MESSI

MESSI´AH (Heb. mashîah, “anointed”; rendered in the LXX by the Gk. equivalent Christos). The word Christ is therefore almost invariably used instead of Messiah in the NT as the official designation of our Lord. In the OT priests are referred to as the “anointed” (e.g., Leviticus 4:3; Leviticus 8:12; Psalm 105:15), as are kings (e.g., 1 Samuel 24:7-11; 2 Sam 23:1; 1 Kings 19:16). We also read (1 Kings 19:16) of anointing to the office of prophet. But along with these subordinate uses of the term, which undoubtedly foreshadowed the three great offices of Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King, its highest use was employed to designate the One promised of God as the great Deliverer, and who was to be in a preeminent and altogether unique sense the Anointed, or the Messiah, of God. The subject is therefore extensive, and offers to the student an immense field for investigation not only in the OT and NT Scriptures but also in Jewish and Christian literature.

The Messianic Idea. The OT messianic revelation appears not merely in particular predictions. The whole of the OT is rather to be looked upon as bearing a prophetic character. The idea underlying the whole development of these Scriptures and the life dealt with therein is that of God’s gracious manifestation of Himself to men and the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. This idea becomes more and more distinct and centralizes itself more and more fully in the Person of the coming King, the Messiah. The creation and Fall of man and the growing sinfulness of the race make clear the need for deliverance. The preservation of a part of mankind from the Flood, and the continuance of human history, have great suggestion of promise. The call of Abraham, with the promise “in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” revealed the divine purpose, which had been previously indicated, yet more distinctly (see Genesis 22:18; cf. Genesis 12:3; Genesis 9:26; Genesis 3:15). The founding of the Jewish nation, its theocratic character, its institutions, its ritual, and its history all center on this one idea. The sinfulness of sin, the possibility of a divinely appointed method of deliverance from sin, and the realization of a kingdom of righteousness lie at the very basis of the Jewish economy. Moreover, the chosen nation bore its peculiar character not merely for its own sake, but also for the sake of the world. Upon condition of fidelity to the covenant the promise was given: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The devout wish of Moses was significant also in the same direction, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets” (Numbers 11:29). But the highest glory of Israel was that from the nation One was to come in whom these noble relations to God and man, only to a large extent symbolized by the nation itself, should be perfectly fulfilled. The actual “Son” and “Servant” of God, the true Prophet, Priest, and King, was to be the Messiah. This is the key to the whole body of the OT Scriptures.

Prophetic Passages. The number of passages in the OT regarded by the Jews in pre-Christian times as prophetic of the Messiah is much larger than that of the special predictions to which Christians have commonly appealed. It is stated by Edersheim to be more than 456, of which 75 are from the Pentateuch, 243 from the Prophets, and 138 from the Hagiographa. “But comparatively few of these,” he adds, “are what would be termed verbal predictions.” This harmonizes, however, with what has already been said with regard to the general character of the OT revelation. (For a complete list of passages messianically applied in the rabbinic writings, see Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus, Appendix 9.) The predictions to which Christians as well as Jews have attached special importance embrace the following: Genesis 3:15 (the protoevangelium); Genesis 9:27; Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 49:8, 10; Deut. 18:18; 2 Samuel 7:11-16; 2 Samuel 23:5; Psalm 2; Psalm 16; Psalm 22; Psalm 40; Psalm 110; Isaiah 2, 7, 9, 11, 40, 42, 49, 53; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Daniel 7:27; Zech. 12:10-14; Haggai 2:9; Malachi 3:1; Malachi 4:5-6. For an exposition of these and other passages, reference may profitably be made to the OT commentaries, both Jewish and Christian.

