Tuesday, January 6, 2009

What Does "Messiah" Mean?

MESSIAH is a term that changed over time.

 It is a Hebrew word that means "The anointed one" and is used more than thirty times in the Old Testament to describe the Kings of Israel and Judah, the priest and the patriarchs and even Cyrus the King of Persia. King Saul and King David were Messiahs and it is David's kingship that is the model for the Jews for the "expected Messiah" who would restore  the grand Kingdom of David. In Daniel 9:25-26 we have the first prophecy of a coming Messiah as a king who would restore Israel.

In Jesus day the Hebrew people's expectations - including the disciples - was of a political king who would rid Judah of the Romans and restore the throne of King David. Jesus understood the Messiah differently as that of the suffering servant whose "Kingdom is not of this world." The early Christian Church picked up on that as a spiritual kingdom for those who accepted Jesus as their savior.

Messiah is a title which when translated into Greek was Christos or Christ.
So Christ is not one of the names for Jesus it is his title...
Properly written is Christ Jesus or Jesus the Christ. In English it is Jesus the anointed one.  

5 comments:

  1. Hello. You seem to clearly understand the meaning of the term, "Messiah," and recognize that it is a Hebrew word (and not Greek) However as a Hebrew word, it has it's own Hebrew/Jewish meaning - the only valid meaning - and that meaning is not that of a man/God. Indeed, hat very concept of a son of God type deity would have been abhorant to any Jewish man such as the man the Christians have named Jesus (not a Jewish/Hebrew name). Knowing that the interpretation of the word, "Messiah" is not valid, how do you than believe in Jesus as a divine son of God. It is the early indoctrination to which you were(as we are we all )subjected to. You learned to see "Jesus" as this God figure, this gentle sheperd (SP?)( "gentle" - when he supposedly sends most of the world to hell, including Jonas Salk, etc). Christianity takes the wisdom of the Torah - the Torah that Jesus would have studied and loved, and bastardizes it. It than kills millions of Jews and claims it is the faith of peace and love. That poor Jew would turn in his grave if he knew what the Gentiles did in his name.

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    1. Christianity killed millions of Jews??? Oh, Dude! Please go study history a little bit before you say stupid things like that!

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  2. Thanks, a great help!

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  3. Thank you, that was a great help to me also!

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