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Messiah,
Christ, Anointed One?
The Hebrew word, Maschiyach, anglicized to Messiah, means, according to Strong's Hebrew Dictionary:
"Anointed, usually a king, priest or saint. Specifically The Messiah." It appears in Scripture only
twice, both in Daniel 9.
The Greek word, Christos, anglicized to Christ, means, according to Strong's Greek Dictionary: "anointed,
i.e. the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus." It appears in Scripture 555 times, in 522 verses, all in the New
Testament.
These words mean the same thing. The Hebrew Messiah and the Greek Christ both mean, in English, Anointed. Yet
the translators of most English Bibles have chosen to use the anglicized version of the Greek word, "Christ,"
instead of its English equivalent.
They have also chosen to use the word as if it was the last name of Yahshua, thus: Yahshua Messiah, or Messiah
Yahshua, as if it was his first name. Neither is correct. He is Yahshua THE Messiah, the Christ, or, more correctly
in English, the Anointed (One). He is Yahweh's Anointed One, not ours. He is our Savior, our King, our High Priest,
our Advocate, our Passover Sacrifice, etc., but He is NOT our Anointed. He has been anointed by Yahweh for the
job He gave Him to do, just as kings and priests were anointed for their jobs in the past by an earthly representative
of Yahweh (usually a prophet).
The following short article was sent me by Elder George Kinney, and appeared in the Faith Magazine in 1986. He
explains as follows:
The word "Messiah" or "Christ" used in many versions (of Scripture) means "Anointed."
Our Heavenly Father's Son, Yahshua, is anointed of His Father, Yahweh. But "anointed," or "christ,"
or "messiah," is NOT His Name. These title words describe Him, the same as "queen" describes
Elizabeth of England. But these titles are not part of their names.
Yahshua is the Anointed of Yahweh; thus we can say, "Yahshua the Anointed," or "Yahshua the Messiah."
Many people will omit the article "the" and say, "Yahshua Messiah," as if "messiah"
was His last name. Some people may even use the describing title alone as His name, calling Him "messiah."
They might as well call Him "Anointed." If we wanted to attract the attention of Yahshua, or Elizabeth,
would it be respectful to say, "Hello, Anointed," or "hello, queen?" No we would better say,
"Hello, anointed Yahshua,"
and, "Hello, queen Elizabeth." Referring to each, we could say, "Yahshua THE Messiah," or
"Elizabeth THE queen." If we wanted to omit the article "the," we could use a comma and say,
"Yahshua, anointed" (of Yahweh); "Elizabeth, queen" (of England).
Therefore it is not best to say "Yahshua messiah" but rather, "Yahshua the messiah," or "Yahshua,
messiah."
It is not necessary to capitalize the "m" in "messiah" here, because messiah is not a name.
But it often IS capitalized because "messiah" here is describing Yahshua the anointed of Yahweh the
almighty one. Capitalizing it, however, can help people to believe it is a name, or one of Yahshua's names. He
has ONE Name, of course (Acts 4:12), but if we did refer to Yahshua the messiah by the title without His Name,
we would then say, as in 1 Cor 5:7, "For even the Messiah (or the Anointed) our Passover is sacrificed for
us.
We capitalize here to show reference is made to Yahshua the Son of Yahweh; but it is not proper to say, "Anointed
our Passover" or "Messiah our Passover" or "Christ our Passover," as the King James version
of the Bible has it. The translators should have written the article, "the" in front of the title.
Let us users of the Sacred Names not be guilty as the King James people were in respect to names and titles.
In summary: People have names; Names have meanings; People have descriptive titles; Their name is their name -
not the meanings and titles. Proper names are transliterated; meanings and titles are translated. Yahweh and
Yahshua each have ONE Name. (End article)
Ed. Note: I challenge any Bible student (or anyone else) to find even one reference in Scripture to "My holy
Names," "His holy Names," "Your holy Names," or anything similar, referring to the Almighty.
Truly He does have only one Name. The others, such as God, Lord, Elohim, Adonai, Messiah, Savior, etc, often
thought by some to also be names, are only TITLES. ~ Frank Brown
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