Seder Olam Revisited: C46a- Sabbateanism
- Albert Benhamou
- Oct 18
- 16 min read
Updated: Nov 21
CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORY
Generation 46: Hebrew years 5400-5520 (1640-1760 CE)
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Introduction
This chronological generation witnesses great turmoil in the European Jewish communities, mainly with two new currents: Sabbateanism, a messianic movement based on the belief that Sabbatai Zevi was the Messiah, and Hasidism, a spiritual movement based on the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov about how to connect with God on every day's actions. Sabbateanism became marginal while Hasidism became popular and widespread in Jewish communities.
Hebrew Year | CE | Event | Source |
5402 | 1642 | The Ussher chronology | |
5408 | 1648 | Sabbatai Zevi | Baruch d'Arezzo, Mémoire aux Enfants d'Israël dans les jours de Mahmoud IV |
5408 | 1648 | The Cossacks of Khmelnytsky | |
5416 | 1656 | The return of the Jews to England | |
5416 | 1656 | Excommunication of Spinoza | |
5426 | 1666 | Conversion of Balthasar Orobio | |
5426 | 1666 | Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam | |
5430 | 1670 | Raphael Levy is burnt at the stake in France | |
5435 | 1675 | The Esnoga, the Portuguese synagogue of Amsterdam |
Year 5402 – 1642 CE – The Ussher chronology
James Ussher, an archbishop of Ireland, published around 1642 a new Biblical chronology to assess the date of the Creation and explain the timeline of events until the revolt of the Maccabees. Ussher calculated that the Creation took place in 4004 BCE, following the Julian Calendar.
Why 4004 BCE? Ussher based his calculations from three methods to cover three respective periods:
From Adam to the First Temple: the Biblical text seemed clear enough and with no major difficulty if we except that the date of the First Temple may be opened to interpretation, based on the Biblical text, as explained in this study (see document C23b, year 1015 BCE).
The period of Judges and of Kings is more blur in the Biblical text because one would have to understand that dates of reigns are set according to the start of Hebrew years, that were different in the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel (see document C24, year 979 BCE); besides some kings ruled while their father was still alive, so the dates of reigns overlapped; and there are more obstacles with the kingdoms' chronologies; all these difficulties have created a major issue for Biblical enthusiasts, even today.
Then the period of Exile in Babylon and return to Sion, lack precise Biblical details, and until the period of the Maccabees is out of Biblical scope (except for the New Testament which included the Book of the Maccabees in the Old Testament); so, Ussher synchronized his Biblical chronology with the year of Nebuchadnezzar's death which was known in his time.
But Ussher was an archbishop. He considered that the world duration of 6000 years (according to Jewish tradition) should conveniently split between 4000 years before the birth of Jesus and 2000 years after. There was no backing from scriptures for his claim. And, as Ussher knew that Jesus was not born in the start of the Common Era but 4 years earlier (this error was made by Denys Le Petit in Byzantine times but it was never corrected by anyone; see document C36, year 525 CE), he moved back the year of Creation by 4 years to 4004 BCE. This was all arbitrarily set to match his chronology with a major Christian milestone: the birth of Jesus. Going from his assumption, Ussher then attempted to fit the events and the dates to match this milestone.
His chronology had major influence in later years, and was adopted by many people, religious and secular, simply because it was a first attempt from a Christian scholar to set a Biblical chronology. In comparison, the Biblical chronology followed by Jewish tradition is the Seder Olam (see document C33b, year 160 CE) which was composed about 1500 years before Ussher.
It is easy today to prove Ussher wrong: he considered that the world was created in 4004 BCE and that it had 6000 years to exist. In other words, the end of the world would have been in 6000 - 4004 = year 1996. And even for those who thought that Ussher was wrong about 4004 BCE but that it should be 4000 BCE, it is still wrong as the end of the world should have happened in year 2000.
