Lexicon

H4899 - mashiach

Strong's: H4899 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: maw-shee'-akh Part of speech: masculine noun (functioning sometimes as adjective) Root: from H4886 - mashach (מָשַׁח, "to anoint, smear"), anointing with oil as the rite of consecration. Greek equivalents: G5547 - christos (Χριστός, "Christ"), direct LXX rendering, the source of the Greek title. OT occurrences: 39

Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs)

Anointed one, the basic adjectival sense; one consecrated to office by anointing oil.
Anointed king of Israel, the dominant biblical usage; Saul, David, Solomon, the Davidic dynasty.
Anointed priest, particularly the high priest (Leviticus 4:3, 5, 16; "the anointed priest").
Anointed prophet, rare but extant (1 Kings 19:16; Psalm 105:15 / 1 Chronicles 16:22 "do not touch My meshichai / anointed ones").
Foreign king as God's instrument, extended use; Cyrus of Persia called meshicho ("His anointed") in Isaiah 45:1.
The eschatological / Messianic figure, the future Davidic deliverer who would be "the Anointed One par excellence"; Daniel 9:25-26's Mashiach Nagid ("Messiah the Prince").

Theological force, three offices anointed, one Anointed-One fulfills

The OT mashiach developed a robust threefold theology of anointing across the offices:

Prophet, speaking God's word (Moses, Elijah, Elisha, etc.; explicitly "anointed" in 1 Kings 19:16; Psalm 105:15).
Priest, mediating between God and people (Aaron and his sons; the high priest as kohen ha-mashiach, Leviticus 4:3).
King, ruling God's people (Saul, David, the Davidic dynasty).

These three offices were always separate in OT Israel, kings did not function as priests (cf. Saul's overstepping in 1 Samuel 13; Uzziah's leprosy in 2 Chronicles 26:16-21); priests were not kings. The eschatological hope was for one figure who would unite all three, the Anointed One who is simultaneously prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15-18), priest (Psalm 110:4 "according to the order of Melchizedek"), and king (2 Samuel 7:12-16; Psalm 2:6).

Christian theology sees this messianic synthesis fulfilled uniquely in Christ:

Prophet, "a prophet like Moses" (Acts 3:22, citing Deuteronomy 18:15)
Priest, "a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek" (Hebrews 5-7, citing Psalm 110:4)
King, "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Revelation 19:16)

This triplex munus Christi (the threefold office of Christ) is one of the major Reformed Christological frameworks, Eusebius, Calvin, Heidelberg Catechism Q. 31.

Notable verses

Royal usage, Davidic kings

1 Samuel 24:6, 10, David's reverence: "the LORD's mashiach" (Saul)
2 Samuel 1:14, David rebukes the Amalekite for striking "the LORD's mashiach"
2 Samuel 19:21, Abishai on cursing "the LORD's mashiach"
2 Samuel 22:51, God's lovingkindness "to His mashiach, to David and his descendants forever"
Psalm 18:50, paralleling 2 Samuel 22

Priestly usage

Leviticus 4:3, 5, 16, "the anointed priest"
Leviticus 6:22, high priest's anointing

Eschatological / Messianic usage

Psalm 2:2, "the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His mashiach"
Psalm 132:10, 17, "for the sake of David Your servant, do not turn away the face of Your mashiach… I will cause the horn of David to spring forth; I have prepared a lamp for My mashiach"
Daniel 9:25-26, "from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Mashiach Nagid there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks… then after the sixty-two weeks the mashiach will be cut off"
Habakkuk 3:13, "You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your mashiach"

Foreign king as anointed instrument

Isaiah 45:1, "Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His mashiach" (the Persian conqueror as God's instrument)

"The anointed ones" (plural, patriarchs / prophets)

1 Chronicles 16:22 / Psalm 105:15, "do not touch My anointed ones (meshichai) and do My prophets no harm"

Daniel 9:24-27, the Messianic timeline

This passage deserves separate treatment for its apologetic weight. Daniel's "seventy weeks" prophecy uses mashiach twice (vv. 25 and 26):

From the decree to restore Jerusalem until Mashiach Nagid, 7 + 62 = 69 weeks (of years = 483 years).
After the 62 weeks the mashiach will be cut off (yikkareth), and "have nothing."

Christian interpreters from Tertullian (Against the Jews 8, c. AD 200) and Eusebius (Demonstration of the Gospel VIII, c. AD 320) onward have used this prophecy as a chronological proof of Christ's identity: starting from Artaxerxes's decree (Nehemiah 2:1-8, c. 445 BC) and counting 483 lunar/calendar years brings one to the early 1st century AD. The mashiach "cut off", crucified, fulfills v. 26 with high specificity. Modern apologetic use (Robert Anderson's The Coming Prince, 1894; Harold Hoehner's Chronological Aspects of the Life of Christ, 1977) develops the calculation in detail.

The chronology argument is one of the strongest single OT prophecy → NT fulfillment cases in Christian apologetics.

Patristic / scholarly note

Targum Jonathan (rabbinic Aramaic translation, pre-Christian to early-Christian era) interprets Isaiah 53 explicitly as the Messiah; later medieval Jewish exegesis (Rashi, ibn Ezra) shifts to corporate-Israel reading. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 13, 32, 49, c. AD 160) and Tertullian (Against the Jews) use mashiach-passages extensively against Trypho's emerging counter-readings.

The Targumim, Septuagint, and Qumran scrolls (4QFlorilegium = 4Q174; 11QMelchizedek = 11Q13) all show pre-Christian Jewish messianic expectation focused on the Davidic-and-priestly mashiach figure. Modern apologetic scholarship (Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, vol. 3; Mitch Glaser, ed., The Gospel According to Isaiah 53) develops the case for the individual-Messianic reading from these primary sources.

Verses in this codex

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