Note 522:3 — Chapter XL
Reading edition
"There was, at this time, a prevalent expectation that some remarkable personage was about to appear in Judea. The Jews were anxiously looking for the coming of the Messiah. This personage, they supposed, would be a temporal prince, and they were expecting that he would deliver them from Roman bondage." (Albert Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 7.)
"The central and dominant characteristic of the teaching of the Rabbis, was the certain advent of a great national Deliverer—the Messiah. . . . The national mind had become so inflammable, by constant brooding on this one theme, that any bold spirit rising in revolt against the Roman power, could find an army of fierce disciples who trusted that it should be he who would redeem Israel." (Geikie: The Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 79.)