Menahem ben Ammiel

Menahem ben Ammiel, or ben Amiel, is a character in apocalyptic Jewish texts, the future Messiah ben David of the Sefer Zerubbabel. He fights with Armilus, the Jewish apocalyptic counterpart of the Christian Book of Revelation's Antichrist.^[1]

He was born during the reign of king David. In some copies of the text he is born on the day the first temple is destroyed.^[2] A wind carried him to the city of Nineveh mighty Rome where he remains waiting for the eschaton. He can be found at the “house of filth” near the market where he is imprisoned. He is presented as having a despicable, broken down image and to be in pain. His appearance is an illusion.^[3]

Some have suggested that Amiel is a cipher for Hezekiah and that he is the same as Menahem ben Hezekiah^[4]

Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer like the Sefer Zerubbabel refers to Menahem ben Ammiel. He is referred to as the son of Joseph. In others editions the name Menahem son of Ammiel son of Joseph is omitted and the text simple refers to the son of David. According to the Zohar and the Sefer Zerubbabel, Menahem is the Messiah ben David^[5]

References

1. Joseph Dan, chapter in Toward the millennium: messianic expectations from the Bible to Waco ed. Peter Schäfer, Mark R. Cohen p84
2. John C. Reeves (2005). Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader. Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta. p. 55. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
3. "Sefer Zerubbabel". Translated by John C. Reeves. University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Retrieved 2014-01-17.
4. John C. Reeves (2005). Trajectories in Near Eastern Apocalyptic: A Postrabbinic Jewish Apocalypse Reader. Society of Biblical Literature Atlanta. p. 53. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
5. Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, Translated by Gerald Friedlander (1916). Pirḳê de Rabbi Eliezer. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner. p. 131. Retrieved 26 May 2014.