Title
Messiah / Christos
Mashiach · Christos
מָשִׁיחַ · Χριστός
- Meaning
- 'Anointed one' — in both languages, literally smeared with oil.
- Occurrences
- Mashiach 39 times (OT); Christos ~529 times (NT)
- First occurrence
- Leviticus 4:3 (mashiach); Matthew 1:1 (Christos)
Pronunciation
mah-SHEE-akh · khris-TOS
Origin
Applied in the Hebrew Bible to anointed kings and priests — and once, strikingly, to Cyrus the Persian (Isaiah 45:1). It develops into an eschatological title in Second Temple literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Usage & scribal practice
'Christ' is a title, not a surname. The Greek transliteration Messias appears only twice in the New Testament (John 1:41, 4:25), where John translates it for his readers.
Cross-references
Isaiah 45:1
'Thus says YHWH to his mashiach, to Cyrus.'
Daniel 9:25–26
'an anointed one shall be cut off' — the most disputed messianic text.
John 1:41
'We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).'
How translations render it
Theories, myths & conspiracy claims
Each claim is stated as its proponents state it, then assessed against the manuscript and linguistic evidence.
Daniel 9:25 punctuation
The claim: Masoretic accents split the verse differently than Christian translations, changing who the 'anointed one' is.
Assessment: A real translation dispute with theological stakes, turning on the atnach accent. Jewish and Christian translations differ, and both readings are grammatically possible.
'Christ' comes from Krishna
The claim: A recurring claim in comparative-religion literature.
Assessment: No linguistic relationship. Christos is a standard Greek verbal adjective from chriō, 'to anoint'.