The terms “Christ” and “Messiah” do not refer to a divine being but to the function an agent of God plays in bringing the kingdom that is to come on earth as in heaven.
“Christ” is probably the most frequently used—and least understood—word in the Bible. Many use it unthinkingly as an expletive; others assume it is the second name of the founder of Christianity; some take it to mean God manifest in the flesh, a divine being.
But how is “Christ” used in the Bible?
The term “Christ” (Greek christos) is equivalent to “Messiah” (Hebrew mashiah), which was used for a reigning monarch: David, for example, spoke of King Saul as “Yahweh’s messiah” (1 Samuel 24:6, 10). Eventually the term came to refer to God’s agent who would liberate the oppressed and introduce a new era, the Reign of God. The word literally means “Anointed,” reflecting the ancient practice of anointing and thereby consecrating a person for an office, such as prophet (2 Kings 19:16), priest (Exodus 28:41) or king (Judges 9:15 in Jotham’s fable). The emphasis falls not upon the “nature” of the anointed one but upon his function or office.
Certain passages in the Hebrew Bible, however, describe the anointed in terms that move beyond this basic, functional sense. In Psalm 45, an ode to be sung in celebration of a king’s marriage to a princess, the anointed king is addressed in terms of divinity: “Your throne, God [Elohim], is forever” (Psalm 45:6; 45:7 in Hebrew). The poetic line was translated this way in the Greek Bible (Septuagint), the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible; the writer of the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1:8) appropriated this Septuagintal translation. Addressing a ruler as divinity was well known in the ancient world. In the 14th-century B.C.E. Amarna Letters, for instance, Egyptian vassals address Pharaoh as “god.” But in ancient Israel, this was not a usual, or even acceptable, way to address a king. Therefore, some Bible translators tone down the language. The Jewish Publication Society Version (JPSV) translates Psalm 45:7 as “your divine throne is everlasting.” In the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), Psalm 45:6 reads “your throne is from God, for ever and ever”; the Revised English Bible (REB) renders “God has enthroned you for all eternity.”
Since the Hebrew text makes sense as it is and ancient versions provide no evidence that justifies a change, it is best to accept the more difficult reading—difficult because this usage is not clearly attested elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Accordingly, several modern translations (New Revised Standard Version [NRSV], New American Bible [NAB], New International Version [NIV]) translate the passage as “Your throne, O God.” Commentators justify this phrase as the extravagant language of the court or as the verbal excesses expected at a wedding celebration, especially when the groom is a king.
In the well-known poem about the ideal Davidic king of the future (Isaiah 9:1–7), the king comes close to being deified. This coming king (not explicitly called “messiah”) is to be crowned with exalted throne names: “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty Hero, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6, NRSV).1 The second of these titles, ‘el gibbor, could be rendered “Mighty God” (as in NJB), “God-Hero” (NAB), or possibly “Divine Warrior,” an ancient epithet of Yahweh (Exodus 15:3).2 If we take the language at its face value, there seems to be a shift from the messiah’s function (as one anointed for a task) to his “divine” nature. One commentator remarks that this title “surprises us,” for “here it expresses the wonderful nature of the king and his God-like character” (italics added).3 Again it must be said, however, that this lavish language belongs to the literary style used in the royal court, especially at a time of coronation.
Similar extravagant language is found in psalms that express the special covenant between God and the Davidic dynasty, “the house of David.” Psalm 2, a royal psalm that seems to reflect a coronation ceremony, specifically calls the Davidic king Yahweh’s Anointed One (Hebrew mashiah, verse 1). On the day of coronation he is installed on Zion, Yahweh’s “holy hill” (verse 6), and is invested with the words “You are my [God’s] son; today I have begotten you” (verse 7). The poet does not say the king is divine by nature; rather, he is elected to a special relationship with God (metaphorically a Father-Son relationship; cf. Psalm 89:36). At the time of enthronement (that is, “today”) he becomes (“is begotten” or fathered) the son of God, ex officio. Similar hyperbolic language is found in Psalm 110, a royal psalm that portrays the Davidic king enthroned at the right hand of God, reigning in Zion as God’s earthly representative (Psalm 110:1–20).
In all of these cases, the language of poetic hyperbole should not be construed to mean that the king (messiah) was regarded as a divine being. The term “Messiah,” as said previously, refers to the anointed’s function or role, rather than to his nature or God-like character. The messiah is God’s agent, chosen specifically to be God’s representative in a 048kingdom that is to come to earth as in heaven. Undoubtedly, this functional meaning of messiah is expressed in Peter’s famous confession at Caesarea Philippi, “You are the Christ” (Mark 8:27–30), and even in the parallel confession that includes the Davidic “Son of God” title (Matthew 13–16).
Elizabeth Johnson rightly says that “Jewish scriptural symbols,” such as Messiah and Son of God, do not “connote divinity”; a significant step, she adds, was made when interpreters used Wisdom categories to explore the messiah’s “ontological relationship with God”4 and the cosmic role and status of the messiah who is active with God in the creation.5 That step was taken when interpreters, using the categories of Sophia (Wisdom; cf. Proverbs 8) and Logos (Word, cf. John 1), moved beyond the functional christology inherent in the Hebrew Bible’s term Messiah to an ontological christology that deals with the being of the Messiah in relation to God. When that happened, the extravagant poetic language applied to the king in various passages of the Hebrew Bible took on new meaning.
“Christ” is probably the most frequently used—and least understood—word in the Bible. Many use it unthinkingly as an expletive; others assume it is the second name of the founder of Christianity; some take it to mean God manifest in the flesh, a divine being. But how is “Christ” used in the Bible? The term “Christ” (Greek christos) is equivalent to “Messiah” (Hebrew mashiah), which was used for a reigning monarch: David, for example, spoke of King Saul as “Yahweh’s messiah” (1 Samuel 24:6, 10). Eventually the term came to refer to God’s agent who would liberate the oppressed and […]
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JPSV goes its own way here: “He has been named ‘The Mighty God is planning grace; the Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler.’”
2.
See Frank M. Cross, Jr., “The Divine Warrior,” in Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1973), pp. 91–111.
3.
Joseph Jenson, Isaiah 1–39, Old Testament Message 8 (Wilmington, DE.: Michael Glazier, 1984).
4.
Ontology is the philosophical study of “being.”
5.
Elizabeth A. Johnson, She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse (New York: Crossroad, 1994), p. 98; see also my “Moving Beyond Masculine Metaphors,”BR 10:05.
