CHRIST ; Gr. Xpiarbs ; Heb. trvn. This is not, strictly speaking, a proper name, but an official title. Jesus Christ, or rather, as it generally ought to be rendered, Jesus the Christ, is a nlode of ex pression of the same kind as John the Baptist, or Baptiser. In consequence of not adverting to this, the force and even the meaning of many passages of Scripture are misapprehended. When it is stated that Paul asserted, This Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ' (Acts xvii. 3), tin °tiros ecru, XpearOs'Inaoiis, etc., that he testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ ' (Acts xviii. 5), the mean ing is, that he proclaimed and proved that Jesus WaS the Christ, rio Xptarbv '177o-ora,, or Messiah—the rightful owner of a title descriptive of a high official station which had been the subject of ancient pre diction. When Jesus himself says that it is life eternal to know the Only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent' (John xvii. 3), he repre sents the knowledge of himself as the Christ, the Messiah, as at once necessary and sufficient to make men truly and permanently happy. When lie says, What think ye of Christ ?' rept roii : whose son is he ?' (Matt. xxii. 42), he does not mean, What think ye of mE, or of my descent ? but, What think ye of the Christ—the Messiah—and especially of his paternity ? There can be no doubt that the word, though originally an appellative, and intended to bring before the mind a particular official character possesserd by him to whom it is applied, came at last, like many other terms of the same kind, to be often used very much as a proper name, to distinguish our Lord from other persons bearing the name Jesus. This is a sense, however, of comparatively rare occurrence in the N. T.
Proceeding, then, on the principle that Christ is an appellative, let us inquire into its origin and signification as applied to our Lord. CHRIST is the English form of a Greek word, Xpto-r6s, corresponding in meaning, to the Hebrew word Messiah: and the English word Anointed. The Christ is just equivalent to the Anointed One. The important question, however, remains behind, What is meant when the Saviour is represented as the Anointed One ? To reply to this question satisfactorily, it will be necessary to go somewhat into detail.
Unction, from a very early age, seems to have been the emblem of consecration, or setting apart to a particular, and especially to a religious, pur pose. Thus Jacob is said to have anointed the pillar of stone which he erected and set apart as a monument of his supernatural dream at Beth-el (Gen. xxviii. IS ; xxxi. 13 ; xxxv. 14). Under
the O. T. economy high-priests and kings were regularly set apart to their offices, both of which were, strictly speaking, sacred ones, by the cere mony of anointing, and the prophets were occa sionally designated by the same rite. ThiA rite seems to have been intended as a public intimation of a divine appointment to office. Thus Saul is termed the Lord's anointed ' (I Sam. xxiv. 6) ; David, the anointed of the God of Israel' (2 Sam. xxiii. ; and Zedekiah, the anointed of the Lord ' (Lam. iv. 2o). The high-priest is called the anointed priest ' (Lev. iv. 3).
From the origin and design of the rite, it is not wonderful that the term should have, in a secon dary and analogical sense, becn applied to person set apart by God for important purposes, thougl not actually anointed. Thus Cyrus, the King o Persia, is termed the Lord's anointed ' (Is. xlv s) ; the Hebrew patriarchs, when sojourning ir Canaan, are termed God's anointed ones ' (Ps cv. 15); and the Israelitish people receive the sami appellation from the prophet Habakkuk (Hab. 13). It is probably with reference to this use o the expression that Moses is said by the writer o the Epistle to the Hebrews to have counted th( reproach of Christ ' (Ileb. xi. 26, roll Ximo-roi (Xaoi3), the same class who in the parallel claus( are termed the people of God') greater riche! than the treasures of Egypt.' In the prophetic Scriptures we find this appel. lation given to an illustrious personage, who; under various designations, is so often spoken o as destined to appear in a distant age as a grew deliverer. The royal prophet David seems to hay( been the first who spoke of the great deliverei under this appellation. He represents the heather (the Gentile nations) raging, and the people (th( Jewish people) imagining a vain thing, against Jehovah, and against his anointed' (Ps. ii. 2). He says, Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed' (Ps. xx. 6). Thou hast loved righte ousness and hated iniquity' says he, addressing himself to Him who was to come," therefor( God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows ' (Ps. xlv. 7). In all the passages in which the great deliverer is spoken of as the anointed one' by David, Ile is plainly viewed as sustaining the character of a king.