Jesus Christ. I used to think that was His name. Jesus, first name, Christ, middle name. Not sure about the last name…I guess if you’re Jesus and all your mail gets to you in a timely manner, you don’t need one. But as it turns out, Christ is actually a descriptive Greek word that is only left untranslated when used with Jesus for some unknown reason. Every other time, it’s translated as “anointed.” Hence, it should actually read Jesus Anointed if we are to keep things consistent. Also, sometimes the translators use the word “Messiah” for the Greek word Christ, which is also not accurate.
Check out some of these verses where the same exact Greek word, “Christos,” is used:
Matt. 1:1: The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah (Anointed), the son of David, the son of Abraham :
Matt. 16:16: Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ (Anointed), the Son of the living God.”
Matt. 24:5: “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ (Anointed),’ and will mislead many.
Lev. 4:5: Then the anointed priest is to take some of the blood of the bull and bring it to the tent of meeting,
Ps. 18:50: He gives great deliverance to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, To David and his descendants forever.
1 Sam. 24:6: So [David] said to his men, “Far be it from me because of the LORD that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’S anointed [Saul], to stretch out my hand against him, since he is the LORD’S anointed.”
Ps. 28:8–9: The LORD is their strength, And He is a saving defense to His anointed. Save Your people and bless Your inheritance…
The only point here is that if translators would stay true to the Greek and Hebrew and translate consistently, we’d all have a much easier time understanding themes and what is going on. Plus, when you start doing back bends with the text, it sets you up for errors. Anyhow, I thought you might enjoy knowing what Christ actually means, and that no, it’s not His middle name.
Are you learning anything with me here?
Stay tuned for next time when the magic mistranslated word of the day is “soul.” Now that sounds interesting!