"In a world that challenges notions that have dominated New Testament scholarship for more than a hundred years, Israel Knohl gives startling evidence for a messianic precursor to Jesus, who is described as the "Suffering Servant" in recently published fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Messiah before Jesus clarifies many formerly incomprehensible aspects of Jesus' life and confirms the story in the New Testament about his messianic awareness. Knohl shows that at around the time of Jesus' birth, there came into being a concept of "catastrophic" messianism in which the suffering, humiliation, and death of the Messiah were regarded as an integral part of the redemptive process."--BOOK JACKET.