Messiah and Christ are the same word: anointed, in Hebrew and Greek
Mashiach in Hebrew simply means someone rubbed with holy oil. The Bible applies it to kings, priests, altars, even the Persian ruler Cyrus. Translated into Greek it became Khristos, the root of Christ. Judaism, Christianity and Islam all await or honour a messiah, but disagree sharply about who he is.
Anointing was a ritual of consecration, pouring oil on a person or object to set it apart. The Hebrew Bible uses the word for many things, from prophets to temple vessels and unleavened bread. The Greek Septuagint renders every one of the 39 Hebrew instances as Khristos, and the term appears 529 times in the New Testament, which also transliterates Messias twice in John. In Arabic, al-Masih can mean the anointed, the traveller, or one who heals by caressing.
In Jewish eschatology the word came to mean a future king descended through David and Solomon, often called King Messiah or Messiah son of David. He is not God or a pre-existing divine son, but a great, law-observant political leader who will unite the tribes of Israel, rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and open an age of universal peace. The idea began at the margins, yet Maimonides made belief in the Messiah one of his 13 Principles of Faith.
Christians identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, holding that his mission, death and resurrection fulfilled the old prophecies and that a second coming will complete the rest. Unlike the Jewish figure, he is regarded as the Son of God, though ancient Israel also used that phrase metaphorically for its kings.
Islam likewise calls Jesus, or Isa, the Messiah and a prophet to the Israelites, expected to return at the end of time with the Mahdi and defeat the false messiah, al-Masih ad-Dajjal. Ahmadiyya believers hold that their founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who lived from 1835 to 1908, fulfilled the prophecies of both figures. Within Chabad Lubavitch, some followers have controversially proclaimed the sixth and seventh Rebbes, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn and Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as messiah claimants.
Source: Messiah
