What does Messiah mean?
Answered from the commentary of J. N. Darby, Samuel Ridout, Morrish Bible Dictionary and 1 other
“Messiah” means “the Anointed One,” the promised One whom God appointed; “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew “Messiah.” The title belongs especially to the Lord Jesus, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit, and who is Prophet, Priest and King.
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What the commentators say
The passages the answer is drawn from, the most direct first, with the words that bear on the question marked.
Mes si’ah The anointed
16 Matt. 1:21. The word Christ or Messiah means anointed, and Jesus or Joshua, Jehovah or Jah the Saviour.
The somewhat strangely sounding expression used by us, "The Christ," instead of "Christ," has been purposely chosen, in order to mark the distinction between the office and the name of the Lord. "Christ" has become in the parlance of the present day a simple name; in earlier days this was not the case. "Christ" (Greek), or "Messiah" (Hebrew), means "the Anointed," who, according to the promise of God, was expected. This word therefore expresses more than merely the name of a person, although this use of it had already appeared at the time the scriptures of the New Testament were written; and since, in our opinion, the designation of the office and the name should not be confounded, in order to retain the force of the word, we have written "Christ" when it is used as a proper name, and "the Christ" when it designates the office of the Messiah, the Anointed. In the Greek, the article ὁ marks the distinction.
This is a title of our Lord, meaning the Anointed. Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek), both meaning Anointed, are interchangeable words, We read,
The actual word, Messiah, occurs only twice in the Old Testament (Dan. 9:25-26), and only twice in the New Testament (John 1:41; 4:25). In the Old Testament there were three classes of persons anointed on their induction to office—priests, prophets, kings. The word, anointed, referring to individuals, occurs 43 times in the Old Testament. Seeing that practically in every case the word applies to priests, prophets and kings, it is translated by the word, anointed, for the word, Messiah or Christ, can only refer to our Lord. At the same time the anointings of priests, prophets and kings, no doubt were typical of our Lord, who sustains all these three offices. He is God’s Priest, our Great High Priest (Heb. 3:1); He is God’s Prophet, for Deuteronomy 18:18 tells of God promising that He would raise up a Prophet like unto Moses, but whose words should not fall to the ground; and lastly He is God’s King, for we read in Psalm 2:6, how the day will come when our Lord shall sit as King upon the holy hill of Zion. We have our Lord presented prophetically as King and Priest upon His throne in the following Scripture,
Mashiach—the Anointed, occurs thirty-seven times, twice being translated Messiah. Christ in the New Testament is the equivalent of Messiah in the Old Testament. This is a wonderful name given to the Son in the Godhead, who came to earth to do God’s will.
Our next subject is the Anointing of the Spirit, under which a number of Scriptures demand our consideration. Let us first trace the Scripture use of the term. I might say, first of all, there are two words, one in Hebrew and one in Greek, that are the chief words used respectively in the Old and New Testaments. They are the words of which our terms Messiah and Christ are the English equivalents. And this will, I think, give us the first great and prominent thought of anointing. Messiah or Christ means the Anointed One. Other words are used both in Hebrew and Greek, but they are of secondary prominence, and, so far as I am aware, are never used in the way we find the others. This certainly is suggestive.
Rev. 1:5. — “Jesus Christ” is next mentioned, uniting with Jehovah and the Spirit in saluting the saints. In the combination of Name and title is intimated the union of manhood and glory (Acts 2:36). “Jesus” is composed of two syllables, signifying Jehovah-saving (Matt. 1:21). It was a Name given Him before His birth, and one which exactly describes His Person and work. The greatest of all Names, the Name par excellence, is that of Jesus (Phil. 2:9-11). It occurs upwards of 600 times in the New Testament, and is never prefixed by an adjective; nor was the Lord ever, save by demons, directly addressed as Jesus. The Name “Jesus” occurs in the Apocalypse nine times, and in combination with Christ three times. Christ (Greek) and Messiah (Hebrew) both mean the anointed as in Psalm 2, etc.
ὁ χριστός. An official title of the Lord Jesus, which became used as a name. In John 1:41; John 4:25 this title is linked with the Messiah of the O.T. The Jews and Samaritans were expecting THE MESSIAH, "which is called Christ." We find the title 'Messiah' in Dan. 9:25-26 in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The Hebrew word is mashiach and signifies 'anointed.' This term is employed as to the Lord Jesus in Ps. 2:2: the rulers set themselves against Jehovah and His 'Anointed.' The same word is used in reference to the high priest and the king as God's anointed; but the Lord Jesus is emphatically 'the Anointed,' this being the signification of the Word 'the Christ' which should be read in many places in the N.T. where the A.V. simply has 'Christ.' In the Gospels it is nearly always 'the Christ,' and often in the Epistles, except where it is Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus which has more the character of a name. It refers to the Lord as Man, being anointed with the Holy Ghost.
Mashiach, the anointed, is an official title in the O.T. of those who were to rule for God. 1 Sam. 12:3, 5; 1 Sam. 26:9, 11, 16; 2 Chr. 6:42; Isa. 45:1. In the N.T. the title is restricted to the Lord Jesus — ὁ χριστός, the Christ — as the One anointed, not with oil, but with the Holy Spirit by God the Father. This had been predicted in Ps. 45:7, of which John the Baptist was the witness. Mark 1:10; John 1:32-34: cf. also Acts 10:38. He was called God's anointed by Hannah, 1 Sam. 2:10 and by David, Ps. 2:2. Daniel spoke of Messiah the Prince, and that He would be cut off and have nothing. Dan. 9:25-26. The Samaritans as well as the Jews expected this anointed One, the Christ; and when He appeared souls were brought into living intercourse with Him, and owned Him as the promised One. John 1:41; John 4:25. In these two passages the Lord is called 'Messias,' the word being simply the Greek form of the Hebrew word mashiach. In other places a translation is used and He is called ὁ χριστός, 'the Christ,' the anointed One. See CHRIST.