Messiah

Messiah (adaptation of Heb., ha-mashiaḥ, ‘the anointed one’, also transliterated haMashiach).

Judaism

Anointed descendant of the Jewish king David who will restore the Jewish kingdom. The idea of the messiah did not exist before the second Temple period, but grew out of the biblical hope that the House of David would again rule over the Jewish people. As a result of the Roman occupation of Erez Israel, various messiahs emerged, including Jesus (as interpreted after his death by his followers), Judas the Galilean (mentioned in Josephus), and Simeon Bar Kokhba (see MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS). The rabbis taught that, with the coming of the messiah, the climax of human history would be achieved and God's kingdom would be established on earth. From the 13th cent., messianic expectations were centred on kabbalistic thought and culminated in the Shabbatean movement (see MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS).

Christianity

Although at an early date the followers of Jesus were marked out as those who believed that Jesus was the promised messiah/christ, Jesus appears to have resisted any attempt to interpret what he was doing and saying in his God-derived way through that category—to such an extent that it gave rise to the theory of the messianic secret—see SCHWEITZER, ALBERT. Some aspects of his life (e.g. the entry into Jerusalem) were clearly open to the interpretation that he was acting as the descendant of David, but it was only after his death and resurrection that the appropriateness of interpreting him as messiah was developed. The New Testament reveals a certain amount of scripture-searching to find ways in which Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies in Tanach (Jewish scripture), but it remains a Jewish objection to Jesus as Christ that few of the biblical signs of the messiah were fulfilled.

Islam

In Islam, al-Masiḥ is a description (almost a name, except that the Arabic article is never dropped) for ʿIsā/Jesus.