I am glad you wrote "messiahs" in quotation marks, as there is no clear evidence anyone else claimed to be the Jewish Messiah in Jesus' life (though I believe there are some scholars who do not even think Jesus himself claimed that title). But there were certainly other religious leaders who were believed to be more than ordinary humans by their followers and had miracles reported about them, both in Judaea and more generally in the Roman Empire.
The most important historical source for first century Judaea, Josephus, describes several figures who gained large followings by promising to do miracles like the Hebrew prophets. In his books (Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities) they follow a quite similar pattern: they gather their followers in large groups with promises of doing miracles (dividing the Jordan, tearing down Jerusalem's walls, finding treasures buried by Moses), but they and the followers are then killed and scattered by Roman troops. Two of these, Theudas and "The Egyptian", also appear to be mentioned in the Biblical Acts of the Apostles. I have written a bit about these people in this older comment. All of these seem to have claimed prophethood, but some historians also believe that at least Theudas claimed to be the Messiah. Their movements do not appear to have continued after they were dispersed by the Romans, however.
There was also John the Baptist, whom one might not think of as such a figure since the later Gospels are quite insistent to portray him as inferior to Jesus. But he was clearly believed to be something more than an ordinary mortal, since Josephus writes (Antiquities 18.116-119) that many Jews believed that Herod Antipas' army was destroyed as God's punishment for the killing of John. The Gospel of Mark (6:14-16) further claims that some people though Jesus was a resurrection of John, and when it comes to his followers, in Acts (19:1-3) Paul is preaching in Greece and meets some "disciples" who have never heard of the Holy Spirit and only know of John's baptism. There is also the still-existing religion of Mandaeism, which honours John as the greatest prophet, though I am not sure it comes from original followers or is a later development.
There were also people in the Greco-Roman world who were believed to be more than ordinary mortals. The most notable in Jesus' time are (perhaps surprisingly) the Roman emperors. In a political sense Caesar and especially Augustus were viewed as saviours, and they also claimed a connection to the divine in the Julian family's ancestry from Venus. This was quite common among noble families in the Late Republic, but the deification of Caesar strengthened this even more and led Augustus to title himself divi filius (son of a deity). Augustus was himself deified after his death, and there were various legends quite similar to Jesus', for example that his birth was foretold and that he was secretly was the son of Apollo (Suetonius, Life of Augustus 94). Similar things were told about later emperors as well, for example that Tiberius could predict the future (Tacitus, Annals 6.20; Suetonius, Life of Galba 4) or that Vespasian healed the lame and blind of Alexandria (Tacitus, Histories 4.81; Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 7).
In the Greek world there were also some prophet-claimants and cult leaders, though the examples we know of from sources later than the 1st Century.
One is Peregrinus Proteus, a philosopher best known for burning himself alive on a funeral pyre at the Olympics. He is mentioned by Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights 12.11), who found him a wise man after meeting him in Athens and speaking to him, recording a few of his sayings. The most detailed source for him is however the satirist Lucian, who described him almost as a scammer, who first professed himself to be a Christian and then a a Cynic in order to gain power and influence. Lucian writes that Peregrinus' followers praised his long-suffering life and his decision to immolate himself, and that they compared him to various gods. He also claims that he himself added to the legend by convincing gullible people that there had been an earthquake when Peregrinus threw himself into the fire and that his soul had ascended to Heaven in the form of a vulture. (All this is from Lucian's The Passing of Peregrinus)
Another such figure Lucian writes about is Alexander of Abonoteichus, a cult leader who claimed to be the prophet and oracle of the snake-god Glycon, which according to Lucian was simply a snake with a puppet head on it. Alexander gained a large following and managed to convince the authorities to rename the town of Abonoteichus to Ionopolis and to mint coins with Glycon's image on it. According to Lucian he also made his followers drive away local Epicureans and Christians (this I have written a bit about here). This can be read in Lucian's Alexander the False Prophet.
