Literally, “anointed one” in Hebrew. The savior of the Jewish people promised in the writings of Isiah, Ezekiel, Samuel and other Hebrew prophets. The Jewish and Christian concept of the term “messiah” are very different. According to the Torah, the Messiah is a warrior-king who leads Israel out of bondage and into ascendancy over the world. The Messiah’s power is primarily temporal, not spiritual. In fact, the world “messiah” could mean any lawful king of the nation of Israel; kings David and Solomon, for instance, were called messiahs. Christian writers had to radically redefine the idea of the messiah to make the term applicable to Jesus. The power of the Messiah, Christians argued, wasn’t political, it was primarily divine, and the Messiah’s supposed conquest of the world was not a literal battle, but a spiritual one. See Star of David.