Messiah Meanings in Old and New Testament

Messiah in the Old and New Testaments

The Jewish origins of the word "messiah" are found in the ancient consecration ritual of the Hebrews, who "anointed" something or someone by purifying it with holy oil (1 Sam 10:1-2). It is to this act of anointing that the word "messiah" is derived, as it means "anointed." Kings, priests, prophets, the Temple, and the special bread (which also takes on a unique significance in the New Testament) are all variously spoken of in terms of anointing or touching with oil in the Old Testament (1 Kings 1:39, Lev 4:3, Isa 61:1, Ex 40:9-11, Num 6:15). However, the term "messiah" came to take an on even deeper meaning after Saul fell out of favor with the Lord and a new king (David) was anointed. David was not a direct, bloodline descendent of the kings -- but, rather, a spiritual descendent of Abraham: he was of pure heart. David was anointed and, in turn, pointed the way to the Messiah of the New Testament (of whom he sang in his Psalms), whereupon the term, for Christians, took on its fullest meaning. In Judaism, however, the Christ was not believed to be the foretold Messiah for various reasons, one of which being that he spoke of his kingdom being not of this world but of the other and many Jews expected a "political" leader who would establish a Jewish kingdom in place of the Roman one. This paper will review the history of the term "Messiah" and explain how its Old Testament meaning transformed into the New Testament concept.

The Old Testament is not without its foreshadowing of a divine ruler who would restore the house of Israel. For instance, Isaiah 9:6-7 foretells of a child being born who would take upon his own shoulders all the responsibilities of a ruler and that he would be called divine. But there is no actual mention of the term "messiah" in this passage. The connection between the divine ruler and the "anointed one" would be made later, in the New Testament when John the Baptist sends his disciples to inquire as to whether Jesus is the one for whom they are waiting or if they should seek another (Matt 11:3). Jesus' answer evokes the message of Isaiah 7:14: Jesus tells John's disciples of all the things he has done (the blind have been given sight, the lame have been given the ability to walk -- all because of Him), and to let these signs speak for themselves. This is how Jesus connects his role as the Messiah to the Old Testament understanding of the word, for as Isaiah says: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign…" (Is 7:14).

Walter Kaiser notes that the Old Testament uses the Hebrew word for "Messiah" a total of thirty-nine times in various capacities. Yet in the Greek translation of the Septuagint, it appears as "Kristos," from which the words Christ and Christian are derived.

While the literal translation of the word is "anointed," its deeper meaning is evident in the significance that the term takes upon David's being "anointed" because, unlike Saul, David was a "man after [the Lord's] own heart" (1Sa 13:14). However, "anointed," as Keiser observes, was also a term applied to "priests and prophets," a point which also carried a significant meaning for the early Christians who viewed Jesus as having a divine priesthood, which He passed on to His disciples at the Last Supper, whereat he also drew relation to that other anointed object, the unleavened bread, of the Hebrew tradition. By identifying himself as the new unleavened bread (the Pasch, or the new Paschal lamb), Jesus united himself to the Messiah image that had been passed down for centuries among the Abrahamic people.

This Messianic image had developed over time, first as part of the many covenants made between God and his people (the Adamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, and so on) in which appears the theme of redemption/salvation. The prophecy of Nathan in 2 Samuel 7 helped to further deepen the implication of the term "Messiah," as it told of a kingdom in the lineage of David that would last forever. The Psalms of David also reflect this relationship between God and the "anointed one," speaking as they do of a "covenant" with God's "chosen one" who would be the Lord's servant (Ps 89:3-5, 132:10). Thus, the Jews expected and looked towards the coming of the Messiah, who would lead them to glory. The radical revelation that Jesus brought, however, was that the glory was not an earthly one but a heavenly one (union with God). The earthly reward of followers of the Messiah was inglorious -- suffering and death (as Christ Himself showed on the cross, and as the first martyr, St. Stephen showed, soon afterwards).

According to W. Clark, "Matthew is the Jewish Gospel, connecting the Old Testament with the New Testament, and is written to prove the Messiahship of Christ." It is Matthew who refers to the Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah and whose gospel is written for a Jewish audience. However, in Mark 8:31, Jesus is shown to be teaching His disciples that the Messiah leads through accepting the punishment for the sins of mankind: that he would be rejected by the Jewish high priests, who looked for an earthly rather than a spiritual "messiah." But He also points to his power over death, a power significant to the Jews, because it had been witnessed in Egypt when the Jews put the blood of the lamb on their doors to protect their first born from the angel of death. Jesus would suffer upon a new altar, like that which had been built by Abraham where he was to sacrifice his son Isaac. Jesus connects Himself to all the major figures of the Old Testament, and in each connection is woven the thread of Messiaship, which by the time of the New Testament has come to be understood in its fullest sense: an anointed son of God, taking upon His shoulders the sins of the world, dying, but resurrecting, and leading souls to the glory of Heaven. It is, after all, the kingdom of Heaven that Jesus has come to establish: "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). In this sense, the "Messiah" of the New Testament expands the implications of the "Messiah" of the Old Testament by identifying the exact parameters of the Lord's kingdom and laying out a clear doctrine on how to behave in order to attain entrance into that kingdom.