Doctrine of the Messiah

Tod Kennedy, June 26, 1999

1. Messiah is the English transliteration of the Greek Messias which is the Hellenized transliteration of Messiva" .  It means the anointed one and is found in NT only in John 1:41 and John 4:25. In both cases it is translated by Christ and refers to Jesus. In Matthew 27:17, 22 and Mark 8:29 Jesus is called Christ.

2. The Old Testament Hebrew had the word jv'm; , a verb that means to anoint and the noun j'yvim' anointed one. It was used of Kings (Saul, 1 Samuel 9:15-16; David, 2 Samuel 2:4,7; Solomon 1 Kings 1:34ff; Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1 and others). It was used of the prophet in 1 Kings 19:16. It was used of priests in Leviticus 4:3, Leviticus 8:12, Psalm 105:15. (See Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance page 768ff for uses).

3. The specific theological use of messiah refers to a person who will be Israel’s servant, king, and savior. He will deliver and rule Israel (Daniel 9:25 and 26). In Psalm 2:2 the Messiah his God’s king. This refers ultimately to the son of God, Jesus.

4. The Old Testament Jewish meaning of Messiah was the sum of the scriptures about the seed promise for redemption, Abrahamic blessing promise, servant and the child will be born and all the other God man scripture of Isaiah, the one who will go forth of Micah 5:2, Me who they pierced in Zechariah 14:10 and many others.

5. Jewish views about the messiah:

                5.1. Orthodox--small group still looking for the ancient expectation.

                5.2. Reformed Jews--Confusion whether it refers to a person or a time and whether that person or time has come.

                5.3. Main body of Jews--Still look forward to Jewish regathering and national glory but they do not know how it will come about. They of course reject Christ. One main reason is that he did not bring national glory to them when he came and they reject another coming.

6. In summary, we see that the Bible predicted a person who was anointed by God. This specific one was to redeem, rescue, lead, protect, rule, and prosper Israel. Jesus Christ is the Old Testament and New Testament Messiah.