Jewish Views of the Messiah. Two questions can be asked of the Jews: What Messiah did they expect? and, What should the OT revelation have led them to expect? While Jewish expectation had been deepening and in some respects becoming more definite and true during the centuries preceding the Christian era, so that at the time of our Lord’s appearing it seemed to await its immediate fulfillment, yet the Jewish people were not prepared to recognize Jesus as the Christ. The reason is found in the rabbinical and popularly received ideas of the Messiah. The fatal mistake of the Jews was not in rejecting the Scriptures but in giving to them a narrow and unspiritual interpretation. Jesus truly said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:39-40). Their interpretation was far from being wholly false, as Edersheim shows with reference to the list of rabbinic interpretations noted above. It embraced “such doctrines as the premundane existence of the Messiah; his elevation above Moses, and even above the angels; his representative character; his cruel sufferings and derision; his violent death, and that for his people; his work in behalf of the living and of the dead; his redemption and restoration of Israel; the opposition of the Gentiles, their partial judgment and conversion; the prevalence of his law; the universal blessings of the latter days; and his kingdom.” But this same interpretation left out certain elements of greatest and governing importance. The doctrines of original sin, and of the sinfulness of man’s whole nature, were greatly reduced from their Scripture meaning and were practically omitted from the prevalent Jewish teaching. Consequently the deepest thought of the messiahship, the salvation of the world from sin, was lacking. In keeping with this, the priestly office of the Messiah was also lost sight of, as was the prophetic office of the Messiah. The all-absorbing ideas were those of kingship and deliverance. And these were chiefly of national significance. The restoration of national glory was the great hope of Israel. All else was subordinate to that. Of modern Jewish views our space permits only a few observations. Although the denial has been constant that Jesus is the Christ, and although during many centuries the Jews almost universally continued to look for their national deliverer (and their hope was again and again stimulated and disappointed by the appearance of more than a score of false Messiahs), marked changes have taken place within recent years in Jewish opinions and belief upon this subject. (1) The relatively small and diminishing class known as Orthodox Jews adheres to the ancient expectation. (2) The Reform Jews, embracing many of the most learned and influential, have laid this expectation aside. With this class the whole conception of the Messiah has become dim and confused. It is doubted as to whether the Messiah refers to a person or a time; also as to whether or not the person or time has arrived. (3) The main body of modern Jews still looks forward to the ingathering of the Jews and their restoration to national glory in the land of their forefathers, and along with this they expect an era of universal peace and harmony among men. But still there is great diversity of opinion as to the method and means by which these results are to be accomplished. The Messiah may mean a particular person born of the Jewish race, or the term may stand for a conjunction of events brought about by the Jewish people. A feature made prominent at present in Jewish denial of the messiahship of our Lord is that, in their view, the OT prophecies predict the full and blessed results of the messianic reign as coming at once with the advent of the Messiah, and such results have not come; and they can find no prediction of a second advent. To us as Christians this objection has no force, in view of the comprehensiveness and, at the same time, the gradual and incomplete development of OT prophecy. The prophecies of the old dispensation do indeed look forward to the ripened results of Christ’s reign. But the prophecies of the NT supplement those of the OT in unfolding the gradual methods by which these results are to be reached, and in predicting the final glorious coming of Christ.

The Messianic Realization. The question, Is Jesus the Christ? is plainly of greatest importance, not to Jews only but to all races of mankind. This question is answered affirmatively because Jesus distinctly claimed to be the Messiah, a claim reconcilable with His character only upon the supposition that His claim was valid. The conception of messiahship that Jesus held and promulgated was unspeakably above the prevailing Jewish conception, and yet in reality was that of OT prophecy. The gospel of Matthew gives important revelation concerning the Messiah’s kingdom. The phrase “kingdom of heaven,” literally, “of the heavens,” is peculiar to Matthew and denotes the messianic rule on the earth of Christ as the son of David. The designation is appropriate because it is the rule of the heavens over the earth (Matthew 6:10). The phrase is derived from the OT (Daniel 2:34-36, 44; Daniel 7:23-27), and it is said that the “God of heaven” will set up this kingdom covenanted to David’s posterity (2 Sam 7:8-16) after the destruction of Gentile world powers by the returning Christ, the stone “cut out without hands.” This kingdom was confirmed in regard to the Son of God through the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:31-33). In Matthew’s gospel the kingdom of heaven is described in three ways: (1) as being at hand, from the beginning of John the Baptist’s preaching (Matthew 3:2) to the rejection of the King and the announcement of His new message (Matthew 12:46-50), (2) in the seven “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” now being consummated in this present age, and (3) in the future prophetic aspect when the kingdom will be established at the return of Christ in glory (Matthew 24-25; Acts 15:14-18). Of this future messianic glory our Lord had full consciousness in His earthly public ministry.