree that the Lord is One, just as everyone one Earth naturally feels compelled to agree that gravity exists or that the world is round.
• The Messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1) -- Again, pretty straightforward, the Messiah must have an Earthly father and be descended from the Davidic Line.
• The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance.(Deuteronomy 13:1-4) -- Since the Messiah is the resolution of the problems of this world and nothing can be added or detracted from the Law, people will naturally follow the Law.
• The dead shall rise from their graves and death shall be abolished for eternal life (Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2). -- There would be a mass rising of the dead and all people who returned to life and who continued to live would become immortal.

It is worth noting that no Messianic Candidate to date (Jesus, Bar Kochba, Shabbetai Tzvi, Menachem Mendel Shneersohn, among others) has fulfilled any of these requirements.