A Divine Messiah?

Blog, Readers’ Perspective Leave a Comment

A reader asks for information on the various Jewish sects' views of the deity of the Messiah.

Question received from David Garcia that was published in the “Readers’ Perspective” column of Jerusalem Perspective 56 (July-September 1999): 6.

Do you know of any exhaustive scholarly works that explain what various sects of Judaism thought about who the Messiah would be, and did any believe that he would be deity?

David Bivin responds:

As is often the case, the best place to begin is the Encyclopaedia Judaica‘s entry on the subject (in this case, “Messiah,” 11:1407-27). There is a bibliography, too, at the end of the entry.

Regarding the belief that the Messiah would be deity, Peter, apparently, believed that Jesus was of a divine nature. According to Robert L. Lindsey, that is a possible understanding of Peter’s confession, “The Messiah (of) God” (i.e., “The divine Messiah”) in Luke 9:20 (see Chapter 26, “What Did Peter Say?” (pp. 134-140) in Lindsey’s Jesus, Rabbi and Lord: A Lifetime’s Search for the Meaning of Jesus’ Words).

Of course, throughout the centuries of the Common Era, Christians have maintained that Jesus and God are one—God incarnate who dwelt among people—but to show this from the words of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels is a challenging task.

This article originally appeared in issue 56 of the Jerusalem Perspective magazine. Click on the image above to view a PDF of the original magazine article.

Leave a Reply

  • David N. Bivin

    David N. Bivin
    Facebook

    David N. Bivin is founder and editor of Jerusalem Perspective. A native of Cleveland, Oklahoma, U.S.A., Bivin has lived in Israel since 1963, when he came to Jerusalem on a Rotary Foundation Fellowship to do postgraduate work at the Hebrew University. He studied at the Hebrew…
    [Read more about author]

  • JP Content

  • Suggested Reading

  • Hospitality Heritage of the ChurchPetros Petra WordplayHistorical Jesus a Tanna FIDeliver Us From Evil6 Stone Water JarsEnemies of the HarvestWere Women Segregated?Luke 9-51-56—A Hebrew FragmentUnlocking the Synoptic ProblemNew Portrait of SalomeInsulting God's High PriestLoving BothMedieval JargonBeating the (Thorny) Bushes title 2Gergesa, Gerasa, or GadaraPG‘Everything Written…in the Psalms About Me’ (Luke 24-44)And OR In Order To RemarryAnti-Jewish TendenciesScribal ErrorsAllegro to ZeitlinTwena With All Due RespectTorah in the Sermon on the MountBethsaida 002Flusser Times of the GentilesIf Your Eye Be Single cover imageIntro to SynopticStewards of God's KeysBy the Finger of GodPower of ParablesTrees of LifeBest Long-TermFlusser Parables of Ill ReputeNew International JesusReich Design and MaintenanceSafrai Synagogue CenturionNun GergesaSabbath BreakersNeot KedumimWealth of Herod the GreatGood Morning, ElijahMiraculous CatchSalted With FireJewish Laws of Purity in Jesus' DayMidrash in the New TestamentAesop's Fables and the Parables of the SagesJesus’ Temptation and Its Jewish BackgroundOstracon From Qumran FlusserOrigins of Jesus' Dominical TitleDid Jesus Make Food Clean?Evidence of Pro-Roman Leanings in the Gospel of MatthewA Body, Vultures & SoMBinding and Loosingספר פתרון תורהPilgrimage in the Time of Jesus cover