Messiah (redirected from Christ of the Second Advent)

Messiah (məsī`ə) or Messias (məsī`əs) [Heb.,=anointed], in Judaism, a man who would be sent by God to restore Israel and reign righteously for all mankind. The idea developed among the Jews especially in their adversity, and such a conception is clearly indicated in Isaiah 9. Messianic expectations generally focused on a kingly figure of the house of David, who would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5.2). However, a second Messianic figure, the Messiah son of Joseph, was said to precede the Messiah son of David, preparing the way for him by combating the enemies of Israel and reuniting the twelve tribes for the return to Jerusalem where he would die in combat with the enemies of God before the final redemption under the Davidic Messiah. Jesus considered himself, and is considered by Christians, to be the promised Messiah to whom the whole Old Testament pointed; the name Christ is Greek for Messiah (Mat. 16.16). The Christian ideal of the Messiah is fundamentally different from the early Jewish conception in the aspect of suffering; the common idea of Jesus' time was that the Messiah should reign in glory as an earthly king, a political figure sent by God, not a savior in the Christian sense. The expectation of the second coming of Jesus is similar to the Jewish belief in the Messianic advent. The idea of a messiah, a redeemer sent by God, is common among many different peoples throughout history and may reflect a universal psychological pattern. Ancient Middle Eastern texts foretell the coming of savior-kings. Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Confucians believe in the redemption of mankind, or the advent of a golden age, through the arrival of a Holy One. In Islam, the coming of the Mahdi is closely related to the messiah concept. Other peoples also believe in messiah figures; among the Native North Americans, Wovoka is the most famous.

Bibliography

See W. D. Wallis, Messiahs, Their Role in Civilization (1943); J. Klausner, The Messianic Idea in Israel (1955); A. H. Silver, A History of Messianic Speculation in Israel (1955); V. Lanternari, The Religions of the Oppressed: A Study of Modern Messianic Cults (1963); and G. Scholem, The Messianic Idea in Judaism (1971).

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messiah

In Judaism, the expected king of the line of David who will deliver the Jews from foreign bondage and restore Israel's golden age. The term used for the messiah in the Greek New Testament, christos, was applied to Jesus, who is accepted by Christians as the promised redeemer. Messiah figures also appear in various other religions and cultures; Shiite Muslims, for example, look for a restorer of the faith known as the mahdi, and Maitreya is a redeeming figure in Buddhism.

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Messiah

1. Judaism the awaited redeemer of the Jews, to be sent by God to free them

2. Jesus Christ, when regarded in this role

3. an exceptional or hoped for liberator of a country or people

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Messiah

expected leader who will deliver the Jews from their enemies; applied by Christians to Jesus. [O.T., N.T.: Brewer Dictionary, 602]

See : Christ

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Messiah

expected leader sent by God to exalt Israel. [Judaism: Brewer Dictionary]

See : Deliverance

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Messiah

Christ (from ancient Hebrew mashiah, literally “the anointed one”; in Greek translation, Christos), in a number of religions (above all, Judaism and Christianity) a “savior” sent down by god who is supposed to establish his eternal kingdom.

Concepts of the magic power of anointment with sanctified oil have existed throughout the Middle East since antiquity; anointment was a part of the ritual of the enthronement of a king. In the most ancient books of the Old Testament, the word “messiah” means “king,” or, figuratively, the ideal lord as well as high priest. In the period called the Babylonian captivity (586–538 B.C.; according to most recent data, 587–538 B.C.), the idea of a future king from the family of David arose, inspired by the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah. It is also possible that this idea evolved under the influence of Zoroastrianism, in which there was an image of a future “savior,” the saoshyant, a descendant of Zarathustra.

The concrete identity of the messiah was unclear to the believers; he has been conceived at times as a divine being existing before the beginning of time and identified with the archangel Michael, at other times as the “son of man” who is a human teacher or reformer, and at still other times as a priest who is descended from the mythical priest Melchizedek.

Belief in a messiah occupied an important place in the ideology of the Judean sect of the Essene Qumranites. The founder of the sect, called the Teacher of Righteousness, was evidently understood to be the messiah. In the popular movements against Roman oppression (the Judean Wars of 66–73 and 132–135), the leaders of the revolts (John of Giscala, Simeon Bar Giora, and Bar Kochba) proclaimed themselves messiahs. After the defeat of the Bar Kochba rebellion, belief in the awaited messiah lost its previous importance; however, in subsequent periods of hardship for the popular masses (in the Middle Ages, for example), the leaders of popular movements again represented themselves as messiahs. In contemporary Judaism, belief in a single messiah is without essential significance.

From the very beginning, Christians proclaimed the founder of their religion to be the messiah (the Christ). Jesus was regarded as a descendant of King David, and Jewish messianic terminology was applied to him (“king of the Jews”; Greek kyrios, meaning “lord”; “the son of man”). However, in Christianity the concept of the “messiah” was transferred out of the political and social sphere into the religious and ethical; Christ the messiah is regarded as a savior from original sin and from “the kingdom of Satan” and not as a deliverer from economic and political hardship. Moreover, although Christ the messiah is declared to have already come and offered his life as an atonement for the sins of humanity, Christians at the same time believe in his “second coming” to establish the eternal “kingdom of god” over the whole earth. “Salvation” came more and more clearly to be understood eschatologically—that is, as something that was to occur not in historical time but “at the end of time.”

The concepts of “messiah” and “messianism” are also applied figuratively to awaited future saviors in other religions (particularly Islam, where messianism has a direct Judeo-Christian origin). In Muslim countries messianism has spread in the form of the doctrine of the Mahdi. For example, Muhammad Ahmad, leader of a late 19th-century insurrection in the Sudan against foreign colonizers, proclaimed himself Mahdi (the Mahdi of Sudan).

Messianism in all its forms, while objectively the result of the difficult conditions of the people, encouraged hope only in a divine redeemer and frequently served as a means of distracting the popular masses from actively struggling for their own interests.

A. P. KAZHDAN