I know the bible refers to him as Jesus of Nazareth and thats what he was called in his time, so where did Christ come from?
IIRC, “Christ” comes from the Greek christos meaning . . . dang, now I forget. But when the word crossed over from Greek to English, it just remained “Christ”.
Tripler
I could go look it up, but I don’t know where my bible is. . .
The Greek christos means “annointed” and is a direct translation of the Hebrew word that is usually rendered in English as “messiah.” Paul looked upon Jesus as the (Hebrew) Messiah (annointed one) and, writing in Greek, often referred to Jesus as “Jesus the Christ,” and. later, “Jesus Christ.”
It is a title rather than a name.
So what was the family name of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, et al? If any?
I can’t really better the previous post, but can add just one little thing.
The fact that “Christ” is a title rather than a name is why the upcoming movie everyone is so worked up about it titled “The Passion of the Christ”. If “the” was left out Christ would seem like a name.
Simulpost!
AndrewT, there is no “family” name as such for Jesus. His people don’t seem to have had surnames as we do. The name Jesus is also a “Greekification” of his name, which would have been Yeshua, or Joshua. He would have been referred to as something like “Joshua bar Joseph” the latter part meaning “son of Joseph.”
It’s my understanding that certain Scandanavian peoples use a similar practice.
A son a a man named John would be “Johnson”, whereas John’s daughter would be just that “Johnsdottir” So you could have up to four different “surnames” in a household, as the wife would keep the name she had from her father.
I hope I’ve made myself perfectly obscure.
The earliest two non-Biblical references to Jesus are from the Jewish historian Josephus (A.D. 37-100), writing circa A.D. 93. In his first reference, he writes, “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man . . . and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”
His second reference concerns the episode involving James, whom he defines as “the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ.”
Family names are a relatively recent phenomenon, even in Western civilization. Remember, the British royal family still doesn’t have a family name.
Fairly simple reason, if with a convoluted history:
Kings of Israel and Judah were ceremonially anointed with oil as a part of their being designated as king. Saul is anointed (I Samuel 10:1) as is David (I Samuel 16:12) and Solomon (I Kings 1:39). (It’s worth noting that French kings down through Charles X, Napoleon I and III, and all British monarchs down to Elizabeth II are also ceremonially anointed in keeping with the Scriptural custom.)
After the fall of the Jewish Kingdoms, there came an expectation of a promised redeemer who would re-establish the kingdom in righteousness, drive out all them foreign conquerors, and such. He was referred to as the Anointed in token of his kingship – and in Hebrew the word for “anointed” is “Mashiakh” – “Messiah.”
When this is translated into Greek, it becomes “Christos” – again with the meaning of “anointed.”
The early Christians saw Jesus as the one who fulfilled the promises of the Messiah, and therefore as the Anointed One of God – the Messiah or Christ. It became attached to his name as an epithet – Jesus the Christ, as opposed to Jesus the Donkey-Herder or Jesus the Tax Collector. (Jesus is itself the Grecianization of Joshua, a fairly common name in Bible times, after Moses’s successor.)
This subject has been discussed ad infinitum on the SDMB. I invite you to peruse those. The short answer is that the British royal family does have a surname, and it is Windsor. From the official website of the British monarchy:
Prince Edward, when he went into business as the head of a television production company, listed himself as “Edward Windsor” on his business card.
My pastor has said in a sermon that Jesus (the greek form) was actually what the Christ was named. His point is that Yeshua means God saves and the significance of being named the greek form means that Jesus was sent to save the gentiles. I have argued with him about this, but he assures me that he has done the research and he is infinitely more educated in researching biblical matters than I am. Do you have any references supporting your position that you can share with me?
Name by which Jesus was known to his family and other Jews: Yeshua.
Greek name for Jesus: Iesous. He would have been so addressed by Pontius Pilate; Greek was the common language used between Jews and Romans. Greek was also the language in which the New Testament was written.
Latin name for Jesus: Jesus (or, using the Latin alphabet, Iesus).
Modern ‘family names’ evolved from denoting where the person was from, whether by their father, tribe, or town; and sometimes, by a descriptive trait (such as an occupation) which becomes formalized and adopted by their family.
E.g., “Johnson” is “John’s Son.” The Millers descender from a miller. “O’Malley” is from Malley.
And so, beside Yeshua bar Joseph (Jesus, son of Joseph), Jesus is also known as Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Nazarene). In fact, the “INRI” seen on crucifixes are the Latin initials of “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (“Iesus Nazorenus Rex Iudaeorum”).
Shalom.
The ancient Middle Eastern custom of anointing a king originated in religions that practiced the sacred marriage. The new king ritually copulated with one of the temple priestesses, who represented the land, the king thus symbolically fulfilling his sacred role of fertilizing the land. The head of his penis was anointed with oil to make insertion easier. Later, for peoples who chose not to practice sacred sex rites, the anointing was transferred to the other head.
The Greek word Khristos comes from the verb khriein, to anoint, originating from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghrei- meaning ‘to rub’. Other words derived from this root include English grisly (“grating” on the mind), grime, and cream. The word cream comes from French crème, from Old French cresme, from Greek khrisma, an unguent.
It’s good to be the king.