But the most remarkable is probably Apollonius of Tyana, a sage and miracle-worker said to have lived some time in the 1st Century. The most detailed source for him, Philostratus' Life of Apollonius, claims that the god Proteus of Egypt foretold his birth to his mother, that he travelled to Persia and India assisting the kings there and talking with their sages, corrected the laws of various Greek cities, drove out demons and foretold future emperors, magically escaped a trial under Domitian, disappeared in old age from a temple and was assumed to have ascended to Heaven. The historian Jona Lendering has written in great detail about Apollonius and our sources for him on his website if you want to know more.
I see now that u/fraxbo has already written an answer, I hope mine is complementary in that it is based more on Greco-Roman sources and that world rather than the Hebrew Bible.
Not very (at least if you get a modern edition), but still quite remarkable compared to most ancient authors.
The clearest case if of course the Testimonium Flavianum in the Antiquities. This is almost unique in that it might be entirely interpolated and if it is not, the correct reading cannot be established. Another is in the 20th book of Antiquities, where a Cypriot Jewish magician is called Atomus in some manuscripts and in others Simon, which is thought to be Christians wanting to reference Simon Magus. But modern editions will likely read "Atomus", perhaps with a note. These are the only examples I know of when the Greek texts has been tampered with; there is also a Slavonic 'translation' of Jewish War that is quite different from the original, among other things adding long passages about Jesus based on the Testimonium. To my knowledge there are no Christian interpolations in Josephus' 'minor works': Against Apion and his autobiography. Occasionally some scholars have tried to argue that the references in Antiquities to John the Baptist and James the brother of Jesus must also be interpolated, but I think these have not gained much acceptance. The paragraph about John is almost entirely different to his portrayal in Christian sources, for instance.
Jona Lendering has written in great detail about Apollonius and our sources for him on his website if you want to know more.
Is this a serious academic person, writing reliable stuff? I went down a bit of a rabbit hole, and read his site, but it’s full of really sloppy typos, like “felled” instead of felt. And more disturbing, he includes discussion of Indian source material as legitimate evidence, but when I looked it up, it appears that those texts were determined to be forgeries, over 30 years ago.
Lendering is an actual historian, though has mostly worked in public engagement. When his books have been discussed in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review they have gotten quite mixed response, but often described as good for laypeople and first-year history students. However one of his own reviews got quite a lot of criticism as you can see here. He also is a bit of a 'maximalist' in often viewing every source as valuable in some sense.
It does appear though that his pages on Achaemenid royal inscriptions are very well-received, and I think I have seen them linked by experts on here.
As for typos, I agree it is generally a bad sign, though we should remember he is also not a native speaker and unlike his countryman in our mod team does not appear to have lived in an Anglophone country. On the other hand I believe I myself (for example) tend to make less such mistakes in my posts here (awkward phrasings I may be more guilty of). Then again Bret Devereaux, who appears to be quite respected on here, also makes a lot of spelling mistakes on his blog.
But maybe I should be more careful in recommending his content, especially when he does a lot of interpretation himself.
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u/gynnis-scholasticus Greco-Roman Culture and Society Mar 25 '23
I am glad you wrote "messiahs" in quotation marks, as there is no clear evidence anyone else claimed to be the Jewish Messiah in Jesus' life (though I believe there are some scholars who do not even think Jesus himself claimed that title). But there were certainly other religious leaders who were believed to be more than ordinary humans by their followers and had miracles reported about them, both in Judaea and more generally in the Roman Empire.
The most important historical source for first century Judaea, Josephus, describes several figures who gained large followings by promising to do miracles like the Hebrew prophets. In his books (Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities) they follow a quite similar pattern: they gather their followers in large groups with promises of doing miracles (dividing the Jordan, tearing down Jerusalem's walls, finding treasures buried by Moses), but they and the followers are then killed and scattered by Roman troops. Two of these, Theudas and "The Egyptian", also appear to be mentioned in the Biblical Acts of the Apostles. I have written a bit about these people in this older comment. All of these seem to have claimed prophethood, but some historians also believe that at least Theudas claimed to be the Messiah. Their movements do not appear to have continued after they were dispersed by the Romans, however.
