Judaism gave rise to two additional religions: Christianity and Islam. All three of these religious traditions expect some form of savior or believe that a savior has already come. This savior figure is called the Messiah. There are similarities and differences in how these traditions view the Messiah. They differ on whether or not the Messiah has already come, but they also differ on the nature of the Messiah. Will the Messiah be human or god? Will the Messiah be a warrior or peacemaker? This paper will explore the similarities and differences in the way these three traditions view the Messiah.There are many references to messianic figures in the Old Testament, but it is important to remember that there was no one single idea about the Messiah in ancient Judaism. The second-Temple Judaism that existed in the first century of this era was diverse, with many different ideas about who or what the Messiah would be.
[...] He will be generous and will divide the wealth of the world in a fair way. The return of the Mahdi is also often associated with the return of Jesus, though for Moslems neither the Mahdi nor Jesus is God. The Qur'an emphasizes that the idea that Jesus is God is a mistake (Q. 4:171–73; 5:17, 116–118; 6:100–03; etc.). Nevertheless, the Qur'an teaches that Jesus, who is called al-haqq, word of truth,” was born in a virgin birth by the will of God 3:42). [...]
[...] They may believe that when the real Messiah comes people from the other religions like Christianity and Islam will recognize that the real Messiah had not come before and that Judaism is still the covenant religion. III. Jesus the Messiah There is no question that the picture of the Christian Messiah is the clearest of any of these three traditions. Christians uniformly believe that Jesus is the true Messiah and that he has already come. Some believe he will come again before the end time and will rule with Christian martyrs for a millennium before the last judgment and end of the world. [...]
[...] The Islamic Messiah Unlike the Judaism and Christianity, where the prophecies of one or more messiahs are found in religious scriptures, the Islamic tradition on messianic figures is not found in the Quran. Reports about a Messiah are found in hadith, or records of saying that are attributed to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam. As the different sects of Islam have different records of hadith, they do not all agree on who or what the Messiah will be. One belief, most common among Shii Moslems, is that al-Mahdi, rightly guided will come to usher in an era of justice and true belief before the final end of the world. [...]
[...] Because the Temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed in the first century and the practice of priestly sacrifices was no longer possible, a new form of Judaism, based on teachers or rabbis developed. These teachers came up with a new explanation for the apparent conflict between the two main expectations for the Messiah. Some of the rabbis said that there would be two Messiahs: Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph,[3] and that is why the descriptions of the Messiahs are so different. [...]
[...] We find this presentation of the Messiah reflected in such language as: “authority, glory and power” (Dan. everlasting kingdom” (Dan. righteous branch” (Jer. branch” (Zech. 6:12, and ruler” (Micah 5:2). This idea about the Messiah is also called restorative messianism, because there is an expectation that something from the past, the Golden Age, will be restored. Another image of the Messiah has been called the suffering Messiah. This Messiah would be killed as a criminal, but would really bear the sins of many (Isa. [...]
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