WAS KING CYRUS THE MESSIAH? (ISAIAH 44:28-45:8)

In these verses, God states that Cyrus is his masiah (“anointed”) commissioned to conquer Babylon on Israel's behalf and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. This particular Persian king was Cyrus II, the founder of the Persian Empire who lived from about 558-530 B.C., approximately 150 years after Isaiah's writing. “This is the only biblical passage in which 'messiah', anointed ruler, refers to a non-Israelite.” (Blenkinsopp) This is because: “He, like them [the Davidic kings] is one of God's chosen instruments in the pursuit of God's universal aim of the salvation of all people through the people he has made his own.” (Rengstorf) So we can safely say that King Cyrus was indeed a messiah, but not the Messiah.

Because such a precise prediction is practically unique in the OT, Bruce states that the Cyrus example “has sometimes cause difficulties for Old Testament students.” However, from it he deduces five useful principles:

    “Cyrus is a man of God's choice (Is 41:25),

    appointed to accomplish a redemptive purpose towards God's people (45:11-13),

    and a judgment on his foes (47).

    He is given dominion over the nations (45:1-3)

    and in all his activities the real agent is Yahweh Himself (45:1-7)...

it is quite clear that these five points are preeminently true of the Lord Jesus Christ...”

Rengstorf also states, “In the Old Testament two office bearers are expressly described as masiah, i.e. as anointed (with oil): the high priest as the one responsible for the official cult and the king. The reason for this pairing lies in the fact that in both cases the anointing, corresponding to its character as a legal act, is as essential for the conferring of the authority connected with the office as it is for the resulting responsibility before God as the God of Israel. However, only the figure of the king has to be reckoned as messianic in the sense of specific messianic expectation.” Rengstorf's explanation really needs to be emended in two ways, as explained next.

1. There are three categories of Anointed Ones in the Bible, not just two.

Oswalt explains, “It seems likely that the sense of special selection and empowerment that adhered to the concept of anointing gave rise to the subst. masiah, anointed one. The identity of this person, whether priest (Lev 4:3), king (I Sam 2:35), or prophet (Ps 105:15) was defined by the fact that he had been anointed.” Note that Oswalt includes prophets as another category of special person anointed by God.

Psalms 105:15 is a general reference reference to God's prophets as his anointed ones (i.e. messiahs). In addition, C.A. Evans reminds us: “The anointing of Elisha is the only instance of an anointed prophet. However, one should recall that the prophetic speaker in Isaiah 61 claims to have the Spirit of the Lord and to have been 'anointed' to preach.” 

2. Messianic expectations in Judaism were not just centered on a coming king.

King

Contrary to what Rengstorf states, it was not only a messianic king that the people were expecting even though the anointed kings certainly served as one model for the coming Messiah. “In the Former Prophets several kings were anointed for their royal roles. This act symbolized the presence of the ruah Yhwh [Spirit of God] to prove the authority and provide abilities for the role of 'judge' or 'king'. The Term 'anoint' gives rise to the concept of the messiah (1 Sam 10:1-2; 16:13; 2 Sam 5:2; 6:21) and indicates the special relationship of the anointed one to Yahweh.” (Hildebrandt) Note that this commentator slightly expands the Messiah-concept beyond a king to include other recognized leaders of the nation such as the judges.

Priest

A further expansion is provided by Firth: “Zechariah 3-4 records visions concerned with the high priest Jeshua and the governor Zerubbabel. These men provided joint leadership for the community, though both seem to have faced significant opposition...If Zechariah 4:11-14 refers to them as the 'sons of oil' ('anointed ones' in most English translations), then the sense of the vision would be that just as the oil from an olive tree is part of Yahweh's agricultural blessing for his people, so these two leaders are a blessing, even if this is not recognized by all.” Firth's understanding opens the door even further by suggesting that (1) a messiah (anointed one) can be a priest as well as a governmental leader and (2) his leadership roll may in fact go unnoticed by the people around him.

Evans even goes as far as to state, in direct contradiction to Rengstorf, “Early rabbinic literature is keenly interested in the 'anointed' (high) priest...much more than it is in the royal Messiah.” And the same is true of the Qumran Community who used the Zechariah reference to formulate a belief in one or two such messianic characters instead of a messianic king. Evans detects “features of Qumran's priestly messianism” in Hebrews 5:6,10; 6:20; and 7:1-17.

Prophet

In addition, we can see the popular expectation during the time of Jesus in the belief in a special prophetic character instead. Witness Matthew 16:13-14 where we learn that the people think that maybe Jesus is the reappearance of John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

In that regard, Oswalt also points to another prophetic figure in a very important passage to the understanding of NT messianic thinking. “The Servant of the Lord in Isaiah [ch. 61] raises the concept of anointing beyond the merely historical role of the prophet when he declares that the Lord has anointed him to preach good news to the poor...This..concept..on its own right over and above the more narrowly prescribed functions of prophet, priest, and king, undoubtedly contributed to the rise of the concept of the eschatological Anointed One, the Messiah.”

This passage in Isaiah 61 is one of the Suffering Servant songs in Isaiah, the sum total of which expressly point to a Messiah who will not be triumphant in an earthly sense and certainly not an earthly monarch, but will be strongly opposed and defeated by his enemies. The same idea is found in Daniel 9:24-26 where an anointed one will arise but be cut off.

This aspect of the Coming One was not at all part of the mindset of the Qumran Community. As Evans says, “Far from anticipating the coming of a suffering Messiah, Qumran messianism was traditional in all major respects. A triumphant, conquering Messiah, who of course would submit himself to Qumran's understanding of the renewed covenant, was awaited.”

Jesus the Christ

The Septuagint translated the term Hebrew masiah consistently by its Greek equivalent, christos (Christ). But is not the last name of Jesus, as even many people today ignorantly believe; it is a title. This is a common mistake that has a long history behind it. For example, the Roman historian Seutonius writes, “Since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Chrestos, he [Emperor Claudius] expelled them from Rome.” This event occurred sometime between AD 41-54 and has been attributed as the cause for Priscilla and Aquila leaving there, as explained in Acts 18:2-3. It seems obvious that the Romans confused the title “Christ” (christos) as being the proper name “Chrestos.”

Rengstorf says, “It is significant that the essential unity of the proclamation of Christ with the title messiah is established objectively as well as subjectively, with the least ambiguity in the witness of John which, however, comes relatively late in the New Testament. It is attested particularly in Jn. 1:41 and 4:25. In both passages messiah and Christ are expressly equated.”

Evans points to additional passages in the OT that were taken in a messianic sense in Jewish and Christian writings as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These include references to a star to come out of Jacob and a scepter rising out of Israel (Numbers 24:17; Genesis 49:10), and a future “shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1-7). And Oswalt states, “Once the New Testament identified Jesus as the Anointed One, the Messiah, all the unqualified references to the 'anointed one' in the Old Testament could be seen to have even more relevance, so that a statement like that of Ps 2:2, 'The kings of the earth take their stand...against the LORD and against his Anointed One,' can be seen to have cosmic significance and not merely to be a hyperbolic expression of Israel's experience with her neighbors at some point.”

W can even detect a hint of the coming Messiah as early as Genesis 3:15 in which an offspring (singular) of Eve will defeat the serpent, Satan. Or also in Genesis 3:21, one can point to the hide from a dead (slain?) animal which is used by God to cover the sinful couple as a type of Christ's atoning death.

In conclusion: “The Lord has indeed selected one who is Prophet, Priest, and King. He has chosen and empowered him to fulfill what all the preceding anointed priests and prophets could never do – bring in the kingdom of God.” (Oswalt)