The History of Sabatai Sevi, the Suppos'd Messiah of the Jews

In 1666, the Jewish world held its breath. Kabbalistic calculations pointed to that year as the dawn of messianic redemption, and into that feverish anticipation strode Sabatai Sevi, a charismatic merchant from Smyrna who declared himself the long-awaited Messiah. John Evelyn, the famed English diarist and virtuoso, composed this account in 1668, barely two years after the drama unfolded, making it one of the earliest contemporary Christian observations of one of history's most startling messianic movements. Evelyn documents the electrical excitement that seized Jewish communities from Amsterdam to Constantinople, the abandonment of commerce and daily life, the frantic preparations for deliverance. This is not merely antiquarian curiosity: it captures the anatomy of religious hope at its most extreme, and the shattering disillusionment that followed. For readers interested in the history of belief, the persistence of messianic fever, or the Jewish experience in early modern Europe, Evelyn's meticulous, somewhat bewildered Protestant eye offers a remarkable window into a moment when an entire people dared to believe the ancient promise was finally coming true.