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List of messiah claimants

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Template:Short description This is a list of notable people who have been said to be a messiah, either by themselves or by their followers. The list is divided into categories, which are sorted according to date of birth, if it is known.

Jewish messiah claimantsEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In Judaism, "messiah" originally meant "a divinely appointed king" or "anointed one", such as Aaron the brother of Moses,Template:Citation needed David, Cyrus the Great<ref>Jewish Encyclopedia: Messiah: "In Isa. xlv. 1 Cyrus is called "God's anointed one," ...:</ref> or Alexander the Great.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Later, especially after the failure of the Hasmonean Kingdom (37 BC) and the Jewish–Roman wars (AD 66–135), the figure of the Jewish messiah was one who would deliver the Jews from oppression and usher in an Olam Haba ("world to come") or Messianic Age. However the term "false messiah" was largely absent from rabbinic literature. The first mention is in the Sefer Zerubbabel, from the mid-seventh century, which uses the term, mashiah sheker, ("false messiah").<ref>William Horbury, Markus Bockmuehl, James Carleton Paget: Redemption and resistance: the messianic hopes of Jews and Christians in antiquity Page 294 : (2007) Template:ISBN</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Christians<ref name="BBC">Christianity at a glance BBC. Retrieved 19 December 2011.</ref> (including Messianic Jews<ref name="Sherbok_170">Template:Cite book </ref>) believe him to be the Messiah.

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  • Sabbatai Zevi (alternative spellings: Shabbetai, Sabbetai, Shabbesai; Zvi, Tzvi) (b. at Smyrna 1626;<ref>Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626–1676, pp. 103–106 has a whole discussion of the historical probabilities that he was really born on the 9th of Av, which according to Jewish tradition is the date of the destruction of both Temples and is also the date 'prescribed' in some traditions for the birth of the Messiah.</ref> d. at Dulcigno (present day Ulcinj) 1676), a Sephardic ordained rabbi from Smyrna (now İzmir, Turkey), who was active throughout the Ottoman Empire and claimed to be the long-awaited Messiah. He was the founder of the Sabbatean movement, whose followers subsequently were to be known as Dönmeh "converts" or crypto-Jews<ref>Rifa N. Bali (2008), pp. 91-92</ref> - one of the most important messianic movements, whose influence was widespread throughout Jewry.Template:Cn His influence is felt even today. After his death, Sabbatai was followed by a line of putative followers who declared themselves Messiahs and are sometimes grouped as the "Sabbethaian Messiahs".<ref>Gershom Scholem, Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah: 1626-1676, Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1973 Template:ISBN, American Edition, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1973 Template:ISBN (hardcover edn.); Gershom Scholem, "Shabbetai Zevi," in Encyclopaedia Judaica, Second Edition, Farmington Hills, Michigan, 2007, vol. 18, pp. 340–359. Template:ISBN.</ref>
  • Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh Rebbe of Chabad Lubavitch; some of his followers believed that he was the Jewish Messiah during his lifetime, and some of them continue to believe so after his death in 1994.<ref name="Magid 2019">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Nadler 2010">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Saul 2007">Template:Cite news</ref> The number of believers grew in size after his death.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some of his followers believe that Schneerson never died.<ref name="Magid 2019"/><ref name="Nadler 2010"/><ref name="Saul 2007"/> While Schneerson remained cryptic about such assertions, many of his followers do believe he was the Jewish Messiah.<ref name="Magid 2019"/><ref name="Nadler 2010"/><ref name="Saul 2007"/> The issue remains controversial within both the Chabad movement and the broader Jewish community.<ref name="davidberger">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=josephtelushkin>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="davidberger2">Messianic Excess, Rabbi Prof. David Berger (Yeshiva University), The Jewish Week, June 25, 2004</ref><ref name="Toward">Peter Schäfer, Mark R. Cohen, Editors (1998) Toward the Millennium: Messianic Expectations from the Bible to Waco BRILL, Template:ISBN, p. 399</ref>

Christian messiah claimantsEdit

File:Rev. Sun Myung Moon speaks, Las Vegas, NV, USA on April 4, 2010.png
Sun Myung Moon
File:Death of simon magus.jpg
Simon Magus

Template:See also The Christian Bible states that Jesus will come again in some fashion; various people have claimed to, in fact, be the Second Coming of Jesus. Others have styled themselves new messiahs under the umbrella of Christianity. The Synoptic gospels (Matthew 24:4, 6, 24; Mark 13:5, 21-22; and Luke 21:3) all use the term pseudochristos for messianic pretenders.<ref>Harris Lenowitz The Jewish Messiahs: From the Galilee to Crown Heights age 31 (2001) Template:ISBN</ref>

