A Good Word – χριστός (Christ)

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet.”1 Speaking those famous words, Juliet yearned to set aside the differences between the family names Capulet and Montague. No name—a mere word!—would keep her from Romeo, her true love. But often, especially in the Bible, names convey a significant meaning. My first name, Michael, means “Who is like God?” I don’t think my parents knew that meaning when they named me, but over the years my name has blessed me by reminding me of the incomparable greatness of our God. Similarly, the name Christ teaches us something very significant about our Lord and Savior, something which helps us grow in faith.

Now forgive me for the technicalities, but we need to dig into some grammar and history to learn this lesson. The word Christ is a transliteration of the Greek word χριστός, an adjective which means “anointed.” When used as a name, χριστός means “the anointed one.” So to call Jesus by the name Christ means that he is “the anointed one.” But what does this idea mean? To answer that we turn to the Old Testament. In Israel anointing with oil identified and consecrated the king. Saul was anointed by Samuel to be king (1 Sam 10:1) as was David (1 Sam 16:13). Because God gave David a permanent dynasty by promising always to establish one of his sons as king over Israel (2 Sam 7:8–16), Jews came to expect a single descendant of David, a perfect “anointed one,” who would ultimately reign forever as king over God’s kingdom. So calling Jesus Christ means that he is that “anointed one,” the perfect son of David who will reign as king forever. But there’s a little more grammar here which makes the name Christ even more beautiful and significant.

The Hebrew word for “anointed” is ָמ ִשׁי ַח , mashiakh. This word came into English as messiah. These words thus form a beautiful triad of “anointed, messiah, Christ” to identify Jesus as the king God promised to David, the perfect ruler who will reign forever!

So what’s in a name? In the case of Christ, a great deal! This name reminds us that Jesus is the ָמ ִשׁי ַח (mashiakh) promised to David. It tells us that Jesus is the messiah, the one Jews anticipated. And when we call Jesus Χριστός, we proclaim him as our king as an expression of faith. So just as John wrote to prove that Jesus was the Χριστός (John 20:31), let us believe in him and have life in his name!