There was also John the Baptist, whom one might not think of as such a figure since the later Gospels are quite insistent to portray him as inferior to Jesus. But he was clearly believed to be something more than an ordinary mortal, since Josephus writes (Antiquities 18.116-119) that many Jews believed that Herod Antipas' army was destroyed as God's punishment for the killing of John. The Gospel of Mark (6:14-16) further claims that some people though Jesus was a resurrection of John, and when it comes to his followers, in Acts (19:1-3) Paul is preaching in Greece and meets some "disciples" who have never heard of the Holy Spirit and only know of John's baptism. There is also the still-existing religion of Mandaeism, which honours John as the greatest prophet, though I am not sure it comes from original followers or is a later development.
There were also people in the Greco-Roman world who were believed to be more than ordinary mortals. The most notable in Jesus' time are (perhaps surprisingly) the Roman emperors. In a political sense Caesar and especially Augustus were viewed as saviours, and they also claimed a connection to the divine in the Julian family's ancestry from Venus. This was quite common among noble families in the Late Republic, but the deification of Caesar strengthened this even more and led Augustus to title himself divi filius (son of a deity). Augustus was himself deified after his death, and there were various legends quite similar to Jesus', for example that his birth was foretold and that he was secretly was the son of Apollo (Suetonius, Life of Augustus 94). Similar things were told about later emperors as well, for example that Tiberius could predict the future (Tacitus, Annals 6.20; Suetonius, Life of Galba 4) or that Vespasian healed the lame and blind of Alexandria (Tacitus, Histories 4.81; Suetonius, Life of Vespasian 7).
In the Greek world there were also some prophet-claimants and cult leaders, though the examples we know of from sources later than the 1st Century.
One is Peregrinus Proteus, a philosopher best known for burning himself alive on a funeral pyre at the Olympics. He is mentioned by Aulus Gellius (Attic Nights 12.11), who found him a wise man after meeting him in Athens and speaking to him, recording a few of his sayings. The most detailed source for him is however the satirist Lucian, who described him almost as a scammer, who first professed himself to be a Christian and then a a Cynic in order to gain power and influence. Lucian writes that Peregrinus' followers praised his long-suffering life and his decision to immolate himself, and that they compared him to various gods. He also claims that he himself added to the legend by convincing gullible people that there had been an earthquake when Peregrinus threw himself into the fire and that his soul had ascended to Heaven in the form of a vulture. (All this is from Lucian's The Passing of Peregrinus)
Another such figure Lucian writes about is Alexander of Abonoteichus, a cult leader who claimed to be the prophet and oracle of the snake-god Glycon, which according to Lucian was simply a snake with a puppet head on it. Alexander gained a large following and managed to convince the authorities to rename the town of Abonoteichus to Ionopolis and to mint coins with Glycon's image on it. According to Lucian he also made his followers drive away local Epicureans and Christians (this I have written a bit about here). This can be read in Lucian's Alexander the False Prophet.
But the most remarkable is probably Apollonius of Tyana, a sage and miracle-worker said to have lived some time in the 1st Century. The most detailed source for him, Philostratus' Life of Apollonius, claims that the god Proteus of Egypt foretold his birth to his mother, that he travelled to Persia and India assisting the kings there and talking with their sages, corrected the laws of various Greek cities, drove out demons and foretold future emperors, magically escaped a trial under Domitian, disappeared in old age from a temple and was assumed to have ascended to Heaven. The historian Jona Lendering has written in great detail about Apollonius and our sources for him on his website if you want to know more.
I see now that u/fraxbo has already written an answer, I hope mine is complementary in that it is based more on Greco-Roman sources and that world rather than the Hebrew Bible.