Christ
This page is about the title or the 'Divine Person'. For the Christian figure, see Jesus. For the Columbia University physics professor, see Norman Christ
Christ is the
English representation of the
Greek word Χριστός (
Christós). The
Christian religion takes its name from Christ, as a title given to
Jesus of Nazareth, always capitalized as a singularly descriptive title meaning literally
The Anointed One. The word Χριστός has been used since pre-Christian times to translate the Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ (
'). In English translations of the New Testament, the Greek (Iesous Christós), and related phrases, are almost invariably translated Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, leading to the common, though inaccurate, perception that Christ was the last name of Jesus of Nazareth. The part of Christian theology focusing on the identity, life, teachings and works of Jesus, is known as Christology'''.
The spelling
Christ in English dates from the 17th century, when, in the spirit of
the enlightenment, spellings of certain words were changed to fit their
Greek or
Latin origins. Prior to this, in
Old and
Middle English, the word was spelled
Crist, the
i being pronounced either as a
long e, preserved in the names of
churches such as
St Katherine Cree, or as a short i, preserved in the modern pronunciation of
Christmas.
The term appears in English and most European languages owing to the Greek usage of it in the
New Testament as a description for
Jesus. In the
Septuagint version of the
Old Testament, it was used to translate into Greek the
Hebrew Mashiach (
Messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed". While many Christian writers claim that this term implied a match to the criteria of being anointed that Jewish tradition had given to their predicted future saviour, some argue that there is no "saviour" concept, as suggested in Christianity, in the Jewish tradition. The "anointed" one more closely means 'high priest', 'leader', or even 'ruler'.
The Greek term is
cognate with
Chrism, meaning
perfumed oil; in fact
Christ in classical Greek usage could mean
covered in oil, and is thus a literal and accurate translation of Messiah. The Greek term is thought to derive from the
Proto-Indo-European root of
ghrei-, which in
Germanic languages, such as
English, mutated into
gris- and
grim-. Hence the English words
grisly,
grim,
grime, and
grease, are thought to be cognate with
Christ, though these terms came to have a negative connotation, where the Greek word had a positive connotation. In
French, the Greek term, in ordinary usage, mutated first to
Cresme and then to
Creme, due to
the loss of certain 's' usages in French, which
was loaned into English as
Cream. The word was used by
extension in Hellenic and Jewish contexts to refer to the office, role or status of the person, not to their actually having oil on their body, as a strict reading of the etymology might imply.
According to
Tom Harpur, a former professor of
Theology at the
University of Toronto who
denies the historicity of Jesus, the Christian usage of the term
Christ derives from Egypt. Harpur has argued that the application of the term
Christ to Jesus derives from the Egyptian use of the term
Karast (
covered in embalming oil) to describe
Horus, who Harpur also alleges that much of the descriptions of Jesus are copied from.
Karast is a
false cognate to
Christ, and Harpur has alleged that this co-incidence was the reason that Christians chose this appelation of Horus rather than any other, since in Jewish circles,
Christ readily brings to mind the
Jewish belief in a Messiah.
Another theory states that name Christ and his story could have been adapted from the Hindu God
Krishna from the similarities in their names and life. Both Krishna and Christ are said to have lived a life of a shepherd. The stories of Krisha / Christ has a King seeking and killing children hoping the kill Krishna / Christ. There are similarities in their death too - Krisha is killed by an iron-nailed arrow piercing his feet and Christ crucified by iron nails.
In the Hebrew
faith tradition,
anointing (with
oil) was a key element of religious ceremony by which specific people were explicitly marked or set aside for a specific role:
priests,
kings, and
prophets. In some cases other materials were anointed with oil as well, to prepare them for religious ceremony. The importance of anointing is sometimes stressed by mentioning the need for it alongside reference to the person in question: e.g., "The priest that is anointed shall carry of the blood into the tabernacle of the testimony" (
Lev 4:16). Many writers feel that some
Jews came to expect a leader who would embody the elements of priest, king, and prophet, and whom they therefore termed "the Messias", which served as a title. The association with being anointed and being a leader makes these words in some senses equivalent. They expressed their hopes for this leader particularly in their prayers known as the
Psalms, which often make reference to God and "his anointed", many of which references some Christians interpret as prophetic.
Anointing in the New Testament and subsequent rites
Anointing is used in the New Testament to heal the sick, to bless for ministry, to give thanks to Jesus, and to prepare for burial. There is also an episode in all four Gospels in which
a woman anoints Jesus. According to Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions, as Christ literally means
the anointed one, so
apostolic succession is seen as implying that this
anointment is manifest in those priests who carry on the ministry of Christ, premised upon an actual anointing. Oil is used in a number of the
sacraments of these traditions. Practices vary slightly from East to West. Every Christian in the Roman
Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox churches is anointed with oil at least once, if he or she receives the sacraments according to each organization's plan. Protestant organizations' rites, however, do not always include anointing with oil.
