Encyclopedia Judaica 6:861 & 10:390,
“The Bible has no word for the abstract idea of eschatology. It does however, have a term-‘aharit ha-yamim-that often has eschatological connotations, at least in the broad sense mentioned above, it means literally ‘the end of the days’ i.e., ‘the end of time.’_.Towards the end of the second Temple period, when ominous clouds of complete national catastrophe began to gather, the eschatological note was sounded particularly loudly. Speculations were rife regarding the end of days and hope for a new era to be ushered in by direct divine intervention.
The doctrine of the Messiah and the messianic age, herald by the prophet, was seen as a hope shortly to be realized. Some groups of Jews fled into the desert to await the coming of the Messiah, as it is evidenced by the sect of Qumran (held by most scholars to be identical with the Essenes).”
Hebrew scholars Michael Wise and James Tabor,
“show that because of Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy, the Qumran community believed that the Messiah was going to come in the era in which they lived (first century BCE-first century CE). ‘We know the Qumran group was intensely interested in this seventy weeks prophecy of Daniel.
They tried to place themselves within this chronological scheme as they calculated the eschaton. They must have made something out of this Messiah figure who was cut off_The teacher of righteousness, frequently referred to in the Qumran documents, appears to be the Messiah figure of Davidic descent, who is connected by the writers at Qumran specifically with the figure written about in Daniel 9:25.’”1
Midrash Rabbah Genesis XCVII,
“THE SCEPTRE [STAFF] SHALL NOT DEPART FROM JUDAH alludes to the Messiah, son of David, who will chastise the State with a staff.”
Daniel and the Coming Messiah:
Many ancient and modern Rabbis, as well as Jewish scholars in general, apply Daniel’s prophecies to the Messiah the ultimate redeemer, to the end, or calculated, days (a reference to the 70 weeks prophecy).
Babylonian Talmud-Megillah 12a,
“R. Nahman son of R. Hisda gave the following exposition. What is the meaning of the verse, Thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden [Isa. XLV, 1.]. Now was Cyrus the Messiah? Rather what it means is: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the Messiah: I have a complaint on thy behalf against Cyrus [And we translate: ‘God said to his anointed regarding Cyrus.’].”
While in Babylon Daniel the prophet received revelation about the specific time when the Messiah would come, the following quotes reveal various reactions to such a clear revelation, the prophecy either failed or it points to Jesus as being the Messiah.
Rabbi Moses Abraham Levi,
“I have examined and searched all the Holy Scriptures and have not found the time of the coming of Messiah clearly fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are written in the 9th chapter of the prophecy of Daniel.”2
Rabbi Maimonides wrote,
“Daniel has elucidated to us the knowledge of the end times. However, since they are secret, the wise [rabbis] have barred the calculation of the days of the Messiah’s coming so that the untutored populace will not be led astray when they see that the End Times have already come but there is no sign of the Messiah.” He concludes, “It is a fundamental dogma to believe in the coming of the Messiah, even if he delays. But no one should attempt to guess or fix the time.”3
Gerson D. Cohen,
“The books of Daniel and of other apocalyptists abound with theories as to the exact date of the messianic End. That people took these religious mathematicians seriously is evident from the Rabbinic excoriation of ‘calculators of the end.’”4
Talmud-Nazir 32b, Rabbi Joseph said,
“Had I had been there, I should have said to them: is it not written, the temple of the Lord the temple, of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these, which points to the destruction of the First and Second Temples?
Granted that they [the rabbis of the Second Temple period] knew it would be destroyed, did they know when this would occur? Is it not written, seventy weeks are determined upon the people, and upon the holy city. All the same, did they know on which day?”
Here we see one of many examples of the understanding that the Messiah should have already come:Talmud-Sanhedrin 97a-b,
“The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation,(1) two thousand years the Torah flourished,(2) and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era,(3) but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost.(4)
Footnotes: (1) I.e., no Torah. It is a tradition that Abraham was fifty-two years old when he began to convert men to the worship of the true God; from Adam until then, two thousand years elapsed.
(2) I.e., from Abraham’s fifty-second year until one hundred and seventy-two years after the destruction of the second Temple. This does not mean that the Torah should cease thereafter, but is mentioned merely to distinguish it from the next era.
(3) I.e., Messiah will come within that period.
(4) He should have come at the beginning of the last two thousand years; the delay is due to out sins.
According to this particular calculation the Messiah should have come in 142 CE (AD), but He did not do so due to Israel’s sins.