Although, before the year 2000, there were people who believed that the world was ending in that year. Sect members committed mass suicide before the deadline, so to speak. Another example is the "Hebrew Roots" movement which was founded a couple of decades before the 2000 Millennium. In one issue of their magazine, Volume 2 Number 1 (1997), the following is stated:
Their [Jewish] chronology is missing approximately 241 years as compared to most Christian chronologies. Jewish chronology is believed to have been correct during the time of Yeshua [Jesus]. They expected the Messiah to come at the end of the first 4000 years and that is precisely when Yeshua was born. However, once Yeshua had been rejected as Messiah, by the leaders who later developed rabbinic Judaism, the Jewish scholars took another look at their chronology and decided they had miscalculated and decided to remove about 241 years. It is impossible to state dogmatically that we are currently [in year 1997] in the year 5998 [the actual Hebrew year for 1997 CE is 5757], but by anyone’s reasonable guess it is evident that we are truly in the last days as described in the Scriptures. (to read the issue online, click here)
This belief to be "in the last days" back in 1997 obviously became void once the clock passed the year 2000.
According to Jewish Tradition, the Creation took place in Hebrew year 3760 BCE so, fortunately, the world has still up to Hebrew year 2240 CE, so there are still another 215 years to go today in 2025. We can rest assured that, given the rise of nuclear power and mad regimes having access to it, the world would probably not last that long anyway, hence the "up to".
Year 5408 – 1648 CE – Sabbatai Zevi
Sabbatai Zevi was born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, in 1626 from parents from the old Greek Jewish establishment. This community of so-called Romaniotes was old, indeed, having settled over 2000 years in Greece, as remnants from those who escaped the Assyrian or Babylonian invasions.
The times when Sabbatai Zevi was born were times when Jewish and Christian scholars (such as those in Britain) investigated the time of the venue of the Messiah. There is a text in the Zohar that gives the following prediction:
And after six hundred years of the six thousand [when the sixth millennium will start], the gates of the supernal wisdom will be opened, as will the fountains of earthly wisdom, and the world will make preparations to enter on the seven thousand [the seventh millennium] as man makes preparations [for Shabbat] on the sixth day of the week, when the sun is about to set. (Zohar, part I, 117a)
Sabbatai Zevi studied the Talmud and Kabbalah from a youthful age and was influenced by the mystical teachings of Isaac Luria (see document C45, year 1570). According to his own interpretation of the above text, he thought that the 7th millennium (the so-called Shabbat ha-Gadol, the Great Shabbat, for the Justs) will start in the 6th century of the 6th millennium from Creation, meaning in Hebrew year 5500 which corresponds to the year 1740 CE. And, because the Messiah is supposed to arrive before the 7th millennium, Zevi concluded he would arrive anytime in the 100 years before the due year of 1740, hence anytime from the year 1640. But he made a miscalculation: the Zohar text says after six hundred years, so the timing to consider is from Hebrew year 5600, which is the year 1840. In addition, the Zohar text does not say that the Messiah will arrive at that time, but that supernal and earthly wisdom will be opened. People have since interpreted this sentence by saying that wisdom meant the development of sciences (earthly wisdom) that would lead to meeting the truth of the scriptures (supernal wisdom). Indeed, from around 1840, the Industrial Revolution started and, from then on, the modern era developed accompanied by intense research in the rules of Nature (quantum physics, atoms, Big Bang, etc.)
Coming back to Sabbatai Zevi, he declared to have messianic visions although most people of Smyrna did not pay much attention to his claims and rather saw him as mentally ill. After a couple of years, the rabbis of the city banned him, so he went to Constantinople where he found supporters to his messianic claims. He then heard that a theologian in Gaza called Nathan ben Elisha ha-Levi, nicknamed Nathan of Gaza, could heal people. He travelled there at the age of 22, in the year 1648, through Cairo then Gaza. And when they met, Nathan declared him to be the Messiah, and himself to be the prophet of the Messiah !
This changed the course of Zevi's life. They both travelled to Jerusalem claiming he was the Messiah and started to gather cores of hopeful or mystic followers in his trail. In these times, the Old Yishuv in the Land of Israel (meaning the Jewish community there) was going through challenging times, and the capital of mysticism, Safed, had been emptied of its Jews because of massacres at the hands of Muslims.
