Jews believe in the concept of a messiah, who is a savior and liberator figure in Jewish eschatology, and is believed to be the future redeemer of the Jewish people. The concept of messianism originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, a messiah is a king or High Priest of Israel traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil. In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is a future Jewish king from the Davidic line, who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the Messianic Age and world to come. The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah" or "malka meshiḥa" in Aramaic.

Jewish tradition affirms at least five things about the Messiah:

• He will be a descendant of King David.
• He will gain sovereignty over the land of Israel.
• He will gather the Jewish people from exile and return them to Israel.
• He will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.
• He will usher in an era of world peace.

Traditional Judaism (Orthodox and Conservative) has never viewed the Messiah as a God-Man, but only a man with unusual power from God who will manifest the qualities of a prophet, priest, and king in Israel. They have described the Messiah in a dual role. First, there would come the “suffering servant” (Messiah ben Joseph) who would die in battle against the enemies of Israel preparing the way for the second Messiah (Messiah ben David).

Jews do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. According to Maimonides, Jesus was the most influential, and consequently, the most damaging of all false messiahs. However, since the traditional Jewish belief is that the messiah has not yet come and the Messianic Age is not yet present, the total rejection of Jesus as either messiah or deity has never been a central issue for Judaism.