IT may not be altogether without interest, as illustrating the
growth of some of the ideas referred to in the preceding
chapters, to take a brief glance at some of the eschatological
ideas contained in the later Jewish literature. Frequently,
however, what is said on the subject in this literature reflects
much earlier thought; so that while in some cases we may trace
development, in others it is nothing more than the
crystallisation of traditions that have been handed down for
generations. In Rabbinical writings the technical term for the
terrors of the "last times," previous to the Advent of the
Messiah, is Cheble ha-Meshiach or Cheblo shel Mashiach, the
"birth-pangs," 1 or "travail" of the Messiah (Shabbath 118a). In
the Mishnah tractate, Sota ix. 15, we have the following account
of these travails: "As traces of the approach of Messiah are to
be regarded that arrogance increases, ambition shoots up, that
the vine yields fruit and yet wine is dear. The government turns
to heresy. There is no instruction. T