Christ (title)

Christ comes from the Greek word χριστός (chrīstós), meaning "anointed one". The word is derived from the Greek verb χρίω (chrī́ō), meaning "to anoint."[12] In the Greek Septuagint, χριστός was a semantic loan used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed".[13]

The word Christ (and similar spellings) appears in English and in most European languages. English-speakers now often use "Christ" as if it were a name, one part of the name "Jesus Christ", though it was originally a title ("the Messiah"). Its usage in "Christ Jesus" emphasizes its nature as a title.[8][14] Compare the usage "the Christ".[15]

The spelling Christ in English became standardized in the 18th century, when, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, the spelling of certain words changed to fit their Greek or Latin origins. Prior to this, scribes writing in Old and Middle English usually used the spelling Crist—the i being pronounced either as /iː/, preserved in the names of churches such as St Katherine Cree, or as a short /ɪ/, preserved in the modern pronunciation of "Christmas". The spelling "Christ" in English is attested from the 14th century.[16]

In modern and ancient usage, even in secular terminology, "Christ" usually refers to Jesus, based on the centuries-old tradition of such usage. Since the Apostolic Age, the

... use of the definite article before the word Christ and its gradual development into a proper name show the Christians identified the bearer with the promised Messias of the Jews.[17]

Christology, literally "the understanding of Christ,"[32] is the study of the nature (person) and work (role in salvation) of Jesus in Christianity.[33][34][35][36] It studies Jesus Christ's humanity and divinity, and the relation between these two aspects;[37] and the role he plays in salvation.

From the second to the fifth centuries, the relation of the human and divine nature of Christ was a major focus of debates in the early church and at the first seven ecumenical councils. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 issued a formulation of the hypostatic union of the two natures of Christ, one human and one divine, "united with neither confusion nor division".[38] Most of the major branches of Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy subscribe to this formulation,[38] while many branches of Oriental Orthodox Churches reject it,[39][40][41] subscribing to miaphysitism.

According to the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, in the singular case of Jesus, the word Christ has a twofold meaning, which stands for "both the Godhead anointing and the manhood anointed". It derives from the twofold human-divine nature of Christ (dyophysitism): the Son of man is anointed in consequence of His incarnated flesh, as well as the Son of God is anointing in consequence of the "Godhead which He has with the Father" (ST III, q. 16, a. 5).[42]

The Chi Rho

Christ Pantocrator mosaic, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, showing use of ΧϹ digraph

The use of "Χ" as an abbreviation for "Christ" derives from the Greek letter Chi (χ), in the word Christós (Greek: Χριστός). An early Christogram is the Chi Rho symbol, formed by superimposing the first two Greek letters in Christ, chi (Χ) and rho (Ρ), to produce ☧.[43]

The centuries-old English word Χmas (or, in earlier form, XPmas) is an English form of χ-mas,[44] itself an abbreviation for Christ-mas. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the OED Supplement have cited usages of "X-" or "Xp-" for "Christ-" as early as 1485. The terms "Xpian" and "Xren" have been used for "Christian", "Xst" for "Christ's" "Xρofer" for Christopher and Xmas, Xstmas, and Xtmas for Christmas. The OED further cites usage of "Xtianity" for "Christianity" from 1634.[note 2] According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from "educated Englishmen who knew their Greek".[46][47]

The December 1957 News and Views published by the Church League of America, a conservative organization founded in 1937,[48] attacked the use of "Xmas" in an article titled "X=The Unknown Quantity". Gerald L. K. Smith picked up the statements later, in December 1966, saying that Xmas was a "blasphemous omission of the name of Christ" and that "'X' is referred to as being symbolical of the unknown quantity."[49] More recently, American evangelist Franklin Graham and former CNN contributor Roland S. Martin publicly raised concerns. Graham stated in an interview that the use of "Xmas" is taking "Christ out of Christmas" and called it a "war against the name of Jesus Christ."[50] Roland Martin relates the use of "Xmas" to his growing concerns of increasing commercialization and secularization of what he says is one of Christianity's highest holy days.[51]

• Chrism
• Ichthys
• Dyophysitism
• Hypostatic union
• Kerigma
• Knowledge of Christ
• Masih
• Names and titles of Jesus in the Quran
• Perfection of Christ
• You are Christ

Wikiquote has quotations related to Christ (title).

Look up Christ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Armentrout, Donald S.; Boak Slocum, Robert (2005), An Episcopal dictionary of the church, Church Publishing, ISBN 978-0-89869-211-2
• Bird, Michael F.; Evans, Craig A.; Gathercole, Simon (2014), "Endnotes – Chapter 1", How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus' Divine Nature – A Response to Bart Ehrman, Zondervan, ISBN 978-0-310-51961-4
• Beversluis, Joel Diederik (2000), Sourcebook of the world's religions, ISBN 978-1-57731-121-8
• Cullmann, Oscar (1959). The Christology of the New Testament. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-24351-7.
• Davis, Leo Donald (1990), The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325–787): Their History and Theology (Theology and Life Series 21), Collegeville, MN: Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press, ISBN 978-0-8146-5616-7
• Ehrman, Bart (2014), How Jesus became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, Harper Collins
• Espín, Orlando O.; Nickoloff, James B. (2007), An introductory dictionary of theology and religious studies, ISBN 978-0-8146-5856-7
• Fuller, Reginald H. (1965). The Foundations of New Testament Christology. New York: Scribners. ISBN 0-684-15532-X.
• Greene, Colin J.D. (2004). Christology in Cultural Perspective: Marking Out the Horizons. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-2792-6.
• Kingsbury, Jack Dean (1989). The Christology of Mark's Gospel. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-4514-1007-5.
• O'Collins, Gerald (2009). Christology: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Study of Jesus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955787-5.
• Ramm, Bernard L. (1993), "Christology at the Center", An Evangelical Christology: Ecumenic and Historic, Regent College Publishing, ISBN 9781573830089
• Reeves, Michael (2015). Rejoicing in Christ. IVP. ISBN 978-0-8308-4022-9.