| |
Christ is the English term for the Greek (Khristós) meaning "the anointed", which is a title given to the Reigning Messiah in the given age of the Zodiac Calendar. In the 3rd- to 1st-centuries BC, the Tanakh (what Christians would in later centuries come to call the Old Testament) was translated into a Greek version called the Septuagint, in which Khristós was used to translate the Hebrew (,) (Messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed, typically with holy anointing oil."
A central doctrine of Nicene Christianity is that God took human form in the body of Jesus, the Christ.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Christ' Start a new discussion about 'Christ' Answer questions from other users |
Quotations
From first to last Jesus is the same; always the same, majestic and simple, infinitely severe and infinitely gentle.
If the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.
Jesus Christ was more than man.
The best of men that ever wore earth about him was a sufferer, a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.
All the glory and beauty of Christ are manifested within, and there He delights to dwell; His visits there are frequent, His condescension amazing, His conversation sweet, His comforts refreshing; and the peace that He brings passeth all understanding.
He, the Holiest among the mighty, and the Mightiest among the holy, has lifted with His pierced hands empires off their hinges, has turned the stream of centuries out of its channel, and still governs the ages.
Encyclopedia
Christ is the English term for the Greek (Khristós) meaning "the anointed", which is a title given to the Reigning Messiah in the given age of the Zodiac Calendar. In the 3rd- to 1st-centuries BC, the Tanakh (what Christians would in later centuries come to call the Old Testament) was translated into a Greek version called the Septuagint, in which Khristós was used to translate the Hebrew (,) (Messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed, typically with holy anointing oil."
A central doctrine of Nicene Christianity is that God took human form in the body of Jesus, the Christ. Therefore, Christ was both fully human and fully God at the same time. Followers of Jesus became known as Christians because they believed that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah).
The area of Christian theology focusing on the nature of Jesus as the Christ, particularly with how the divine and human are related in his person, is known as Christology.
Etymology
The spelling Christ in English was standardized in 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 usually spelled Crist, the i being pronounced either as (see Help:IPA for English), preserved in the names of churches such as St Katherine Cree, or as a short , preserved in the modern pronunciation of Christmas). The spelling "Christ" is attested from the 14th century.
The term Christ (or similar) appears in English and most European languages, owing to the Greek usage of Khristós (transcribed in Latin as Christus) in the New Testament as a description for Jesus. In the Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, it was used to translate into Greek the Hebrew mashiach (messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed."
His followers believe Jesus Christ is the living son of God and will return to judge all humanity one day.
Khristós in classical Greek usage could mean covered in oil, and is thus a literal translation of messiah. The Greek term is thought to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root of *ghrei- ("to rub"), 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 mutated first to cresme and then to crème, due to the loss of certain 's' usages in French, which was loaned into English as cream.
Indian ghee, from Sanskrit ??? ("sprinkled") is another obvious cognate, and indeed, has a sacred role in Vedic and modern Hindu libation and anointment rituals.
Christian views
The New Testament records that the Messiah, long awaited, had come and describes this savior as The Christ (Greek Genitive: , toú Christoú,; Nominative: , ho Christós). The apostle Peter, in what has become a famous proclamation of faith among Christians since the first century, said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" .
Teachings about Jesus and testimonies about what he accomplished during his three-year public ministry are found throughout the New Testament. Core biblical teachings about the person of Jesus Christ may be summarized that Jesus Christ was and forever is fully God (divine) and fully human in one sinless person at the same time. Scripture asserts that Jesus was conceived, by a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of his virgin mother Mary without a human father ( ).
The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus's Antiquities Of The Jews saysJosephus, Antiquities Of The Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3
- Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
Various texts titled "Apostles' Creed", dating from the third century A.D., and still in current use among Christians, describe Jesus as
- the only son of God the Father
- having the Virgin Mary as mother
- crucified on the authority of Pontius Pilate
- having been dead and buried
- "descending into hell" or "descending to the dead" (sometimes omitted)
- rising from the dead after 3 days
- "ascending into heaven"
- sitting "at the right hand" of God
- destined to return to earth, and then to pass judgment on all humans who have ever lived.
