Messiah

''Messiah'' (Handel)|Messiah (disambiguation)}}

In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' is a king or High Priest traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil.

In Judaism, ''Ha-mashiach'' (),}} often referred to as '''' (), is a fully human non-deity Jewish leader, physically descended via a human genetic father of an unbroken paternal Davidic line through King David and King Solomon. He will accomplish predetermined things in a future arrival, including the unification of the tribes of Israel, the gathering of all Jews to ''Eretz Israel'', the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, the ushering in of a Messianic Age of global universal peace, and the annunciation of the world to come.

The Greek translation of Messiah is ''Khristós'' (), anglicized as ''Christ''. It occurs 41 times in the Septuagint and 529 times in the New Testament. Christians commonly refer to Jesus of Nazareth as either the "Christ" or the "Messiah", believing that some messianic prophecies were fulfilled in the mission, death, and resurrection of Jesus and that he will return in a second coming to fulfill the rest of messianic prophecies. Moreover, unlike the Judaic concept of the Messiah, Jesus Christ is considered the Son of God, although in the Jewish faith the King of Israel was also metaphorically called the Son of God.

In Islam, Jesus () is held to have been a prophet and the Messiah sent to the Israelites, who will return to Earth at the end of times along with the ''Mahdi'', and defeat ''al-Masih ad-Dajjal'', the false Messiah.

In Ahmadiyya theology, these prophecies concerning the Mahdi and the second coming of Jesus are believed to have been fulfilled in Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908), the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement, wherein the terms ''Messiah'' and ''Mahdi'' are synonyms for one and the same person.

In controversial Chabad messianism, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (r. 1920–1950), sixth ''Rebbe'' (spiritual leader) of Chabad Lubavitch, and Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), seventh ''Rebbe'' of Chabad, are Messiah claimants. Provided by Wikipedia