Messiah

The Messiah is the king who will establish the kingdom of God on the earth. In the first century CE, the Messiah was revealed to be Jesus of Nazareth.

“Messiah” in the Jewish Scriptures

The title “Messiah” comes from the Hebrew adjective māšiyaḥ (מָשִׁ֫יחַ), meaning “anointed”. It is used in the Jewish Scriptures to describe the high priest as “anointed” (Lev. 4:3, 5, 16; 6:22), because priests were consecrated and initiated into the priesthood through anointing with oil (Exod. 29:29; Lev. 21:10).

Primarily, māšiyaḥ was used as a title for a king (1 Sam. 2:10, 35; 16:10), since kings were also initiated into their kingship by being anointed with oil. Thus, Israelite kings were referred to as the māšiyaḥ, “anointed one”, of YHWH (1 Sam. 24:6, 10; 26:9, 11, 16, 23; 2 Sam. 1:14, 16; 19:21; 22:51; Psa. 2:2). Even the Persian king Cyrus was also called the māšiyaḥ, “anointed one”, of God (Isa. 45:1).

Messianic Expectations

God promised David that his kingdom will be ruled over by his offspring forever (2 Sam. 7:12–16). However, God also warned that if David’s descendants were disobedient to God, then their kingship over Israel will be taken away (1 Kings 2:4; 8:25; 9:5; 2 Chron. 6:16; 7:18; Psa. 89:4, 29, 36; 132:12). Even after the United Kingdom of Israel became divided in 931 BCE, the descendants of David continued to rule over the Israelite Kingdom of Judah.

However, the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonian Empire in 586 BCE, and since then, there has not been a descendent of David ruling as king over Israel. Nonetheless, the prophets asserted that God was still faithful to his promise to David, in that one day in the future, God will establish a descendant of David as king over Israel (Jer. 23:5; 33:17; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24–25; Hosea 3:5). However, the story of the Jewish Scriptures ends with the promise still unfulfilled, and the Promised King yet to come.

During the intertestamental period, Jews began using the Hebrew term māšiyaḥ as a title for the Promised King. The equivalent title in Greek was christos (χρίστος), which is often rendered as “Christ”. Occasionally, māšiyaḥ was transliterated into Greek as messias (μεσσίας), which is rendered as “Messiah” (cf. John 1:41; 4:25).

By the first century CE, Jews expected that the Messiah would:

Jesus as the Messiah

During the first century CE, a group Jews came to identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, thus becoming the first Christians.

As the Messiah, Jesus was expected to be the Promised King descended from David. Speaking of Jesus, the angel Gabriel told Mary: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.“ (Luke 1:32–33) Thus, Jesus was called “the king of Israel” (John 1:49) and “the king of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2; 27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:3).

Many Jews during the first century CE did not identify Jesus as the Messiah because the prevailing interpretation of Scripture during that time failed to recognize that the Messiah would suffer and die at the hands of unrighteous men, and rise again on the third day (Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 3:18; 17:3; 26:23; 1 Cor. 15:3).

Indeed, the truth that Jesus is the Messiah was a central tenet of the Christian faith (1 John 2:22; 5:1). Jesus said that he would build his church upon the confession that he was the Messiah (Matt. 16:18). The first Christians made great efforts to prove to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah (Acts 9:22, 17:3; 18:5, 28). The Gospel of John was written so that its readers would believe that Jesus is the Messiah (John 20:31).