The Suffering Messiah Ephraim

This concluding chapter focuses on the seemingly traditional task of the Messiah as the redeemer of Israel at the end of time. It looks at the idea of the suffering Messiah that evolved from the suffering servant in Isaiah, which was in turn adopted by the New Testament and expanded to include the notion of the Messiah's vicarious expiatory suffering—and was therefore completely ignored by the rabbis. This idea returns in a series of midrashim, in which a Messiah named Ephraim appears of whom God demands that he take upon himself the sins of the people of Israel; only after the Messiah accepts this strange request does God agree to create humankind. Hence, it is ultimately the Messiah's expiatory suffering that guarantees creation and redemption.