Esoteric views
See also Second Coming and Esoteric Christianity
Christian Science
In the theology of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, the religion's founder, wrote in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that:
"The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a bodily existence. This dual personality of the unseen and the seen, the spiritual and material, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared, while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes." Eddy wrote that while Jesus, as a material man, was not the exact ontological or quantitative equivalent to God, he thoroughly embodied the spiritual sonship of God's nature. In Christian Science, the Christ, or divine manifestation of God, continues forever to enlighten humanity and to destroy sickness, sin, and death.
Rosicrucian
For the Rosicrucians there is a distinction to be made between Jesus and the Christ. 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.
They believe 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. At the cruxifixion the Christ was released from the bodies of Jesus and entered into the Earth. Christ is described as the highest spiritual being of the life wave called Archangels, having completed his union ("the Son") with the second aspect of God: Wisdom (Christ the Logos); and this great Archangel still is, according to these esoteric Christian teachings, the indwelling Spirit of the Earth: the Regent of the Earth.
Gnostic
The gnostics generally believed not in a Jesus who was a divine person with a human form, but in a spiritual christ who dwelt in Jesus. Through the spiritual path of gnosticism, followers of these schools believed that they could experience the same knowledge, or gnosis. Gnosticism, a non-hierarchical interpretation of the Christian message, was declared heresy by the formal, hierarchical Christian church at the first Ecumenical Council, which occurred at Nicaea in 325 A.D., although condemnation of such beliefs were held by orthodox church leaders for some time.
Gnostic texts with Jesus Christ include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and many more which have been discovered throughout the centuries.
Creation Spirituality
In his book The Coming of the Cosmic Christ Matthew Fox wrote of "the Cosmic Christ."
Islamic view
Muslims believe Jesus (Isa or ????) to be the Messiah (Massih) and a prophet. Although they believe in the Virgin Birth, they do not consider Jesus to be "the son of God". Jesus was neither crucified nor dead, but was raised to Heaven by God while still living.
Islamic traditions narrate that he will return to earth near the day of judgement to restore justice and defeat al-Masi? ad-Dajjal (lit. "the false messiah", also known as the Antichrist) and the enemies of Islam.
?
The use of "?," derived from Chi, the Greek alphabet initial, as an abbreviation for Christ (most commonly in the abbreviation "?mas") is often misinterpreted as a modern secularization of the term. Thus understood, the centuries-old English word ?mas, is actually a shortened form of CHmas, which is, itself, a shortened form for Christmas. In fact, the use of "?" to represent the full word goes back to the earliest days of Greek Christianity.
Slang usage
The interjection "Christ!" is often used as a sign of surprise or anger, without a direct religious reference—that is, as an exclamation. Some Christians understand this usage to be in violation of the Commandment against taking the Lord's name in vain, although the severity of the transgression varies among different groups of believers.
The prohibition against using interjections was taken more seriously in the past, to the point where it was not only considered socially improper, but a sin against God. This led to the creation of many circumlocutions which allowed the speaker to express the emotion while avoiding the transgression. Common euphemisms that have arisen for this usage include "For crying out loud!" (UK and US) and "Crikey" (UK, Aus.), used as an alternative by people reluctant to use "Christ". Beginning in the latter half of the 20th century, the prohibition against using the name of the deity as an interjection has become much more relaxed.
See also
Further reading
- Harpur, Tom, The Pagan Christ: Recovering the Lost Light. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2004.
- McDowell, Joshua and Don Stewart, Handbook of Today's Religions, Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983.
- Ott, Ludwig, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 1957.
- Michalopoulos, Dimitris (2006): "Islam and Christendom: The distorted relationship". Entelequia. Revista Interdisciplinar, 2, Otoño 2006. Págs. 201-206.
External links
- Christ and Hermetic (Magi) teachings
- Hermes-Press.com
- feeljerusalem.com
- Paul A. Hughes
- About-Jesus.org
- Islamic view of Messiah
- Jews for Judaism
- religioustolerance.org
- OODE
- Christ Consciousness
|
