The Sword of the Messiah 49 not envisaged as liberating the whole of Israel but a righteous Israel- within-Israel (44). Although the imagery of warfare is present in these writings, there is no evidence that the messianic figures were expected to have any real military function. Instead, the warfare is “spiri- tualized” in that the messiah will destroy the wicked by means of a spiritual or supernatural (though real and violent) force, namely, the Spirit-imbued word of his mouth (45). Messianic apocalypticism did not advocate human violent revolution but supported a “quietist” attitude in that it envisaged a liberation by God’s messiah, which was nevertheless real and violent (46). Hence, Palestinian messianic apoca- lypticism expressed a spirituality that was rooted in political and remnant ideologies. We now turn to the Fourth Gospel to examine to what extent the Johannine Jesus adheres to this picture. II. Oppression, Liberation and the Sword of the Messiah in the Fourth Gospel In the introduction to section I, we mentioned that the Fourth Gospel depicts Jesus as the Spirit-endowed Davidic messiah, but now we need to examine how the Johannine messiah operates (47). If the Fourth Gospel depicts Jesus as a messianic liberator, we must find out whom, and from whom or what he will liberate. Moreover, by what means does Jesus liberate? Should we agree with Collins’ observation that “[t]here is nothing in the Gospels to suggest that Jesus wielded a sword against anyone, either by hand or mouth” (48)? Can the Johannine Jesus and his movement be regarded as quietists, activists or anything else? We mentioned at the outset the virtual silence of scholarship on the subject, and consequently we will start to address these issues by elucidating the Johannine concepts of oppression, liberation and Jesus’ “sword”. Due to the limitations of this article, we can merely sketch (44) Cf. Elliott, who makes a convincing case that Second Temple Judaism depicted an a-nationalistic messianology, i.e., a messiah-for-the-elect (Survivors, 469-514). (45) Cf. HORSLEY – HANSON, Bandits, 130. (46) Cf. COLLINS, Scepter, 55; ID., Imagination, 277-278. (47) For general treatments of Jesus as messiah in the Fourth Gospel, see M. DE JONGE, “Jewish Expectations about the ‘Messiah’ according to the Fourth Gospel”, NTS 19 (1973) 246-270; D. NEUFELD, “‘And When That One Comes’: Aspects of Johannine Messianism”, Eschatology, Messianism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. C.A. EVANS – P.W. FLINT) (Grand Rapids 1997) 120-140. (48) COLLINS, Imagination, 278.