Since the days of Moses, what were the people expecting from the Prophet that Moses foretold would appear (Deut 18).
Were they expecting a King, a Prophet, or a Priest. Were they expecting 1, 2 or even 3 Messiahs?
The Qumran scrolls, the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Tribes—all of which are close to the Essene worldview and written prior to the first century of the Common Era, reflected the belief in three messiahs:
an eschatological messiah, along with the messiahs of Aaron and Israel.
So what were the characteristics of this eschatological (end-times) Messiah?
Messiah is the English transliteration from the Hebrew ‘Mashiach’ meaning ‘anointed one’
i.e. someone chosen specially by God for some purpose. This term is translated into ‘Christos’ in Greek and then to ‘Christ’ in English. The term occurs some 37 times in the Hebrew Scriptures (KJV OT version - Strong’s #H4886) and is not always a prophetic reference to the eschatological Messiah.
It is used to refer to the kings of Israel, the high priest, the patriarchs, as well as the Assyrian Cyrus (see Isaiah 45). .
Continue reading ... The Hebraic perspective - Who the Messiah? pdf
