Messiah In The Old Testament

Christians and Jews alike use the term Messiah, however not always in same way. Stanley E Porter wrote “Christians have equated the word “Messiah” with Jesus,” he anointed one, because they believe that he fulfilled the messianic duties that were a part of the Jewish belief which was in place well before he had walked the earth. However, the Jewish people has not accepted Jesus as being the Messiah, because they believe that the Messiah that is to save them, has yet to come. They view the Messiah as a messenger sent from God, whom will come at the end of time to deliver them from nations and they will glorify Gods name. However, Joseph A. Fitzmyer agrees with Christians; He wrote “The term messianism derived from the Hebrew word Mashiah (“anointed”)

Exile is a common theme within the history of Israel. This theme continues until the final days, when God will establish His kingdom forever. The Jewish people today are scattered over the whole earth, living among many nations and cultures. A primary condition of being the Messiah is to gather all Jews from exile back to the land of their ancestors. God promised this using His prophet Ezekiel: “24I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you back to your own land.” (Ezekiel 36:24) God’s final plans involve Israelites returning to the beginning. The gathering of all exiled Jews is considered a chief sign that the Messiah is truly among us. Jewish liturgy gives precedence to this appeal within the Amidah: “Sound the great shofar for our redemption, raise a banner to gather our exiles; gather us from the four corners of the earth to our land...” Just as Judaism is linked to the people of Israel, so to is Israel linked to the land of its’ birth. One of the first steps the Messiah will be concerned with, is to convince every Jew to return to the land God promised to Abraham. Just as with the Davidic dynasty, the Messiah will be God’s instrument in fulfilling His promises to the people of Israel.

In Judaism, the messiah will be a moral, ethical individual, descended from King David, who will reconstruct and reestablish the state of Israel and the Great Temple for all time. Judaism teaches a belief in the messiah, but what is principal in the messianic conviction in Judaism is its historical composition. The fundamental core of this belief is the concept of a new world order of justice, freedom, and armistice to replace the present era of persecution of man and by man and state by state. Jewish beliefs go on to say that eventually famine, war, and hatred will conclude, and an age of harmony and prosperity will emanate upon the Earth. For the Jewish community, in order to recognize if the messiah has arrived, all one has to do is watch and discern if the world is at peace. According to Jewish text, the messiah had not yet been bestowed upon the world. The notion that Jesus was the messiah is wholly intolerable to the Jewish customs. The majority of the objections which a Jew must feel regarding Christianity emanates from the acceptance of the divine sanctity of Jesus and its numerous doctrinal explanations. Christianity has capitalized his existence with metaphysical implication. It has made his task as facilitator between man and God a vital component in the scheme of human

Messiah/Christ: In the Christian religion, the Messiah was a savoir who would bring the “Last Judgment.” They believed that Jesus, or Christ meaning “God’s anointed” in Greek, was this savior.

A messiah is a rather ambiguous term. It mainly means an anointed one; usually a messiah is considered to be a son of David and would reestablish Israel to what it once was. Because messiahs are anointed ones they would typically be Jewish priests, prophets and kings. However, a Messiah can also be a warrior, or a man of peace. (CITE) A messiah was to reestablish unity among the Jewish people and navigate through the hardships and oppression that they went through during early Judaism and bring a sense of freedom and relief. An array of messianic claimants came forth during the two peaks of Jewish rebellion, the death of King Herod the Great and the first Jewish war against the Romans.

The Jews pictured the Messiah a little differently than Jesus. Some Jews could have missed Jesus if you had picture painted of what you thought the Messiah would be like, you might end up passing them by. the Jews had already made up their minds of who the Messiah was going to be, therefore, they missed who He actually was, along with the message that He brought. Now knowing this, it 's easier to understand the reasoning behind why the Jews may have denied Jesus as the Messiah. The Messiah the jew were looking for, was the anointed one, similar to the Messiah. Instead, they were looking for an all powerful ruler/ political leader, or king that would show up in a fancy manor, and defeat the oppressor, have the answer to any situation,

The early beginnings of the Common Era displayed several Jewish expectations of the Messiah that were complex. As compiled in the Dr. Peter Flint, some was expecting the return of Elijah (Mal 4:5-6, Mark 6:15), or even Moses (Deut 18:15-19, John 1:21) and many expected the Messiah to be a descendent of King David, one that would arrive in Bethlehem . Apart from the background of messianic expectations seen in modern Bibles, several sectarian scrolls shed light on such expectations. Four select texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave 4 helps shed some light into this area of messianic expectations and will aid help answering this question on who was the Messiah.

He was not the messiah he was simply the forerunner that one who was a witness to His light. B. The World’s Response to the Word (1:10-13) He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

The Suffering Messiah- In the Gospel Of Mark Jesus is referred to as “The Suffering Messiah” although not directly we see in Mark chapters to 14-16 his proven sacrifice and suffering on his journey to the cross. “If he is the Messiah, the king of Israel, let him come down from the cross! Then we will see and believe.”

There are a host of different titles given to Jesus throughout the book of Revelation. In Revelation 1:5 He is called “the faithful witness”, and in Revelation 2:1 He is called “the Son of God.” In Revelation 5:5 He is called “the Lion of the tribe of Juda, and the Root of David. Revelation 19:13 refers to Him as “The Word of God”, and in Revelation 22:21 he is called “the Lord Jesus.” There are many other names

The allusion to Daniel’s prophecy is admitted; but Jesus does not mean to say, “I am the Messiah who is prefigured by Daniel.” A political meaning attached in popular conception to the term Messiah; and it is noticeable throughout John’s Gospel that Jesus carefully avoids using that term before the people, but expresses the thing itself by circumlocution, in order to avoid the complication which the popular understanding would have introduced into his work. We can see on (John 7: 24, 25 and John 10: 24, 25).

Jesus is the fulfillment of the text and what is stated in the Old Testament about the Messiah who is to come.

The title "Christ" is used most often for Jesus in throughout Luke and Acts. “Christ” also served as foundation in constructing Jesus’s journey from earth to him being exalted [1, pg 14]. It refers to Jesus as the Anointed One of the Lord, the Messiah. The title was first used in Luke 2:11, and the strength of this title was clearly outlined in Luke 1:31-35, which described the role of Jesus as the Messiah. Stating that he was the royal figure promised

In the book of Matthew, the author quotes verses one and two from Isaiah chapter nine in describing Jesus ministry as the fulfillment of this promise. The apostle John in his book refers to Jesus as the light (John 1:9) and Jesus referred to himself as “the light of the world” (John 8:12). In all of these passages, one sees that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messiah. In addition, the names that this child will be called identify who he is; in particular, we focus on the name “Mighty God.” The only one that can identify with God is Jesus. This promise of a child was not given to people of Judah because they deserve it.

The Messiah was sent to be the salvation of humanity and the light of the world.  He was sent to be the ultimate sacrifice, that the world might be forever washed clean of its sin.  One of the most important aspects of the mission of the Messiah is His suffering.  In order to wholly appease God, the God of justice and wrath, the Messiah was to suffer and die by the hands of man.  Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote of the torment the Son of Man would endure for the sins of mankind in Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (NIV):