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Nate McCooey REL 326-New Testament Rev. John Weimer November 17, 2003 Article Summary “The Old Testament Background of Jesus as Begotten of God” (Bible Review, Fall 1986; H. Neil Richardson) In the New Testament, commonly referred to as the Christian Scriptures or Greek Bible, numerous references are made to the concept of Jesus Christ as a messiah. However, the roots of such an idea lie primarily within the text of the Old Testament; also known as the Jewish Scriptures, Hebrew Bible, or tanakh. Throughout this article from Bible Review, H. Neil Richardson attempts to assert that point. My task here is to summarize the salient principles that Mr. Richardson brings up in his article. The term messiah (Hebrew mashiach) is actually a Greek word derived from the Hebrew verb masah, meaning “to anoint”. In the time of Ancient Israel, kings were referred to as “the anointed of the Lord”. In the Old Testament, the messiah was stated to be begotten of God. This is affirmed in the infancy narratives written in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament; two of the three “synoptic gospels”, so named because they share much of the same literary content. Richardson begins his article by making reference to two previously written Bible Review articles by Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis and John Dominic Crossan; articles that focused on differing literary techniques and dominant narrative strategies of the two aforementioned gospels respectively. However, Richardson goes on to point out that neither of the two really explores the fact that Jesus was begotten of God. The idea of a messiah is one of the fundamental principles of both Judaism and Christianity; the primary difference being that Jews believe that their messiah has already come and do not understand why Christians are waiting for the Second Coming.
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