? ???????. An official title of the Lord Jesus, which became used as a name. In Joh 1:41; 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 Da 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.

In Daniel we read that Messiah the Prince would be cut off and have nothing (margin), which was fulfilled when, instead of being hailed as Messiah by the Jews, He was rejected, cut off, and had, at the time, nothing of His Messianic honours, though, in His death, He laid the foundation of His future glory on earth, as well as effecting eternal redemption for the saved. We read in 1Co 12:12 that as the body is one, and hath many members, "so also is the Christ:" the Head and the members in the power and the anointing of the Spirit form but one body.

Being rejected as Messiah on earth, He is made as risen from the dead both Lord and Christ, Ac 2:36, and thus the counsels of God with regard to Him, and man in Him, are effectuated. Saints now are spoken of as having been chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world. All things in heaven and on earth are to be headed up in the Christ, Eph 1:10. As the Christ, He is the Head of the body the church. Eph 4:15. But the subject can be merely touched on in a short article.