In this systematic and radical work, Oegema studies the origins and development of expectations of a messiah-royal, priestly or prophetic. In five parts, all the Jewish and Christian literature from 200 BCE to 200 CE is analysed for its messianic interests. Special attention is devoted to the Pseudepigrapha, the Qumran literature, Philo, Josephus, the writings of the Early Church, the Jewish Apocalypses and the early Rabbinic writings. In this important work, Oegema contends that we cannot speak of a 'messianic idea' in Judaism, but that we can trace a historical trajectory of messianic expectations.