Notwithstanding the frequent use of this term in religious circles, it might surprise some people to know that the term is used only once in the Old Testament and once in the New (A.V.) Ideas, however, connoted by the term as we use it are frequent in the O.T. We sometimes use the term to signify a person of a sublime and divine character ; others use it to describe a state of profound peace and righteousness to come : the Golden Age or the Messianic era. The term “Messiah” is not a proper name : it is a title. Its Greek New Testament equivalent is “Christ”, and both Hebrew and Greek simply signify “anointing”, a custom in use in Israel on the occasion of the coronation of a king or on the appointment of a high priest. These two occasions are alluded to in Zech. 4. 14 : “These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth”, i.e. Zerubbabel, Prince of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest.
In the New Testament the term Christ is used in two different ways, one to signify the person of Jesus, the other in relation to the Old Testament doctrine : as a doctrine it signified the Saviour-King to come, or to the golden age he would inaugurate, the Kingdom of God. It is, of course, a Hebrew doctrine, but there never has been unanimity among the Jews as to whether it signifies a person or a State. Suffice to say that in A.D. 30 the Jewish leaders rejected the claim of Jesus to that exalted station. Paul was among those who rejected the claim on the ground that Messiah could not die. That was the prevailing opinion among the Jews at that time “We have heard out of the Law that Messiah (here the term signifies this doctrine) abideth for ever.” Paul had been misled in the same way, and it was not until Jesus appeared to him while he was on a journey to Damascus that he was compelled to change his idea. He knew that Jesus had died and he probably had scorned the idea of his resurrection, but now he came face to face with a situation which compelled him to change his mind and find from scripture where his mistake lay, and no doubt Isaiah 53 convinced him that the coming Redeemer was not the deathless person he had hitherto believed. Having therefore been persuaded that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead, he set about undoing the mischief he had wrought in the church. First, he was baptised into the name of Jesus Christ, and then he entered the synagogues wherever he went to relate his own experience in an endeavour to persuade his fellow Jews that this Jesus indeed was the Messiah. Thus we read,2
“Paul, as his manner was, went into the synagogue and for three sabbath days reasoned with the Jews out of the scriptures, opening and alleging that Messiah (here the reference is to the O.T. doctrine) must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ.” And again,3 “He mightily convinced the Jews publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.”
It grieved Paul that he was unable to persuade the Jews to accept his testimony :
“I have great heaviness in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ (here he means Jesus) for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”4
The coming of Messiah is still an article of the Jewish Faith : No. 12 of their articles, which appear in their prayer book, reads, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Messiah, and, though he tarry, I will wait daily for his coming.” A quotation from one of their greatest teachers, Maimonides, of the 1 1 th century, will be of interest :
“Let it not enter the mind that anything in the world’s system will cease to exist when the Messiah come, or that any novelty will be introduced into the scheme of the universe. The world will go on as usual . . . in that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither jealousy nor strife. Prosperity will be widespread, all comforts found in abundance . . . and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Perhaps one of the most direct allusions to the coming Messiah is that found in Jacob’s blessing of the tribe of Judah : “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.”5 The term Shiloh signifies the giver of peace, security and tranquility, and the Jewish Targum (or paraphrase of scripture) renders Shiloh as Messiah.
1—John 12. 34
2—Acts 17. 2
3—Acts 18. 22
4—Rom. 9. 3
5—Gen. 49. 8
Reflections on the Potter and the Clay