Samuel read to teach that even the basic norms of society will remain the same in the Messianic Age. Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba said in the name of Rabbi Johanan that all the prophets prophesied only about the Messianic Age, but as for the World to Come, no eye has seen, beside God's. On this, Rabbi Hiyya bar Abba and Rabbi Johanan differed with Samuel, for Samuel taught that there is no difference between this world and the Messianic Age except that in the Messianic Age Jews will be independent of foreign powers, as says: "For the poor shall never cease out of the land" (implying that social stratification will remain in the Messianic Age).