  • Ann Lee (1736–1784), a central figure to the Shakers,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> who thought she "embodied all the perfections of God" in female form and considered herself in 1772 to be Christ's female counterpart.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), founder and leader of the Unification Church established in Seoul, South Korea, who considered himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.<ref name=maass>Moon At Twilight: Amid scandal, the Unification Church has a strange new mission, Peter Maass New Yorker Magazine, September 14, 1998. "Moon sees the essence of his own mission as completing the one given to Jesus--establishing a "true family" untouched by Satan while teaching all people to lead a God-centered life under his spiritual leadership."..."Although Moon often predicts in his sermons that a breakthrough is near, Moffitt realizes that Moon may not come to be seen as the messiah in his lifetime."</ref> It is generally believed by Unification Church members ("Moonies") that he was the Messiah and the Second Coming of Christ and was anointed to fulfill Jesus's unfinished mission.<ref name=maass />
  • Anne Hamilton-Byrne (born Evelyn Grace Victoria Edwards; 30 December 1921 – 13 June 2019), founder of The Family, Australia, claimed to have been the reincarnation of Jesus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Template:Ill (1931–2004), founder of the Victory Altar New Religious Movement, which refers to him as “the Victor Christ” and “God incarnated”. Died in the midst of a series of legal battles in which he was alternately convicted and acquitted on charges of fraud and instigation of the murders of multiple opponents.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Lee Man-Hee (born 15 September 1931), founder of Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a new religious movement based in South Korea. Also known as The One Who Overcomes, he claims to be chosen by Jesus to be the next immortal savior of the world<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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|CitationClass=web }}</ref> now known as Providence Church in 1980.<ref name="guru">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also considers himself the Second Coming of Christ, but not Jesus himself.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He believes he has come to finish the incomplete message and mission of Jesus Christ, asserting that he is the Messiah and has the responsibility to save all mankind.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He claims that the Christian doctrine of resurrection is false but that people can be saved through him. Jung Myung-seok was convicted of rape by the Supreme Court of Korea and spent 10 years in prison (2008-2018). He was again indicted in South Korea on October 28, 2022, for sexually assaulting two female followers between 2018 and 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël "messenger of the Elohim" (born 1946), a French professional test driver and former car journalist who became founder and leader of UFO religion the Raël Movement in 1972. Raëlism teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call Elohim. He claimed he met an extraterrestrial humanoid in 1973 and became the Messiah.<ref name="Raël, Intelligent Design.">Raël, Intelligent Design.</ref> He then devoted himself to the task he said he was given by his "biological father", an extraterrestrial named Yahweh.<ref name="Raël, Intelligent Design, 290-1.">Raël, Intelligent Design; 290-1.</ref>
  • José Luis de Jesús Miranda (1946–2013), founder and leader of Creciendo en Gracia sect (Growing In Grace International Ministry, Inc.), based in Miami, Florida. He was a Puerto Rican preacher who had claimed to be both "the Man Jesus Christ" and the Antichrist at the same time, and exhibited a "666" tattoo on his forearm, a behavior his followers also adopted. He has referred to himself as Jesucristo Hombre, which translates to "Jesus Christ made Man". He claimed he was indwelled with the same spirit that dwelled in Jesus. Miranda died on August 14, 2013, due to liver cancer.
  • Inri Cristo (born 1948) of Indaial, Brazil, a claimant to be the second Jesus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Apollo Quiboloy (born 1950), Filipino founder and leader of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ religious group, who claims that Jesus Christ is the "Almighty Father," that Quiboloy is "His Appointed Son," and that salvation is now completed. He proclaims himself to be the "Appointed Son of God". On November 11, 2021, Quiboloy was indicted by the United States Department of Justice for allegedly coercing girls and young women to have sex with him. These victims were threatened with eternal damnation and physical punishment if they didn’t comply. The indictment also included allegations that Quiboloy ran a sex-trafficking operation. Girls as young as 12 were allegedly trafficked through the fraudulent California charity “Children’s Joy.”<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Quiboloy was arrested by Philippine police on September 8, 2024.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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File:Dr. Ante Pavlović.jpg
Ante Pavlović on his horse.

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  • Yang Xiangbin (born 1973) is believed to be the identity of a woman referred to as "Lightning Deng" and "the female Christ" in the literature of Eastern Lightning, a Chinese Christian new religious movement. Zhao Weishan, founder and administrative leader of Eastern Lightning, claimed that Yang revealed herself to be the Second Coming of Christ in 1992.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Muslim messiah claimantsEdit

File:Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad2.jpg
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad

Template:See also

Islamic tradition has a prophecy of the Mahdi, who will come alongside the return of Isa (Jesus).

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="About GS.PK">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and RAGS International, now known as Messiah Foundation International.<ref name="Guardian">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="independent">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="jobshire">Template:Citation</ref> MFI reports that Shahi claimed to be the Mahdi, Messiah, and Kalki Avatar.<ref name="UNHCR2">Template:Citation</ref><ref name="BBCUrdu12">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BBCUrdu22">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="UNHCR">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} </ref><ref name="BBCUrdu1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="BBCUrdu2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shahi has been also accused of claiming the status of a prophet.<ref name="DAWN">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="moon">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Shahi's supporters claim that his face became prominent on the Moon, Sun, nebula star and the Black Stone in Mecca, and that these appearances are signs from God that Gohar Shahi is the awaited Mahdi, Messiah, and Kalki Avatar.<ref name="hrrpt">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to MFI's website, Shahi claimed to be Awaited Messiah, but not the second coming of Jesus and claim that Jesus has also returned to support the Shahi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Gohar Shahi claimed to have met with Jesus in America.<ref name="GoharJesus">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Mainstream Muslim scholars have rejected Shahi's claims, and condemned his teachings as blasphemous.<ref name="Daily Times">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Zoroastrian messiah claimantsEdit

