Messiah: Encyclopedia II - Messiah - In the New Testament

Messiah - In the New Testament

Christianity emerged from Judaism in the first century of the Common Era. The first Christians were Jews. Within the Jewish tradition there was a belief that a messiah — a descendant of King David — would restore the monarchy/theocracy and Jewish independence. According to mainstream Jewish belief, the failure of Jesus to restore the Kingdom and fulfil various other messianic prophecies, and his crucifixion by Romans, negated claims that he was the messiah. Some Christians regard the prophecies as having spiritual significance, and not literal. Others see a complete fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies taking place at the Second Coming, see Christianity and Biblical prophecy.

Jesus is also a messianic figure within Christianity, as he prophesied a great return in the future, the return of the Son of Man, Jesus. In this sense, Jesus is believed to be both the fulfilment of the Jewish Messiah, and will be the fulfilment of his own prophecies of the Second Coming.

Christian understanding of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament evaluates prophetic references to the Messiah in the context of New Testament witnesses; some passages are understood to deal with a contemporary fulfilment and a future fulfilment in Jesus. This is understood by Christians to be consistent with prophetic interpretation under the ancient Jewish tradition as well. In a unique example, the first Northern Kingdom ruler, Jeroboam received a prophecy of the future destruction of his idols by King Josiah (yet unborn) of Judah. This future prophecy was confirmed by a contemporary prophecy that the ashes of the altar would spill out. This occurred shortly thereafter and was taken as confirmation of the future prophecy.

In this view, the prophecies about Jesus became more definite and fuller as the ages rolled on. 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 work form a part of the Old Testament canon. Other periods have been defined as corresponding to the different dispensations (also seen as defined by covenants) of God's dealing with man. These principally involved the pre-Mosaic period, the Mosaic period, and finally the Christian period. This is not a full listing of the different periods of revelation, but a limited list helpful in the context. For a full listing, see Dispensationalism.

Another Christian view does not see several dispensations or ages as is espoused by Dispensationalism but rather sees a single elect company of believers from both sides of Calvary drawn from the Old Testament and New Testament periods and extending right up to the last day of this present age. In this view, there are only two dispensations, namely this present evil age and the age to come, the Millennium of the Messiah. This is the view held by many evangelicals who hold to a Resurrection of the righteous at the end of this age immediately followed by a Post Tribulation Rapture.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "In the New Testament", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki