An Aramaic word meaning the anointed. It occurs only in Dan. 9: 25-26 and John 1: 41; John 4: 25 (Messias). Used as the title of an office, it denotes the King and Deliverer whose coming the Jews were eagerly expecting. In the N.T. the deliverer is called the Christ, which is the Greek equivalent of Messiah, and Jesus the Messiah is called Jesus the Christ, Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus.

Throughout the Apocrypha there is no reference to the hope of the Messiah, though during the century before the birth of Christ the hope was steadily reviving. But many Jews, as we learn from the Gospels, were looking only for a deliverer from the Roman power and for greater national prosperity; so when the Messiah came, the nation as a whole rejected him. Only the faithful were able to see in Jesus of Nazareth the true Suffering Servant of Isa. 53, as well as the true Prophet, Priest, and King of Israel (Matt. 16: 16; Luke 24: 21, 26, 27; John 4: 25-26; Acts 3: 18; Acts 8: 32-35; Acts 17: 3; Acts 26: 23).