MESSIAH, a word signifying one “anointed,” or installed into an office by “unction.” It was usual amongst the Jews to anoint kings, high priests, and sometimes prophets, at their designation or installment, to signify emblematically the mental qualifications necessary for discharging those offices. Saul, David, Solomon, and Joash, kings of Judah, received the royal unction; Aaron and his sons received the sacerdotal, and Elisha the disciple of Elijah, received the prophetic unction. The name Messiah, Anointed, οvChrist (Χρίστον), was given to the kings and high priests of the Jews. The patriarchs and prophets are also called by the name of Messiahs, or the Lord’s anointed. (See 1 Sam. xii. 3, 5. 1 Chron. xvi. 22. Ps. cv. 15.)

But this name Messiah was principally and by way of eminence, given by the Jews to their expected deliverer, whose coming they still wait, and is a name which the Christians apply to Jesus Christ, in whom the prophecies relating to the Messiah were accomplished. The sum of these prophecies is, that there should be a glorious person named Messiah, descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who should be born at Bethlehem, of a virgin of the family of David, then in its decline, before the Jews ceased to be a people, whilst the second temple was standing, and about five hundred years after Ezra’s time, and who, though appearing in mean circumstances, should be introduced by a remarkable forerunner, whose business it would be to awaken the attention and expectation of the people. That this illustrious person called Messiah should himself be eminent for the piety, wisdom, and benevolence of his character, and the miraculous works he should perform; yet that, notwithstanding all this, he should be rejected and put to death by the Jews, but should afterwards be raised from the dead, and exalted to a glorious throne, upon which he should through all generations continue to rule, at the same time making intercession for sinners. That great calamities should for the present be brought upon the Jews for rejecting him, whereas the kingdom of God should by his means be erected amongst the Gentiles, and disperse itself even unto the ends of the earth, destroying idolatry, and establishing true religion and righteousness. In a word, that this glorious person should be regarded by all who believed in him as a divine teacher, an atoning sacrifice, and a royal governor, by means of whom God would make a covenant with bis people, very different from that which he had made with Israel of old, and in consequence of which they should be restored to, and established in, the divine favour, and fixed in a state of perpetual happiness. (See Jesus Christ.)

The Jews, as was already observed, still wait for the coming of the Messiah, being impressed with the notion of a temporal Messiah, who is to be a mighty conqueror, and to subdue all the world. Most of the modern rabbin, according to Buxtorf, believe that the Messiah has already come, but that he keeps himself concealed, and will not manifest himself because of the sins of the Jews. Some of the Jews, however, in order to reconcile those prophecies which seem to contradict each other as to the character and condition of the Messiah, have had recourse to the hypothesis of two Messiahs, who are yet to succeed each other; one in a state of humiliation and suffering, and the other in a state of glory, splendour, and power. The first, they say, is to proceed from the tribe of Ephraim, who is to fight against Gog, and to be slain by Annillus, (Zech. xii. 10.) The second is to be of the tribe of Judah, and lineage of David, who is to conquer and kill Annillus, and restore the kingdom of Israel, reigning over it in the highest glory and felicity.