Skip to main content

Do You Know What Christ Is?

 


The words “Jesus Christ Son of God” are known globally. Therefore, of all the words in the New Testament, “Christ” one word people around the world immediately recognize. If there is any word Christians (Christ + ians) should have an accurate understanding of, shouldn’t it be the word Christ?

 

I have heard the words “Jesus Christ” all of my life. I guess I subconsciously thought “Christ” was the last name of Jesus. Jim Myers is my name, so wasn’t he Jesus Christ. Interestingly, I never thought of his mother as “Mary Christ.”  

 

The word “Christ” is an English word. The English language did not exist at the time Jesus lived and led his movement. Therefore, Jesus did not speak English. In my previous emails, I discussed how we know that Jesus spoke Hebrew. But the most ancient manuscripts of the books of the New Testament which contain his words were written in Greek. In order to understand how the Hebrew words of Jesus became Greek words and ended up in our English Bibles, we must discover the origins of the Greek manuscripts and become aware of how translators made their English translations.

 

1. Most of the time they translated Greek words. Translate means "transport the meaning of the Greek word over into the English language." 

 

2. Some of the time they transliterated Greek words. Transliterate means “reproduce the letters of a Greek word in the closest corresponding letters of the English language.” 

 

3. Some of the time they ignored Greek words and did nothing.

 

4. Some of the time they inserted English words in their transitions for which there were no Greek words in the manuscript.

 

Look at the Greek word in the graphic above and you will see the word the translators saw when they worked on their translations. Now look at “root word” part of the transliteration. It is “Christ.”

 

You now know that the word “Christ” is a transliteration – translators chose to reproduce the letters of the Greek word in the closest corresponding letters of the English language. The translators chose not to translate it -- “instead they transported the meaning of the Greek word over into the English language.”

 

Unless there are footnotes, readers do not know they are reading a transliteration. So, what does the Greek word behind that transliteration mean? That will be the subject of my next email.  

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

● Donate and to Help Fund These Emails -- Click Here.

 

● Subscribe and Receive these Email (FREE) -- Click Here.

 

● “Like” and Share our Facebook Page -- Click Here.

 

● Visit the BHC Bookstore & Shop

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It’s a Yod -- NOT a Jot and Tittle!

Not only did Yeshua read and speak Hebrew, so did his followers and disciples! Two very well known, but not accurately understood words in the Gospel of Matthew prove it – jot and tittle . For some reason jot and tittle stick in the minds of Christian Bible readers. But when you ask them what jot or tittle mean, you get a lot of conflicting and some really weird answers. Today, you are going to get the facts about what Yeshua originally said and how they ended up in English translations of the Bible as jot and tittle . Let’s begin by reading Matthew 5:18 from the King James translation: For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. If you have not read the article “ From Yeshua to Jesus ” in Yeshua’s Kingdom Handbook please take a moment to read it online by clicking here before you continue. In it you will see how we began with the name “ Jesus ” and traced it through Lati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do Not Say RAQA! - Yeshua on Anger (Part 2)

In the last blog, we covered the first part of Yeshua’s lesson on Anger -- An Angry Person Should be Tried in Court like a Murderer – keep in mind that “anger” is the focus of Yeshua’s lesson. “Whoever says to a brother, ‘ RAKA ,’ shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” [i] Yeshua reveals that the seriousness of the offense has become greater by elevating the crime to the next highest court – the Sanhedrin . It is the highest court in the nation and would be the equivalent of our Supreme Court. What makes this offense more serious than murder, to keep things in the context established by Yeshua? It is because of what the angry person said out of anger – “ RAKA !” RAKA is the English transliteration of the Greek word found in the ancient manuscripts of Matthew. Interestingly, the Greek word is also a transliteration of a Hebrew word into Greek. Keep in mind that when a translator working on a translation of a Greek manuscript transliterates a Greek word, he only finds ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Prayer Yeshua Prayed Twice Every Day

One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an...
Post a Comment
Read more