In Jewish tradition, Jonah is sometimes identified as being, or being similar to, Moshiach ben Yosef – the Messiah ben Joseph.
Messiah ben Joseph is one of the Four Craftsmen of Jewish tradition, four figures meant to herald in the final destruction of Jewish enemies. This story comes from a prophecy in Zechariah 1:18-21. Rabbinical teachings identify the Four Craftsmen as Messiah ben David, thought to be the Savior; the prophet Elijah; the Righteous Priest, identified as Melchizedek; and Messiah ben Joseph.
According to the tradition, Messiah ben Joseph is said to be coming in the last days, prior to the coming of Messiah ben David. He will gather the children of Israel around him, march to Jerusalem, overcome hostile powers, re-establish temple worship, and set up his own dominion, or kingdom. Gog and Magog will gather their forces and wage war against him and kill him. His corpse will be hidden by the angels with the bodies of the Old Testament Patriarchs, until Messiah ben David comes and resurrects them all.
Taking all of this symbolically, W. Cleon Skousen identified Messiah ben Joseph as Joseph Smith:
In spite of the alteration of Genesis, however, the orthodox Jews have retained a rich tradition about a latter-day descendant of Joseph who would come to prepare the way for the great Messiah. References to this modern Joseph, whom the Jews call “messiah ben Joseph,” can be found in the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Jewish Targum.
These traditions say that the latter-day servant of God would be a descendant of Joseph through Ephraim, that his mission would commence about the same time Elijah returned, and that ultimately he would be killed.
All of this is summarized with sources cited in a book by the late Dr. Joseph Klausner of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dr. Klausner’s book, The Messianic Idea in Israel (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1955), devoted the entire ninth chapter of part 3 to a discussion of the “messiah ben Joseph” tradition. Yet it always puzzled Dr. Klausner that this tradition should be so thoroughly established in Jewish lore, even though there was no reference to it in the Jewish scripture.
Had Dr. Klausner lived a little longer, he might have met some of the Mormon scholars who are doing scriptural research in the Holy Land. They could have explained this mystery to him and shared with him the good news that this great Jewish expectation has now been fulfilled. “Messiah ben Joseph” has come, and so has Elijah.
In 2007, Trevan G. Hatch wrote a paper elaborating and expounding on Skousen’s work, entitled Messiah ben Joseph: Jewish Traditions and Legends of a Latter-day Restorer that is well worth the read.
According to Hatch’s research, Messiah ben Joseph will be second in rank to Messiah ben David, and will not have atoning power. The two will work together to bring the gospel to the world, and Messiah ben David will protect and shield Messiah ben Joseph until his part of the mission is complete.
During the span of this work, there will be a period marked by “upheavals in family life, convulsions in social order, intense and prolonged human suffering, rampant heresy and immorality, and worldwide warfare and devastation.” Along with all of this, religious thought will “become foolish” and “truth will be lacking” and hard to find. This is what Amos described:
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:
"And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."
Calamities and natural disasters are said to occur around the time of the birth of Messiah ben Joseph. Four massive earthquakes that killed tens of thousands of people shook the Americas and there was a major volcanic eruption that nearly caused a severe famine within the first ten years of Joseph Smith’s life.
Miracles will accompany his arrival, and his work will “arouse both terror and fury in the lands of Christendom.” Following his death, the remnants of Israel will be driven into the wilderness. Enoch prophesied of this in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, stating that they’d travel in chariots from the east. However, Dr. Joseph Klausner, the Hebrew professor Skousen quotes, translates “chariots” as “wagons.”
The coolest part of all of this to me personally is this: the Samaritans refer to Messiah ben Joseph as a prophet who will come to restore faith and “the true Law.” The word they use is taeb, which means “he who restores.”
