Who is the Messiah?

Messiah is the English transliteration of Mashiach, the Hebrew word meaning "Anointed One." The Greek form of this meaning is Xristos, from where we get the English word Christ.

In the original Hebrew "Jesus Christ" is Yeshua haMashiach and is interpreted as "Yah who is Salvation, the Anointed One." Yah is short for the Holy Name of YHVH, which itself means "He who was, who is, who is to come", thus "the Eternally Existent One." So, the full title of the Mashiach is "The Eternally Existent Saving and Anointed One."

To be "anointed" in ancient Hebrew culture meant to be chosen as the rightful heir to authority, either as a priest or king or both. It was a rite of special consecration to have oil poured upon one's head from a ram's horn by a previously chosen servant of G-d. Several kings and priests of Israel received this rite, most notably King David, who was himself called "mashiach," an anointed one. It was prophesied that a son of his would one day come to rule perpetually. This son came to be known as the promised Mashiach, who would rule the world from the throne of David.

The prophets said David's son would be more than a mere man (Micah 5:1,2) since He would rule forever. The record also shows that G-d Himself promised to come and rule the world from Israel (Zechariah 14), and that He alone was to be Israel's King. Thus, the prophets foretold that Mashiach must be a kind of being that was unknown on the earth, both a son of David and G-d Himself. Many foreign cultures and pagan religions adopted their own version of this, and through fables and folklore they speculated on His being, albeit in error.

The prophets also declare that Mashiach had two great missions. First, He had to provide deliverance from sin on the earth. Second, He had to take up His royal throne on the earth.