Ask most people unfamiliar with Bible terms, and you may find that there’s a general idea that Jesus’ last name was Christ. While most Christians probably wouldn’t make that assumption, there’s a serious lack of understanding about the term christos.
We have transliterated (not translated) that term in our English Bibles for too long. And the HCSB has determined to start us down a road of correcting that error. While it’s true that christos can be a technical title for Jesus, the word actually has a meaning.
That meaning is “Messiah” or “Anointed One.” That’s why the HCSB has chosen to translate christos as “Messiah” in explicitly Jewish contexts. Here’s an example from Ephesians 2:12:
You can read a brief explanation at the HCSB website here.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
While I understand the HCSB’s effort to go for “Messiah” over “Christ,” “Messiah” is really another transliteration, from the Hebrew “Mashiach.”
Now “Anointed One” is a translation.
But yes, Messiah does have a certain ring to it.
Messiah may be a Hebrew transliteration, but it does = Anointed One, so I still think it’s a good choice. Let me put it this way, I’m at least glad to see them using Messiah over Christ.
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Will, both “Messiah” and “Christ” mean “Anointed One.” We just need to pick which one.
Technically, yes. And so does “Anointed One.” So I guess we have at least 3 options to choose from. I pick “Messiah.”
I think you’re on to something with translating Christ as Anointed One, but I think that certain cases would make this very awkward, namely, times when Jesus is referred to as “Christ” like a name, for example, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
It would be a little awkward to say, “Anointed One redeemed us from the curse of the law…”
The temptation in that case might be to insert ‘the’ and say, “The Anointed One redeemed us…” but that shifts focus away from Christ as a person becoming something for us and instead focuses on Christ as an office. This has been one of my curiosities for why “Yahweh” has been translated at The LORD. It really seems to distance us from the personhood of God.
You may be right, Ben, about Christ, unless we’re meant to think of Jesus in terms of the office or vocation he had. On the other hand, to say that Yahweh distances us from the personhood of God is completely incomprehensible to me, since that is God’s personal name as he revealed it. I think that’s like saying to call me Will distances my friends from me as a person; they should call me Director of Small Group Discipleship.
I actually meant the opposite. I think to say Yahweh is to personalize God, unlike “The LORD.” When I hear “Yahweh” I think of someone with a name, as someone who thinks and has emotions.
That being said, Mark must have operated from a translation in the same vain since in Mark 1, his quotation of Isaiah uses the Greek word for Lord, even though the Hebrew text of Isaiah said, “Jehovah.”
Oh, sorry. I misunderstood you.
In rereading my comment, I can see how what I wrote leaves room for ambiguity.