Matthew 24:5

“For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah', and will lead many astray.”

His first concern is that during this period many professing deliverers and saviours will arise among men, and will claim to be ‘God's anointed'. And many will be led astray by them. The importance of this to Jesus is seen in that in one way or another He repeats it three times, see also Matthew 24:11; Matthew 24:24. No doubt such men did arise during the hectic period that led up to the destruction of the Temple, each arising in a small way, although very influential among those whom they affected, for fanaticism was continually abroad in Palestine at that time, and men have always delighted in accepting exalted titles, while others delight to see them as ‘messiahs'. So with a ‘coming Messiah' anticipated it was inevitable that some would be seen in that way. And later history is also littered with men who made this kind of claim, and even more with men who behaved like it. The point is not, however, that one of them will be the true Messiah, so that they have to discern which one is the right one, but that  none of them will be so. No human figure who arises in this way is to be believed, or spoken of as the Messiah, for that is not how He will come.

While it is true that we ourselves, because of our lack of contemporary material, only know of one who arose in the first centuries of our era, and officially claimed to be the Messiah, and was widely given heed to as such and given general acceptance among the Jews, and that was Bar Kochbah (c.135 AD), we can be sure that there were many who took the title to themselves in a small way as they stirred up their followers, or acknowledged it as their followers gave it to them. In the religious atmosphere of the time in and around Palestine it could hardly fail to happen. It is because they did not make sufficient impact on history to be remembered that we do not know of them, even though ‘many' would be led astray by them. Compare Revelation 6:2 which probably pictures the rise of false Messiahs. Also compare 1 John 2:18 where John speaks of many ‘antichrists' in his day.