DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2019.v07i10.005

Pages: 694-701

The term Messiah in the Old Testament had no one strict meaning. The meaning of the term was developed over a long period of time. Various designations of messianism are equally influenced by the historical situation of the biblical interpreters and their ability to interact with the text their social circumstances and their ability to engage other scholars. This paper is a survey of various scholars and their views as can be found in their books and publications. Scholars at a certain time in history focussed on certain layers of messianic characters as they deduced from the biblical text. The variance in meaning confirms that the messianic characterisation was equally rooted in the circumstances of interpreters of different world views. Their texts confirm to be social constructs of the interpreters’ circumstances. This is confirmed in the variety of meaning related to the term.