Nathan found in Sabbatai Zevi the perfect vehicle to spread his own writings and mystical theories, so he became the main vector for the formation of the Sabbateanism sect which then started to develop. Sabbatai was soon referred as Amirah, the acronym for the Hebrew expression saying Our Lord, our King, may be exalted and thanked (אדוננו מלכנו ירום הודו). In Arabic the word Amirah means female leader (it is the feminine form of Amir/Emir which means leader).
The fame of Sabbatai spread rapidly across all Europe, such was the hope among the Jewish communities for the venue of the Messiah who would deliver them from their exile after centuries of ordeals and persecutions. In the city of Avignon in Provence, in southern France, the Jewish community even started to make preparations to emigrate to the Land of Israel as there was expectation that they would soon be called to return to Sion:
And when these things were heard in the lands of Italy, especially in Venice, most believed that God remembered His people. And they made great repentance, greater than this city had ever witnessed from time immemorial. And they sent a messenger to Constantinople to ask if the rumor of our deliverance was true. And they received the answer that Sabbatai Zevi was the true Saviour, and that one who would not believe in him would be as if he did not believe in God... And in these days, all the Earth, in its four corners, East, West, North and South, was divided, class by class, group by group, and the news of our deliverance came and rose from everywhere, with those who believed and those who did not believe, and the others were in doubt. (Baruch d'Arezzo, "Mémoire aux Enfants d'Israël dans les jours de Mahmoud IV", translated from the French by Albert Benhamou)
Year 5408 – 1648 CE – The Cossacks of Khmelnytsky
In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a 50-year-old Cossack from Ukraine, led an uprising against the king of Poland for perceived unfair treatment towards Ukrainians (called Ruthenians at that time) who were subjects of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth established since 1569. The main cities of this entity were Warsaw, Krakow, and Vilnius, with many Jews living there at the time. Also, the wealth of Polish and Lithuanian landlords was often run by Jewish traders which led the nationalistic Khmelnitsky to hate Jews. During his rebellion, he exterminated every Jewish community that came under his hand. By Christmas 1648, he established an independent state in Ukraine. But, owing to his inability to run a state, he signed a treaty with Russia in 1654 which made Ukraine suzerain to the Tsar. Yet, part of Ukraine was Tatars who preferred to ally back with Poland, and this led to further conflicts between Cossacks and Tatars in this region.
Khmelnytsky is a national hero in Ukraine, as he fought to create its independence, even if it was short-lived. For Jews however, he left a long-lasting memory of massacres that were perpetrated under his orders. The most common estimate by historians is that over 100,000 Jews of Ukraine perished at the hand of the Cossacks of Khmelnytsky. Some communities were, however, spared in exchange for the payment of a tribute. This was the case of the community of Brody where 70% of the population was Jewish. In general, the Cossacks killed the Jews while the Tatars took them prisoners to the Black Sea and traded them to the Jewish communities of the Ottoman Empire against the payment of a ransom.
Year 5416 – 1656 CE – The return of Jews to England
Dutch Puritans petitioned Cromwell in 1655 to allow Jews back to England, as they considered that the (Christian) Redemption would not be possible without first the Jews to be scattered to all corners of the world. And obviously, England was one of these "corners" that should include Jews. Already, in 1654, a group of Sephardi Jews had sailed from Holland to the New World, following the path of Christian Pilgrims who had done so first. Some Jewish tombstones dating from 1656 had been found with Hebraic inscriptions in one cemetery of the old city of New York.
Menasseh ben Israel, a Rabbi of Portuguese origin established in Holland (he was born in Lisbon in 1604), came to London in 1656 and petitioned Cromwell on behalf of the Crypto-Jews living in the city. At the time, London had indeed many Marranos (also called Crypto-Jews) who were practicing Judaism in secret. These Marranos had fled Spain and Portugal to escape from the scrutiny of the Inquisition which had no grasp in England since the reign of Henry VIII (see document C44, year 1597). They were eager to have the decree of expulsion of Jews from England over-turned so that they could openly practice to their true faith.
Cromwell was attached to Scriptures, and prophecies, so he favored the return of the Jews. But a commission set in December 1656 opposed it. After several months of debates in England, Cromwell finally approved the return of Jews. The first community to be declared Jewish in London was de facto Sephardi due to the presence of the Marranos who returned to their original faith. And Menasseh ben Israel naturally became the first Rabbi of this newly formed community.