  • Bahram Chobin, after he usurped the throne of the Sassanian Empire, declared himself to be the Messiah in the midst of the eschatological times of the late 6th century AD<ref>Stephen Shoemaker, Imperial Eschatology in Late Antiquity and Early Islam, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018, pp. 108-110</ref>

Multiple messiah claimantsEdit

This list features people who are said, either by themselves or their followers, to be the messianic fulfillment of two or more religious traditions.

  • Baháʼu'lláh, Mirza Husayn 'Ali Nuri, (1817–1892), born Shiite, adopting Bábism in 1844 (see Báb or "Ali Muhammad Shirazi" in List of Mahdi claimants). In 1863, Baháʼu'lláh claimed to be the promised one of all religions, and founded the Baháʼí Faith.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He claimed to be the fulfillment of the prophecies of the coming of a promised figure found in all 6 of the major prophetic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism) as noted in the authoritative history of the Baha'i Faith.<ref>Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1944, pgs 94-97</ref> He also claimed to be the prophet predicted by the Báb as "He Whom God shall make manifest"<ref>Shoghi Effendi, God Passes By, Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1944, pg 97</ref> His followers have also claimed that his coming fulfilled prophecies of various smaller (often native) religions.

Other messiah claimantsEdit

This list features people who have been said, either by themselves or their followers, to be some form of a messiah that do not easily fit into Jewish, Christian, Islamic or other eschatological traditions.

  • Cyrus Teed (1839–1908), proponent of the Hollow Earth theory who created a distinct model in which the world is an inverted sphere that the rest of universe can be seen from by looking inward and claimed to be the incarnation of Jesus Christ after being electrically shocked when attempting to practice alchemy with doses of magnetism during 1869.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
  • Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) of Nazi Germany has been claimed by some practitioners of Esoteric Nazism as the messiah, including Colin Jordan,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> Savitri Devi,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Miguel Serrano.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hitler had never claimed to be the messiah during his life, having had changing views towards religion.

  • Chris Cantelmo (1962–2019), founder and leader of Cantelmoism, a religious movement based on the belief that one can contact God using the drug DMT.<ref name="vice">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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  • Nirmala Srivastava (1923–2011), guru of Sahaja Yoga, proclaimed herself to be the Comforter promised by Jesus (that is, the incarnation of the Holy Ghost / Adi Shakti).<ref>Judith Coney, Sahaja Yoga: Socializing Processes in a South Asian New Religious Movement (1999) p27 "She began her mission of salvation in earnest, establishing a reputation as a faith healer ... Then, on December 2nd, 1979, in London, she unequivocally declared her divinity to her followers: '[Today] is the day I declare that I am the One who has to save the humanity. I declare, I am the one who is Adi Shakti, who is the Mother of all the mothers, who is the Primordial Mother, the Shakti, the purest desire of God, who has incarnated on this Earth to give meaning to itself...' Since then, she is most often understood by her followers to be the Devi, the Goddess of Indian mythology, returned to save the world."</ref>
  • World Teacher, a being claimed to be the Theosophical Maitreya and the Messiah (promised one) of all religions. He is said to have descended from the higher planes and manifested a physical body in early 1977 in the Himalayas, then on 19 July 1977 he is said to have taken a commercial airplane flight from Pakistan to England. He is currently said to be living in secret in London;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=SI1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Niebuhr, Gustav. "New Millennium, Great Expectations." The New York Times, July 20, 1996</ref> promoted by New Age activist Benjamin Creme and his organization, Share International (See Maitreya (Benjamin Creme)).

  • David Icke (born 29 April 1952), New Age conspiracy theorist who came up with the idea of Draconians<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and claimed to be the "son of God" during an interview on Wogan in 1991.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Ezra Miller (born 1992), an actor, has claimed to be Jesus, the next Messiah, and the devil, saying they would bring about a Native American revolution.<ref name="VanityFair">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

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Other sourcesEdit

  • Hogue, John Messiahs: The Visions and Prophecies for the Second Coming (1999) Elements Books Template:ISBN
  • Jewish Encyclopedia, a public-domain work hosted at www.jewishencyclopedia.com/ Template:Webarchive
  • Andreas Plagge: "Oskar Ernst Bernhardt". In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Band 22, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, Template:ISBN, Sp. 120–122, [1].
  • Lothar Gassmann: Zukunft, Zeit, Zeichen. Aufruf zur Wachsamkaeit, Verlag für Reformatorische Erneurung, Kaiserstr.78, D-42329 Wuppertal, 103 Seiten, [2].
  • Patrick Diemling: Neuoffenbarungen Religionswissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf Texte und Medien des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2012, [3].
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