Part I: The Messianic idea in the period of the prophets -- Belief in the Messiah and the Messianic expectation -- The source and beginnings of the Messianic idea -- Allusions to the Messianic idea in the Pentateuch and former prophets -- Amos and Hosea -- Isaiah -- Micah and Nahum -- Zephaniah and Habakkuk -- Jeremiah -- Ezekiel -- Obadiah -- Hymns of the exile in the book of Psalms -- Deutero-Isaiah -- Haggai and Zechariah -- Joel and Malachi -- Psalms from the period of the Second Temple -- Daniel -- General survey. Part II: The Messianic idea in the books of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha -- A. The Messianic idea in the Apocrypha -- Ben-Sira -- I Maccabees -- II Maccabees -- Judith -- Tobit -- The Apocryphal Baruch -- The Wisdom of Solomon -- B. The Messianic idea in the Pseudepigrapha -- The "Ethiopic" book of Enoch -- The Book of Jubilees -- The Testament of the Twelve Tribes -- The Psalms of Solomon -- The Assumption of Moses -- The Syriac Book of Baruch -- The Pseudepigraphic (Fourth) Book of Ezra -- The biblical antiquities -- The Sibylline Oracles -- The Greek Book of Baruch -- The Slavonic Book of Enoch -- C. General survey. Part III: The Messianic idea in the period of the Tannaim -- The Messianic idea in the Tannaitic and Post-Tannaitic periods (introduction) -- The Messianic age and the world to come -- The "end" and the Messianic age -- The prerequisites of messiah's coming -- The birth pangs of Messiah -- Eliijah, the forerunner of the Messiah -- The name and personality of the Messiah -- The ingathering of the exiles and the reception of proselytes -- Messiah ben Joseph and the war with Gog and Magog -- The Messianic age and the signs of the Messiah -- Appendix: The Jewish and the Christian Messiah.