The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1534 page)

(adaptation of Heb.,
ha-mashia
, ‘the anointed one’, also transliterated haMashiach).
Judaism
Anointed descendant of the Jewish king
David
who will restore the Jewish kingdom. The idea of the messiah did not exist before the second
Temple
period, but grew out of the biblical hope that the House of David would again rule over the Jewish people. As a result of the Roman occupation of
Erez Israel
, various messiahs emerged, including Jesus (as interpreted after his death by his followers), Judas the Galilean (mentioned in
Josephus
), and Simeon
Bar Kokhba
(see
MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS
). The
rabbis
taught that, with the coming of the messiah, the climax of human history would be achieved and God's
kingdom
would be established on earth. From the 13th cent., messianic expectations were centred on
kabbalistic
thought and culminated in the
Shabbatean
movement (see
MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS
).
Christianity
Although at an early date the followers of Jesus were marked out as those who believed that Jesus was the promised messiah/
christ
, Jesus appears to have resisted any attempt to interpret what he was doing and saying in his God-derived way through that category—to such an extent that it gave rise to the theory of the messianic secret—see
SCHWEITZER, ALBERT
. Some aspects of his life (e.g. the entry into Jerusalem) were clearly open to the interpretation that he was acting as the descendant of David, but it was only after his death and resurrection that the appropriateness of interpreting him as messiah was developed. The New Testament reveals a certain amount of scripture-searching to find ways in which Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies in
Tanach
(Jewish scripture), but it remains a Jewish objection to Jesus as Christ that few of the biblical signs of the messiah were fulfilled.
Islam
In Islam, al-Masi
is a description (almost a name, except that the Arabic article is never dropped) for ‘Is
/Jesus.

 
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Messianic movements
.

Movements centred on the Jewish hope for the coming of the
messiah
. Jesus of Nazareth was believed by his Christian followers to be the messiah. According to Josephus, at the end of the 1st cent. BCE, Judas the Galilean condemned the people for ‘consenting to pay tribute to the Romans and tolerating mortal masters after having God for their Lord’. Slightly later, other claimants came forward, e.g. Theudas and a Jew from Egypt ‘who gained for himself the reputation of a
prophet
’. The revolt against Rome in 66 CE must be seen in the context of messianic aspiration, and in the uprising of 132 CE, the great Rabbi
Akiva
recognized Simeon
Bar Kokhba
as the king–messiah. Further claimants arose, both in Muslim lands (such as the 7th-cent. Abu Isa), and in Christian Europe (e.g. the
Karaite
Kohen Solomon in the 12th cent.). The 12th cent. in particular saw many messianic movements, possibly induced by Crusader violence. One claimant, Moses Al-Dari, was even admired by
Maimonides
, and David Alroy persuaded the sophisticated Jews of Baghdad of his authenticity. Abraham b. Samuel
Abulafia
saw himself as the forerunner of the messiah in the 13th cent. and Hasdai
Crescas
believed that the messiah had been born in Castile. Messianic expectations continued to be aroused in the late Middle Ages until the time of the great
kabbalistic
claimant,
Shabbetai Zevi
, in the 17th cent. See also
MESSIAH
.

 
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Messianic secret
:

see
MESSIAH (CHRISTIANITY)
;
SCHWEITZER, ALBERT
.

 
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Metaphysical movements
.

Groups that share a common definition of metaphysics as a practical religious philosophy and that seek to relate spiritual and psychic phenomena to everyday life. Among the groups classified as metaphysical are the older ones—
Spiritualism
,
Theosophy
, and
Anthroposophy
—and a number of newer ones such as the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship. They tend to blend an occult with a metaphysical stream of thought.

 
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