StrongerBible

mashi'aḥ

מָשִׁיחַ

HebrewH4899“anointed, anointed one, ...”

Appears 39 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 4:3Lev 4:5Lev 4:16Lev 6:22(15)1Sa 2:101Sa 2:351Sa 12:31Sa 12:51Sa 16:61Sa 24:6(7) (2×)1Sa 24:10(11)1Sa 26:91Sa 26:111Sa 26:161Sa 26:232Sa 1:142Sa 1:162Sa 1:212Sa 19:21(22)2Sa 22:512Sa 23:11Ch 16:222Ch 6:42Psa 2:2Psa 18:50(51)Psa 20:6(7)Psa 28:8Psa 84:9(10)Psa 89:38(39)Psa 89:51(52)Psa 105:15Psa 132:10Psa 132:17Isa 45:1Lam 4:20Dan 9:25Dan 9:26Hab 3:13
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradema-SHEE-akhnoun

What mashi'aḥ means

1

the anointed one: a person God has set apart for high office by pouring oil on him, above all the reigning king

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

In the Old Testament this word is a description, not yet a name. Pouring oil on a man's head was the public act that installed him into office and put him under God's authority, the way a ruler today is sworn in. Once it was done, the man was "the LORD's anointed": chosen, set apart, and so protected that to lift a hand against him was to strike at God who chose him. That is the force the word carries almost everywhere it appears.

The anointed one is most often the king, and the word clusters thickest in the story of Saul and David, where David twice refuses to kill Saul because he is "the LORD's anointed." From there it covers David and the whole line of kings after him, including the kings whose thrones collapsed in the exile. A second, narrower use names the anointed high priest, and a few striking verses stretch the word further still, to the patriarchs and even to a foreign emperor God commissions for a task.

What the word does NOT yet carry, in its own right, is the later idea of "the Messiah": one promised future deliverer. That is a development of the centuries between the Testaments. The Hebrew word names men who held real office in their own day. It supplies the raw material from which the hope of a coming anointed king would later be built, but it is not itself that title (see the cautions and the disputes).

Nuances

1athe anointed king, chiefly Saul and David and the dynasty after them
1Sa 2:101Sa 12:31Sa 12:51Sa 16:61Sa 24:6(7) (2×)1Sa 24:10(11)1Sa 26:91Sa 26:111Sa 26:161Sa 26:232Sa 1:142Sa 1:16
1bthe anointed priest: the high priest installed into office with oil
Lev 4:3Lev 4:5Lev 4:16Lev 6:22(15)
1can honored agent God claims as his own, used of figures who were never literally anointed king or priest
1Ch 16:22Psa 105:15Isa 45:1
1dthe anointed one in Daniel's vision of the seventy weeks
CertaintyContested
Dan 9:25Dan 9:26

Disputed

Who are the two anointed ones of Daniel 9:25-26? This is the hinge text for the word, the one place where it arguably begins to drift toward a future-oriented sense.

  • majorityBoth figures are identifiable historical persons. The first, "an anointed one, a leader" (9:25), is most often Joshua son of Jehozadak, the first post-exilic high priest; the second, "cut off and has nothing" (9:26), is by near-unanimous critical consensus Onias III, the legitimate high priest deposed and murdered around 171 BCE, fitting a composition during the crisis under Antiochus IV.; J. J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1993), 354-57; C. Newsom, Daniel, OTL (WJK, 2014); J. Goldingay, Daniel, WBC 30 (Word, 1989), 260-63; L. F. Hartman & A. A. Di Lella, The Book of Daniel, AB 23 (Doubleday, 1978), 250-52
  • minorityThe anointed figure or figures point forward to Jesus. This long Christian traditional reading survives in confessional interpretation but is not the historical-critical view.; A. E. Steinmann, Daniel, Concordia Commentary (Concordia, 2008)
2

anointed, rubbed with oil: the plain description of something smeared with oil

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

Apart from the developed sense of a person consecrated to office, the word keeps its plain root meaning of being smeared or rubbed with oil. This is the ordinary, physical sense from which the office sense grew, and it appears when the text is simply describing an object that has, or has not, been oiled.

