DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
mes·si·ah /məˈsaɪə/
彌賽亞
Mes·si·ah n. The expected king and deliverer of the Hebrews; the Savior; Christ.
And told them the Messiah now was born. --Milton.
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messiah
n 1: any expected deliverer [syn: christ]
2: Jesus Christ; considered by Christians to be the promised
deliverer
3: the awaited king of the Jews; the promised and expected
deliverer of the Jewish people
Messiah
(Heb. mashiah), in all the thirty-nine instances of its
occurring in the Old Testament, is rendered by the LXX.
"Christos." It means anointed. Thus priests (Ex. 28:41; 40:15;
Num. 3:3), prophets (1 Kings 19:16), and kings (1 Sam. 9:16;
16:3; 2 Sam. 12:7) were anointed with oil, and so consecrated to
their respective offices. The great Messiah is anointed "above
his fellows" (Ps. 45:7); i.e., he embraces in himself all the
three offices. The Greek form "Messias" is only twice used in
the New Testament, in John 1:41 and 4:25 (R.V., "Messiah"), and
in the Old Testament the word Messiah, as the rendering of the
Hebrew, occurs only twice (Dan 9:25, 26; R.V., "the anointed
one").
The first great promise (Gen. 3:15) contains in it the germ of
all the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament regarding the
coming of the Messiah and the great work he was to accomplish on
earth. The prophecies became more definite and fuller as the
ages rolled on; the light shone more and more unto the perfect
day. Different periods of prophetic revelation have been pointed
out, (1) the patriarchal; (2) the Mosaic; (3) the period of
David; (4) the period of prophetism, i.e., of those prophets
whose works form a part of the Old Testament canon. The
expectations of the Jews were thus kept alive from generation to
generation, till the "fulness of the times," when Messiah came,
"made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law." In him all these ancient prophecies have their
fulfilment. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the great
Deliverer who was to come. (Comp. Matt. 26:54; Mark 9:12; Luke
18:31; 22:37; John 5:39; Acts 2; 16:31; 26:22, 23.)