Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Messiah"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Messiah
(Heb. mashiah), in all the thirty-nine instances of its
occurring in the Old Testament, is rendered by the LXX.
"Christos." It means anointed. Thus priests (Ex. 28:41; 40:15;
Num. 3:3), prophets (1 Kings 19:16), and kings (1 Sam. 9:16;
16:3; 2 Sam. 12:7) were anointed with oil, and so consecrated to
their respective offices. The great Messiah is anointed "above
his fellows" (Ps. 45:7); i.e., he embraces in himself all the
three offices. The Greek form "Messias" is only twice used in
the New Testament, in John 1:41 and 4:25 (R.V., "Messiah"), and
in the Old Testament the word Messiah, as the rendering of the
Hebrew, occurs only twice (Dan 9:25, 26; R.V., "the anointed
one").
The first great promise (Gen. 3:15) contains in it the germ of
all the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament regarding the
coming of the Messiah and the great work he was to accomplish on
earth. The prophecies became more definite and fuller as the
ages rolled on; the light shone more and more unto the perfect
day. 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 works form a part of the Old Testament canon. The
expectations of the Jews were thus kept alive from generation to
generation, till the "fulness of the times," when Messiah came,
"made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law." In him all these ancient prophecies have their
fulfilment. Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the great
Deliverer who was to come. (Comp. Matt. 26:54; Mark 9:12; Luke
18:31; 22:37; John 5:39; Acts 2; 16:31; 26:22, 23.)
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Messiah \Mes*si"ah\, n. [Heb. m[=a]sh[=i]akh anointed, fr.
m[=a]shakh to anoint. Cf. {Messias}.]
The expected king and deliverer of the Hebrews; the Savior;
Christ.
And told them the Messiah now was born. --Milton.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ghost dance \Ghost dance\
A religious dance of the North American Indians, participated
in by both sexes, and looked upon as a rite of invocation the
purpose of which is, through trance and vision, to bring the
dancer into communion with the unseen world and the spirits
of departed friends. The dance is the chief rite of the
{Ghost-dance}, or
{Messiah},
{religion}, which originated about 1890 in the doctrines of
the Piute Wovoka, the Indian Messiah, who taught that the
time was drawing near when the whole Indian race, the dead
with the living, should be reunited to live a life of
millennial happiness upon a regenerated earth. The
religion inculcates peace, righteousness, and work, and
holds that in good time, without warlike intervention, the
oppressive white rule will be removed by the higher
powers. The religion spread through a majority of the
western tribes of the United States, only in the case of
the Sioux, owing to local causes, leading to an outbreak.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
messiah
n 1: any expected deliverer [syn: {christ}]
2: Jesus Christ; considered by Christians to be the promised
deliverer [syn: {Messiah}]
3: the awaited King of the Jews; the promised and expected
deliverer of the Jewish people [syn: {Messiah}]
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