The true Jewish Religion and Beliefs. Meaning of Messiah (mashiach) according to Jewish beliefs. The term mashiach literally means the anointed one, and refers to the ancient practice of anointing kings with oil when they took the throne. The mashiach is the one who will be anointed as king in the Latter Days. He will be the very real king of a very real Torah government in the Land of Israel: not some spiritual or symbolic king in Israel, as some have mistakenly thought (especially Christians), and certainly not some gifted Jewish spiritual leader outside the Land of Israel, as others have mistakenly thought (including thousands of Jews in our generation as well as the followers of earlier false Jewish mashiachs in generations past) . It should be mentioned that while it is not forbidden to foolishly believe that one is the mashiach despite that he is not, it is certainly not the sign of a good grasp of the Torah to be mislead as to his nature and role, described more fully below. The word mashiach does not mean savior. The notion of an innocent, semi- divine (let alone fully divine) human being who will sacrifice himself to save us from the consequences of our own sins is a purely Christian concept that has no basis in normal Jewish thought, though it seems to have been invented or adopted by Jewish apostates in the early Church. Unfortunately, this Christian concept has become so deeply ingrained in the English word messiah that this English word should probably no longer be used to refer to the Jewish concept. Thus, we prefer to use the less familiar word mashiach throughout this page. You can view the full article here: mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/mashiach.htm
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:20:00 +0000
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