See Jesus and New Testament view on Jesus' life.
In the
New Testament it says that a savior, long awaited, had come and shall
return, and it describes this saviour
the Christ (
Greek ,
tou Christou, ,
ho Christos). Many ancient Christian groups (such as the
Gnostics) used the term
anarthrously, as
Christ or
a Christ, and believed that everyone could become
a Christ.
The term "Christ" is often used synonymously with "Jesus". A difference in usage is sometimes for variety of speech, and sometimes a subtlety intended to emphasize the totality of His person and function in
Salvation. For example, Ott refers to "Jesus" when emphasizing an event in the New Testament, while he refers to "Christ" in discussing the nature of
God.
The Christian mainstream view
There is a temporal distinction between Jesus and God. God, in the Christian belief system, exists outside of the time continuum and is not restricted by the confines of time (e.g., limitations, aging, development, evolution, etc.).
Jesus, on the other hand, is the temporal
incarnation of the
Logos — the divine Word of God — as described in the first chapter of the
Gospel of John (). Jesus was born, lived, suffered, died and resurrected. Most Christians believe that there is no
ontological distinction between God and Jesus (holding that Jesus is the second person of the
Holy Trinity), and that Jesus did not lose divinity in the incarnation, but rather took on humanity. They likewise believe that Jesus is the Christ.
The term "Christ" pertains to the role to be performed by the "chosen one of God" (another possible translation of "Christ"). The problem with this word for the person of Jesus is that the term means different things to different people. Most especially, the term "Messiah" refers often in Jewish beliefs of the Roman era to the hoped-for leader who would not only be a spiritual leader but a political one as well. Hence, we have grounds for why this term might cause consternation and skepticism not only for Romans, but also for the Jewish leadership of the Temple at the time of Jesus. Those who are not Christian and who do not believe Jesus of Nazareth is the "Christ," are still awaiting the arrival of the Christ, the Anointed One. Christians are waiting for the
Second Coming of Jesus, when he will fulfill the rest of
Messianic prophecy.
The Gnostic 'Christ'
The
gnostics generally believed not in a Jesus who was both a Divine Person and a human person, but in a spiritual Christ who indwelt Jesus. Through the spiritual path of gnosticism, followers of these schools believed that they could experience the same knowledge, or
gnosis. Their theology was or is
dualistic and premised upon demigods, salvation for the elect, and the actions of God who sends periodic saviors. This was considered heresy by the Early Church as per the first
Ecumenical Council, which occurred at Nicaea in 325 AD, although condemnation of the belief existed well before.
The Esoteric Christian tradition
In the western esoteric tradition,
Essenian and later
Rosicrucian, there is a distinction to be made between
Jesus and the Christ.
[ Max Heindel, The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (Part III, Chapter XV: Christ and His Mission), November 1909, ISBN 0-911274-34-0] Jesus is considered a high Initiate of the human life wave (which evolves under the cycle of
rebirth) and of a singularly pure type of mind, vastly superior to the great majority of the present humanity. He was educated during his youth among the Essenes and thus prepared himself for the greatest honor ever bestowed upon a human being: to deliver his pure, passionless, highly evolved physical body and
vital body (already attuned to the high vibrations of the 'life spirit'), in the moment of the
Baptism, to the Christ being for His ministry in the physical world. Christ is described as the highest Spiritual Being of the life wave called
Archangels and has completed His union ("the Son") with the second aspect of
God.
According to the Rosicrucian teachings, Christ is said to inhabit the first
universal inner world of our
solar system, called in Rosicrucian
cosmology the '
World of Life Spirit', described as the world where
differentiation ceases and
unity begins to be realized. His lowest
subtle body is said to be the
desire body and, as such, it is said that He could descend no further. Rosicrucians teach that it is a law of the
Cosmos that no Being, however high, can function in any world without a vehicle built of the material of that world, meaning that Christ was unable to build for Himself a
vital body and a dense
physical body, as He is said not to be from the
human life wave evolution.
Jesus' mother, the
Virgin Mary, is also described as a type of the highest human
purity and because of that was selected to become the mother of Jesus. His father, was a high Initiate (a 'Tekton'
[The word 'Tekton'; Greek original τέκτων, tektōn, means "builder" or "Mason" [1], usually mistranslated as "carpenter", ξυλουργός [2]. Passages from the NT in Text Receptus and Byzantine: Matthew 13:55 "ουχ ουτος εστιν ο του τεκτονος υιος (...)"; Mark 6:3 "ουχ ουτος εστιν ο τεκτων ο υιος (...)".]),
virgin, and capable of performing the act of fecundation as a
sacrament, without personal desire or passion (usually known as the doctrine of faith
Virgin Birth, an
Immaculate Conception). Thus the beautiful, pure and lovely spirit whom we know as Jesus of Nazareth is said to have been born into a pure and passionless body.
