In January I've been reviewing some of the larger messianic movements in Jerusalem's "Late Second Temple Period." It was in 66 CE, not long before permanent Roman destruction of the Second Temple in 70, that Menahem led a briefly-successful rebellion.
Per Josephus, Menahem was son of Judas the Galilean (see Jan. 6 - but if they truly were related, Menahem was likelier Judas' grandson). After raiding the Roman armory at Masada, Menahem stormed Jerusalem, and went on to kill the Jewish high priest in a bid to consolidate religious and secular power. Dressing himself as a king and going up into the temple to worship, Menahem was set upon by a group led by a man named Eleasar, dragged to a public square, and stoned.
