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What does Jesus Christ Mean?

Jesus was “Jesus Christ” to me, and I was a “Christ + ian.” My identity was linked to his identity through the word “Christ.” I viewed “Christ” like a “last name” – he was Jesus Christ. Back then, I didn’t know the New Testament was written in Greek. Bible translators have four options for working with those ancient Greek or Hebrew words:

    1. translate – bring the meanings of the Greek word over into English. 

2. transliterate – replace letters of the Greek word with equivalent English letters. 

3. omit – ignore the Greek word and write nothing in their translation.

4. insert – insert a word into the translation for which there is no Greek word.

Bible translators chose option #2, they transliterated the Greek word above instead of translating it. The arrows connect English letters that are equivalent to the Greek letters. The last two letters of the Greek word are dropped, thereby creating the transliteration -- “Christ.”

The translation of the Greek word is “anointed.” In the Jewish culture of the Jesus of history, people were anointed to hold certain offices and do specific things – kings, priests and prophets. Therefore “Christ” is a title related to an office and specific functions.

What was Jesus anointed to do? He revealed the answer to that question on a Shabbat morning at his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. The answer was in the verses he read from Isaiah (61:1-2a):

“The Spirit of God is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the year of acceptance of God. (Isaiah 61:1-2a)

After he finished reading he said – “Today these words are fulfilled.” What the Jewish audience heard was this:

“I am the Anointed One in the passage from Isaiah.

 

This is what Jesus had been anointed to do:


Preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim the year of acceptance of God.

 Instead of choosing to transliterate and use “Jesus Christ,” the translators should have translated it “Jesus the Anointed One.” Of course, if they had done that we would have “Anointed One + ians” instead of “Christians.”

Thank you for reading this and please discuss it with others.

Shalom,

Jim Myers

#meaningsofwordsmatter

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