Rosicrucians teach that when Jesus, a 'Tekton' himself, was 30 years of age, Christ entered his bodies and used them until the climax of His Mission on Golgotha. This change was consummated with the full and free consent of Jesus, who knew during his entire life that he was preparing a vehicle for Christ. This change may be regarded by some as a form of
Ibbur, a concept of the Jewish
Kabbalah. He submitted gladly, that his brother humanity might receive the gigantic impetus which was given to its development by the mysterious sacrifice on
Golgotha [The Rosicrucian Fellowship, The Mystery of Golgotha].
Rosicrucians explain that an ordinary man's vital body would have instantly collapsed under the terrific vibrations of the Great Spirit [Christ] who entered Jesus' body. Even that body, pure and high-strung as it was, could not withstand those tremendous impacts for many years; the reason why we read in the
Bible of certain times when Christ withdrew temporarily from his disciples. This explanation is in totally agreement with the puzzly findings of
nuclear medicine regarding the high levels of "organized emission of radiation" which "produced an image void of a sharp outline such as that on the Turin Shroud"
[ACCETTA, August D., M.D.- [August 2000], Nuclear Medicine and Its Relevance to the Shroud of Turin (From the Sindone 2000 Shroud Conference in Orvieto, Italy) (15 photos) An earlier version of this paper titled, "Experiments with Radiation as an Image Formation Mechanism" was first presented at the June 1999 Richmond Conference (science papers available)].
See also the Second Coming (of the Christ) according to the Esoteric Christian tradition."Christ" has taken on such power and significance as a theological, religious and devotional term that it has been appropriated and expanded by various theologians and religious writers so as to take it beyond the Christian context (in which "Christ" refers strictly to Jesus as the second member of the
Trinity).
One belief is the idea or concept that "Jesus
became Christ," i.e., his "flesh was transformed to
spirit." By taking a spiritual and good path through life, Jesus was reunited with his true holy nature (
redemption) and preserved forever in God. In this view, this psychic force is often called "the Christ," or sometimes "Christ consciousness," drawing a separation between God (whose nature some maintain we cannot fathom or comprehend) and the
Holy Spirit, which can be experienced (through Jesus) and is therefore compatibility with our mortal and frail humanity.
Matthew Fox sometimes speaks of "the
Cosmic Christ."
In Eastern religious traditions, "God" is often described by both, personifications(
deities) which are manifestations of particular aspects of God's power, and incarnations (
avatars) of God in mortal form as in case of
Krishna (
aka Chrishn) who is considered as "The Father" in
Hinduism. In these religions, "the Christ" is akin to these personifications.
A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who coined the phrase '
Krishna Consciousness', held Jesus' teachings as non-different from the Hindu,
Vedic scriptures, and others such as
Paramahansa Yogananda often wrote about a "Christ Consciousness" interchangeably with "
Krishna Consciousness".
The
interjection "Christ!" is often used as a sign of surprise or anger, without a direct religious reference - that is, as a
swear word. Devout Christians find this usage blasphemous, as they feel it cheapens God's Holy Name and violates the Mosaic
Commandment against taking His name in vain. However it can still be regarded as
prayer of an unconventional kind. Interestingly, there is a phrase in usage, commonly in America: "Oh, for crying out loud!" This is actually a euphemism for "Oh, for Christ's sake!", used as an alternative by people reluctant to swear using the actual name.
"Christ" is also the name of a British
humour fanzine.[
3]
*Ludwig Ott,
Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 1957.
*Joshua McDowell and Don Stewart,
Handbook of Today's Religions, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983.
*Tom Harpur, "The Pagan Christ. Recovering the Lost Light." Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto, (2004)
*
Anointing*
Anointing of Jesus*
Ointment*
Chrism*
Jesus*
God*
Trinity*
Holy Spirit*
Fleur de lys*
God the Father*
Jewish Messiah*
Jewish prophecies about Christ, About-Jesus.org*
A. J. Maas, Origin of the Name of Jesus Christ, Catholic Encyclopedia*
Paul A. Hughes, The Gnostic Christ: Gnosticism vs. Christianity*
Norman D. Livergood, The Christ concept in Esoteric Christianity*
The Etymological Derivation Of The Name "Christ", NZs Hare Krishna Spiritual Network*
Linkages Between Two God-Men Saviors: Christ and Krishna, religioustolerance.org*
Specific Similarities Between the Lives of Jesus and Krishna, religioustolerance.org
