Jesus Christ:
The Founder of the Christian religion; the promised Messiah and Saviour of the world; the Lord and Head of the Christian church.
I. The Names.
1. Jesus:
(Iesous) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Joshua" (yehoshua`), meaning "Yahweh is salvation." It stands therefore in the Septuagint and Apocrypha for "Joshua," and in
Acts 7:45 and
Hebrews 4:8 likewise represents the Old Testament Joshua; hence, in the Revised Version (British and American) is in these passages rendered "Joshua." In
Matthew 1:21 the name as commanded by the angel to be given to the son of Mary, "for it is he that shall save his people from their sins" (see below on "Nativity"). It is the personal name of the Lord in the Gospels and the Acts, but generally in the Epistles appears in combination with "Christ" or other appellative (alone in
Romans 3:26;
4:24;
1 Corinthians 12:3;
2 Corinthians 11:4;
Philippians 2:10;
1 Thessalonians 4:14;
Hebrews 7:22;
10:19, etc.).
2. Christ:
(Christos) is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew "Messiah" (mashiach; compare in the New Testament,
John 1:41;
4:25, "Messiah"), meaning "anointed" (see MESSIAH). It designates Jesus as the fulfiller of the Messianic hopes of the Old Testament and of the Jewish people. It will be seen below that Jesus Himself made this claim. After the resurrection it became the current title for Jesus in the apostolic church. Most frequently in the Epistles He is called "Jesus Christ," sometimes "Christ Jesus" (
Romans 8:1,2,39;
1 Corinthians 1:2,30;
4:15;
Ephesians 1:1;
Philippians 1:1;
Colossians 1:4,28 the King James Version;
1 Thessalonians 2:14, etc.), often "Christ" alone (
Romans 1:16 the King James Version;
Romans 5:6,8;
6:4,8,9;
8:10, etc.). In this case "Christ" has acquired the force of a proper name. Very frequently the term is associated with "Lord" (kurios)--"the (or "our") Lord Jesus Christ" (
Acts 11:17;
15:11 the King James Version;
Acts 16:31 the King James Version;
Acts 20:21;
28:31;
Romans 1:7;
5:1,11;
13:14;
1 Corinthians 16:23, etc.).
II. Order of Treatment.
In studying, as it is proposed to do in this article, the earthly history of Jesus and His place in the faith of the apostolic church, it will be convenient to pursue the following order:
First, as introductory to the whole study, certain questions relating to the sources of our knowledge of Jesus, and to the preparation for, and circumstances of, His historical appearance, invite careful attention (Part I).
Next, still as preliminary to the proper narrative of the life of Jesus, it is desirable to consider certain problems arising out of the presentation of that life in the Gospels with which modern thought is more specially concerned, as determining the attitude in which the narratives are approached. Such are the problems of the miracles, the Messiahship, the sinless character and supernatural claims of Jesus (Part II).
The way is then open for treatment in order of the actual events of Christ's life and ministry, so far as recorded. These fall into many stages, from His nativity and baptism till His death, resurrection and ascension (Part III). A final division will deal with Jesus as the exalted Lord in the aspects in which He is presented in the teaching of the Epistles and remaining writings of the New Testament (Part IV).[source - International Encyclopedia of the Bible]
