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The Messiah
Messianic Hope
• Throughout their history the Jews had been occupied by
surrounding nations including Egypt, Babylon, Persia,
Greece and Roman forces.
• Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures there is a hope that
God would at some point help his people to overthrow
these other nations
• This hope usually focussed around a central figure- that of
the Messiah.
• For some groups, this hope came to a head under the
occupation of the Romans- pantheists whose belief in
many gods was at odds with the monotheistic beliefs of
the Jews.
Messiah: The anointed one
• In the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament the prophets
had foretold that God would send His Messiah to
liberate his people.
• Messiah means “anointed one.”The term anointed is
most commonly used in the Old Testament to refer
to a King or Priest whom it was believed God had
chosen. Anointing meant to pour oil over someone’s
head and bless them
• Jews believed the Messiah would be God’s specially
chosen person to rescue his people but there has
been a lot of discussion over what type of person he
would be with different Jewish groups having very
different ideas.
Wanted: A King
• The Jews looked back to their great King David who had ruled
before the northern and southern kingdom were divided.
They thought that the Messiah would come from David’s
family and would be a King over the Jewish people.
• This can been seen by what Jews believe God had said to the
Old Testament Prophets:
- “The days are coming," declares the LORD,
"when I will raise up in David’s line a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
and do what is just and right in the land.” Jeremiah 23.5
– “He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness.” Isaiah 9.7
Wanted: a Priest
We have already seen that Messiah means “anointed one” and
some Jews thought that the Messiah would be a priest as it
was often priests who were called anointed in the Old
Testament.
• “ The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”
Isaiah 11.2
Here it can be seen that a holy man who was filled with the spirit
of God was expected. A common thought in 1st century
Judaism was that God’s Holy Messiah would bring in an age
when all people would worship the God of Judaism rather
than the Roman and Pagan gods.
Wanted: a Warrior
A number of Jewish thinkers believed that the
Messiah would be a great military commander
or leader who would overthrow their
occupiers, the Romans. This stream of thought
came from the history of occupation and
oppression of the Jewish people.