What is Messiah?

Answer 1

Messiah comes from Hebrew "Meshijah" meaning anointed by God - chosen one.

Anointing was ritual of smearing oil on chosen ones - kings and highest priests in ancient Israel as a way of appointing them in their office. Kings and Archpriest could be considered Messiahs, but this title was soon reserved for the one that God have promised to send - Savior. He had to come to save people form their sins and teach them what is will of God, as God promised new and eternal covenant that He will make with people. Later, especially during Roman conquest Jews considered Messiah as a Hero leading an uprising against Romans and eventually becoming a King of re-institued Kingdom of Israel.

God have sent Messiah - Jesus Christ, his Son, anointed not by earthly oil but Holy Spirit, so being God himsef. He came to die as a sacrafice for our sins, as animal sacrafices practiced in Israel couldn't ultimately save people from their sins. He teached what is will of God - to love each other, to forgive as you were forgiven, to donate to poor, and teach other people about how God loves them. Jews not considered him a messiah because he were not going to rebel against Romans, moreover - jewish priest were afraid about their fate in such a situation, so decided "That this is better for one man to die, than whole nation shall be killed" as says Holy Bible.

Christ means the same as Messiah but in greek - "Christos" is anointed, so Jesus Christ means Jesus, the Messiah. Or, if you apply meanging of the name Jesus, which means "God saves", it will mean that Jesus Christ = Savior and Messiah.

I hope this will be enough, as - firstly - teachings of Jesus are to much to put into this article, and - secondly - history of Jesus, especialy arguments with jewish clergy is quite complex and are also too much to be explained clearly.

As a disclaimer, I also wish to point, that in any way I do not state that Jews killed Jesus, to induce anti-semitism.Neither them nor romans should be considered guilty for this. This was will of God to die and resurrect for his beloved creations. He only used historical circumstances to achieve this.

Answer 2

Yahoshua or Yashua is the Messiah. When Yashua asked his disciples who does the people think He is, Simon was inspired by the Father Almighty to declare: "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." thus Jesus informed Simon that he is blessed because that knowledge did not come to him through other means but that it was revealed to him by the Father. Yahoshua then gave Simon a mystic name, Peter or Cephas, meaning "Stone" because of his declaration that Yahoshua is the Messiah and the Son of the Living God. Forthwith, Yahoshua declared that upon that "ROCK" (Peter's declaration of belief, NOT Peter himself), He will build his Church. Thus Yahoshua is the MESSIAH, and the Son of the Living God. And upon this ROCK or basic belief, We became parts or "stones" of His Chirch.

Answer 3

The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach means "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had a number of meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There need be nothing supernatural about a moshiach.
This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach. However, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanakh.
The Jewish requirements of the messiah have not yet been fulfilled. They are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.