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(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; Ex 40:15; Num 3:3), prophets (1 Kgs 19:16), and kings (1 Sam 9:16; 1 Sam 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 John 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, Dan 9:26; 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; Luke 22:37; John 5:39; Acts 2:1–47; Acts 16:31; Acts 26:22, Acts 26:23.)