2Sa 1:21

What scholars say about mashi'aḥ

Standard reference works (BDB; HALOT; K.-H. Bernhardt in TDOT IX; V. P. Hamilton in NIDOTTE) agree that the noun functions descriptively across the Hebrew Bible, labeling Saul, David and the Davidic line, the high priest, the patriarchs by extension, and the foreign emperor Cyrus. The understanding of anointing itself shifted after Ernst Kutsch's study (1963) argued it is primarily a legal act of installation into office rather than a transfer of holiness; T. N. D. Mettinger and the current synthesis treat it as installing the office-holder, binding him to God, and rendering him legally untouchable. The application to Cyrus (Isa 45:1) rules out any narrow royal or end-time meaning at the level of the word. The deeper, conceptual debate is whether the Old Testament already implies the hope of a future ideal deliverer even where the word is absent. The minimalist view, dominant in critical scholarship since Mowinckel and restated by Fitzmyer and Collins, holds that the technical title for an awaited deliverer crystallizes only in later Second Temple Judaism. The maximalist view (Horbury, Laato, Williamson) argues the hope is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures and continuous through the post-exilic period. A mediating position (Roberts) holds that the Old Testament supplies the building blocks, the royal psalms, the Davidic covenant, and the ideal-king oracles, that later interpreters assembled into the messianic concept.

Where scholars disagree about mashi'aḥ

Is there a Messiah in the Old Testament? The lexical facts are not really contested, since the word names present office-holders. The argued question is conceptual: whether the Old Testament already contains the hope for a future ideal anointed deliverer even where the word is absent.

  • majorityMinimalist: the technical title for an awaited deliverer does not occur in the Hebrew Bible and crystallizes only in later Second Temple Judaism. This is the dominant critical view.; S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh (Blackwell, 1956), 3, 8; J. A. Fitzmyer, The One Who Is to Come (Eerdmans, 2007), 8-25; J. J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star, 2nd ed. (Eerdmans, 2010); M. de Jonge, "Messiah," ABD 4 (1992): 777-88
  • minorityMaximalist: the messianic hope is rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves and continuous through the post-exilic period, not a later novelty.; W. Horbury, Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ (SCM, 1998); A. Laato, A Star Is Rising (Scholars, 1997); H. G. M. Williamson, Variations on a Theme (Paternoster, 1998)
  • contestedMediating: the Hebrew Bible supplies the building blocks (royal ideology, the Davidic covenant, the ideal-king and Branch oracles) that later interpreters assembled into the messianic concept. Widely regarded as the most defensible, doing justice both to the descriptive lexical evidence and to the real conceptual continuity.; J. J. M. Roberts, "The Old Testament's Contribution to Messianic Expectations," in Charlesworth ed., The Messiah (Fortress, 1992), 39-51
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 602-603, s.v. מָשַׁח, מָשִׁיחַlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. מָשַׁח I, מָשִׁיחַlexicon
  • K.-H. Bernhardt, "māšaḥ; māšîaḥ," TDOT IX (1998): 43-54lexicon
  • V. P. Hamilton, "משׁח," NIDOTTE 2:1123-27lexicon
  • E. Kutsch, Salbung als Rechtsakt im Alten Testament und im Alten Orient, BZAW 87 (Töpelmann, 1963)monograph
  • T. N. D. Mettinger, King and Messiah, ConBOT 8 (Gleerup, 1976)monograph
  • S. Mowinckel, He That Cometh, trans. G. W. Anderson (Blackwell, 1956)monograph
  • J. A. Fitzmyer, The One Who Is to Come (Eerdmans, 2007), 8-25monograph
  • J. J. Collins, The Scepter and the Star, 2nd ed. (Eerdmans, 2010)monograph
  • J. J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1993), 354-57commentary
  • J. J. M. Roberts, "The Old Testament's Contribution to Messianic Expectations," in J. H. Charlesworth ed., The Messiah (Fortress, 1992), 39-51article
  • W. Horbury, Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ (SCM, 1998)monograph
  • A. Laato, A Star Is Rising (Scholars, 1997)monograph
  • L. S. Fried, "Cyrus the Messiah? The Historical Background to Isaiah 45:1," HTR 95.4 (2002): 373-93article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מָשִׁיחַ

m s construct

מְשִׁיחַ

1Sa 24:6, 1Sa 24:6, 1Sa 24:10, 1Sa 26:9, 1Sa 26:11, 1Sa 26:16, 1Sa 26:23, 2Sa 1:14

m s construct

מְשִׁיחוֹ

1Sa 2:10, 1Sa 12:3, 1Sa 12:5, 1Sa 16:6, 2Sa 22:51, Psa 2:2, Psa 18:50, Psa 20:6

m s absolute

מָּשִׁיחַ, מָשִׁיחַ

Lev 4:3, Lev 4:5, Lev 4:16, Lev 6:22, 2Sa 1:21, Dan 9:25, Dan 9:26

m s construct

מְשִׁיחֶךָ

Psa 84:9, Psa 89:38, Psa 89:51, Psa 132:10, Hab 3:13

m p construct

מְשִׁיחָי

1Ch 16:22, Psa 105:15

m s construct

מְשִׁיחִי

1Sa 2:35, Psa 132:17

m p construct

מְשִׁיחֶיךָ

2Ch 6:42