Year 5416 – 1656 CE – The excommunication of Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza was born in 1633 from an Espinosa family of Marranos who fled Portugal, and Spain previously, into France then Holland where they returned to the Jewish faith. He studied philosophy and was influenced by Descartes who introduced rational thinking. Spinoza was driven towards atheism along with colleagues who distanced themselves from the Church too. Spinoza declared that the Bible was man-made and that the only god was the Nature itself. In his mind, the world would progressively move away from religion, and this would ultimately resolve the differences and hatred between people. In other words, in his mind, assimilation was the key to the end of racism and discriminations against the Jews.
Soon Spinoza was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, as he must have expected. He even changed his name to Benedict (Latin translation for his Jewish name Baruch which means blessed) de Spinoza, thus separating himself from his Jewish roots.
From a Jewish history point of view, Spinoza was wrong to believe that erasing Jewish religion from the Jews would make them like any other people in Europe. There are scores of examples, before his generation and after his generation, that Jews were persecuted regardless, whether they were observant Jews or not, whether they assimilated or not. His philosophy, however, paved the way to the European Enlightenment in the century that followed, of which one major achievement has been the separation of State and Religion. Spinoza completed his masterpiece, The Ethics, in 1676 and died one year later. Some said that his death was caused by the daily breathing of dust from the glass lenses he polished in his professional occupation.
Year 5426 – 1666 CE – The conversion of Balthasar Orobio
Balthasar Orobio de Castro, famous physician of the 17th century Spain, was denounced to the Inquisition by his angry Catholic servant as being a Marrano, meaning that he practiced Judaism in secret. It was true that his family came from Jewish converts (Castro was a name taken by them at the time), some 150 years earlier, but Orobio was not Jewish at the time of this accusation. Yet the Inquisition took him away, tortured him and imprisoned him for 3 years.
As Orobio always denied the accusation, they finally expelled him from Spain. He went to Toulouse where he renewed his profession of physician but finally decided in 1666 to go to Amsterdam to return to the Jewish faith. He made this conversion public and officially changed his first name from Balthasar to Isaac. He continued to practice medicine and died in Amsterdam in 1687.
Orobio is one example of how assimilation, even after some generations passed, did not prevent him to be persecuted as a Jew. In 1684, he published a work as an attack against Spinoza's Ethics. He had experienced firsthand that a Jew remains a Jew in the eyes of society, even after living as a Christian. The assimilation proposed by Spinoza was thus an utopia.
Orobio also had many conversations with a Dutch preacher, Philip van Limborch. The latter published them in a book soon after Orobio's death in 1687. In this work, De veritate religionis Christianae amica collatio cum erudito Judaeo (meaning 'About the truth of the Christian religion from a friendly discussion with a learned Jew'), Orobio asserted that there were a multitude of Jewish converts in Spain, within the aristocracy and even the Church, and that he knew Jews in Holland who had done like him, who came to return to Judaism. He also complained that the "New Christians" in Spain were always watched carefully by the clergy and were put to trial after any suspicion, founded or not. Those who admitted "guilt", after tortures, of having kept the Jewish faith were condemned to be burned at the stake, in auto-da-fe public ceremonies. This detail was confirmed by a work published in 1740 in France:
The Inquisition keeps an eye on these "New Christians", as they are still called today, although 200 years had passed since the conversion of their ancestors. For the ministers of this tribunal, they are always suspect. The least suspicion is enough to make them criminals. When any misfortune occurs in the kingdom, people accused them to practice Judaism secretly and to cause the divine wrath. (Jacques Basnage, "Histoire des Juifs depuis Jésus-Christ jusqu'à présent", 1716, translation : Albert Benhamou)
While the Crypto-Jews were still persecuted by the Spanish (and Portuguese) Inquisition, their brethren were getting increasingly accepted in the European nations of the 17th century. This was particularly true in Holland, England, France, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, not counting the vast Ottoman Empire as well. Moreover, even the popes Clement VII, Paul III and Julius III successively protected them and allowed them to practice their faith. The shameful Inquisition was only abolished in Portugal and Spain after the conquest by Napoleon Bonaparte in the early 19th century.
