The centuries before and after Jesus was a time of intense conflict for the Jews. Jesus was not the first or last person to start a movement that many hoped would change the fate of God’s people. In Simply Jesus, N. T. Wright highlights four historical figures (Judah the Hammer, Simon the Star, Herod the Great, and Simon Bar-Giora) to illustrate how Jesus’s ministry compared and contrasted with other Messianic movements of this time. He concludes, “This detour into the history of would-be roy...
Many Messiahs, One King
