Logos Lecture: Did Jews in Jesus' Day Expect the Messiah?

Thanks to Jim West for mentioning that I have been invited to speak in the Logos Bible Software Lecture Series. Here is my title, abstract and details from the previously mentioned page:

June 11, 2007
Did Jews in Jesus' Day Expect the Messiah?

It is popularly assumed that the Judaism of Jesus' day had a clear, well-defined expectation of a Messiah figure whom God would send to liberate them with military might. It is then assumed that early Christians, and perhaps Jesus himself, revised this expectation and proclaimed a different kind of Messiah, one who was to suffer. But how accurate is this picture? Does it explain the evidence found in the Hebrew Scriptures, early Jewish texts and the New Testament? Or should we instead think of a great variety of expectations, as many scholars argue? In this lecture, we will revisit the term "Messiah", exploring evidence that it was used as a synonym for a new Davidic "king" or "ruler". When the first Christians called Jesus "Messiah", they were speaking not only about past events and present beliefs, but also about his future return as king.

Dr. Goodacre is an Associate Professor in New Testament in the Department of Religion at Duke University. He earned his M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. at the University of Oxford and was Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham until 2005. His research interests include the Synoptic Gospels, the Historical Jesus and the Gospel of Thomas.

Each Logos Lecture Series event is free and open to the public. Dr. Goodacre's lecture will begin at 7:00 PM at Mount Baker Theatre in downtown Bellingham, WA.
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Jim asks about the possibility of a recording. From my side, I have no problem with that, though I leave it to the Logos folk to see whether they wish to do that. I hope to make the full text of my lecture available in due course.

On subject matter, I will have more to say here in due course too. The key to what I wish to say is largely contained in the last sentence of the abstract above.