Difference between revisions of "Messiah"

Revision as of 15:27, October 31, 2007

The title 'Messiah' (Hebrew mashiach, 'anointed') applies to any Israelite king or High Priest since the time of King Saul. Consequently King David refers to himself as 'Messiah' throughout the Psalms. Here, though, the title is usually translated literally into English as 'Anointed', while the Greek Septuagint, translated from the Hebrew before the Gospels were written, actually renders it as χριστος, i.e. 'Christ'. Christians, using the same Greek translation of the term, apply the word 'Christ' to Jesus of Nazareth, while Jews, Christians and Muslims alike also use the term 'Messiah' to refer to the expected Messiah-to-come who will usher in the final Kingdom of God on earth predicted by numerous passages in the Bible, and whom Christians identify with Jesus himself.

As a result of the association with King David and the Psalms, the Old Testament prophets universally saw the coming Messiah as 'David returned' ('and David shall forever be their Prince', says Jeremiah), but the associated Hebrew term 'Moshiach ben David' was then taken by the gospel writers to suggest that Jesus must have been a Son of David - a fact which then resulted in the dubious (and conflicting) claims about Jesus' ancestry that are presented in the early parts of the gospels of Matthew and Luke. At Matthew 22:41-46, however, Jesus himself denies the idea.

Sources

• Armstrong, K., The Battle for God (Harper Perennial, 2000)
• Burrows, M., The Dead Sea Scrolls (Secker & Warburg, 1956)
• Cruden, A., Complete Concordance to the Old and New Testaments (Lutterworth, 1930)
• Cross, C., Who Was Jesus? (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
• Finkelstein, I. and Silberman, N. A, The Bible Unearthed (The Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2001)
• The Holy Bible (King James Version)
• James, M. R., The Apocryphal New Testament (Clarendon, Oxford, 1953)
• The New English Bible (Oxford & Cambridge University Presses, 1970)
• The New Jerusalem Bible (Darton, Longman & Todd, 1990)
• Lemesurier, P., The Armageddon Script (Element Books, 1981)
• Peake, A.S., Commentary on the Bible (Nelson, 1962)
• Powell Davies, A., The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Mentor Books, New York, 1956)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Passover Plot (Hutchinson, 1965)
• Schonfield, H. J., The Pentecost Revolution (Macdonald, 1974)
• Schonfield, H.J., Those Incredible Christians (Bernard Geis, New York, 1968)
• Various. The Sepuagint [1]
• Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls in English (Penguin, 1968)
• Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran in Perspective (Collins, 1977)
• Vermes, G., Jesus the Jew (Collins, 1973)
• Young, R., Analytical Concordance to the Holy Bible (Lutterworth, 1939)

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