Year 5426 – 1666 CE – Sabbatai Zevi converts to Islam
In 1666, Sabbatai Zevi came to the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Constantinople, but was immediately arrested on the orders of Sultan Mehmed IV. His imprisonment provoked a great commotion among the Jewish populations in Europe, who started to cause some level of unrest, sometimes harshly dealt with by local authorities. From his prison, and with the financial support of rich followers, Zevi was able to continue communicate with the world, nullifying some Torah commandments and declaring Yom Kippur a day of celebration rather than of atonement. All this activity started to cause concern with the Sultan who gave Sabbatai Zevi the choices to convert to Islam or to be subjected to ordeals to prove his divine status.
On 16 September 1666, Sabbatai appeared before the Sultan and declared his conversion to Islam. A first group of 250 families among his followers from Edirne (Turkey) converted too. They were called Donmeh (converts) in the Ottoman Empire. Later, in 1683, about 300 families of Salonika also converted. The descendants of Donmeh still exist today in Turkey, but they are not considered as Jews by the Jewish authorities due to their beliefs and inter-marriages with Muslims.
Sabbatai Zevi died 10 years later in 1676. But his conversion didn't stop his followers from believing he was the Jewish Messiah ! This is because Nathan of Gaza, who was then nicknamed "The Holy Lamp" (similarly to the name given to Rabbi Simon bar Yochai in the Zohar), played a vital role to pursue, with writings, such beliefs, similarly to the role that Paul of Tarsis had in early Christianity.
Nathan also developed 18 rules of the new faith and nullified the needs for certain fasting days in the Jewish calendar. He also copied some details of Shia faith which believes that there is a "hidden" Messiah, called the "Mahdi", who will return at the End of Days. This belief is considered as a heresy for traditional Sunni Islam for which there is no greater prophet than Mohammed who was human and not a Messiah. The Sabbateanism is equally considered as a heretical belief by traditional Judaism.
Nathan of Gaza died in 1680 in Skopje, Macedonia. His tomb became a site of pilgrimage for the Sabbatians until it was destroyed during WW-II.
Year 5430 – 1670 CE – Raphael Levy is burnt at the stake
In September 1669, a Jewish cattle merchant called Raphael Levy, from the city of Boulay in Moselle (Eastern France), was traveling to Metz and passed through the small village of Glatigny where a child had disappeared. He was immediately accused of ritual murder and condemned to be burnt at the stake in that village in January 1670.
Turgot, a French intendant for King Louis XIV, and grandfather of Turgot future minister of Louis XVI, wrote the following after investigating about this accusation against Levy:
The jealousy of the Christians had been aroused and wanted to envelop the whole [Jewish] community in this accusation to have it driven out of the country. (Turgot, Mémoire concernant le département de Metz, 1700 : Chapitre des Juifs, p. 52, translated by Albert Benhamou)
The trial was a travesty of justice, with false testimonials from various women. The bloody head of the lost child was even found several days after Raphael Levy was in custody, proving that the child had been attacked by a wild animal and partially eaten. But to no avail, the accusation stood that this Jew had killed the child. His execution was carried out on 17 January 1670 (25 Tevet 5430) in Metz, after torture and attempts to get him to accept the Christian faith.
The Jewish community of France then declared the village of Glatigny as cursed ("geässert") and Jews were prohibited to even pass through the village ever since. But, 344 years later, in January 2014, the mayor of Glatigny sought for reconciliation with the Jewish community and made a public apology for the unfair trial and execution of Raphael Levy. A plaque was installed to commemorate this tragedy, and the Jewish community leaders removed the curse. The mayor declared:
Glatigny was cursed since that time because of a principled prohibition decided upon by the Jewish community. (source: The Times of Israel)
Year 5435 – 1675 CE – The Esnoga, Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam
With the substantial number of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had found asylum in Holland about 200 years before, the Jewish community of Amsterdam became quite large, and financially successful. So, they completed in 1675 the construction of a new synagogue, the Esnoga, which means synagogue in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish language). This building still stands today, attracting many tourists, and its interior is still lit by candlelight as in the original times.
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Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Tishri 5786 - October 2025
