Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yonah Mishael" <yonahmishael AT gmail.com>]

I just looked up "Christ" in Webster's New World College Dictionary
just for fun. I am suprised at what I found in one instance, the
word's Indo-European origin. Did you know that the word "Christ" is
related to the word "grime"?

Christ (krīst) [[ ME & OE /Crist/ < LL(Ec) /Christus/ < Gr /christos/,
the anointed (in N.T., MESSIAH) < /chriein/, to anoint < IE base
*/ghrēi-, to spread over, smear > GRIME ]]

I was not aware that χριστος shared an IE base with "grime."

Anyway, I think we will have to agree to disagree on this point. Any
time someone says "Christ," they do so to the exclusion of the Jewish
view of Messiah. The two have very different connotations in modern
English, despite what they meant to native Greek speakers 2000 years
ago. Modern connotation is really what we are accustomed to dealing
with, and it is from here that we draw meaning.

Regards,
Yonah

On 8/30/06, Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com> wrote:
> Yonah Mishael wrote:
>
> >>HH: The idea of national redemption for Israel is not lost in the term> 
> Christ. Nor is the idea of Davidic kingship.
> >>
> >>
> >YM: More specifically, the Davidic kingship about which I amcommenting 
> refers to the national king who reigns from Jerusalem.
> >Christ connotes a world savior rather than the Messiah who gathersIsrael in 
> from exile.
> >
> >
>
> HH: Christ connotes whatever the Scripture says about the Messiah, and
> one of the things it says is that he will rule the world from Jerusalem.
>
> >>HH: Christ is the English translation of the Greek word CRISTOS, which> was the 
> translation for the Hebrew word MESHIACH. You are arguing about> what you think each word 
> connotes, but the translations are obvious. The> content of the English word Christ comes from 
> the revelation in the> Bible given about this figure. Any other connotations the word may 
> have> are irrelevant to a Bible-believing person.
> >>
> >>
> >YM: Christ is an English *transliteration* (not translation). TheEnglish translation 
> of both משיח and χριστος is "anointed."
> >
> >
>
> HH: The reference of all three terms is the same, the Jewish Messiah.
> The terms are normally used as nouns, not adjectives, in this usage.
> "The Anointed One" is clumsy. "Messiah" is a legitimate translation of
> Greek XRISTOS, and some Bibles are using it.
>
> >I am saying that the ideas associated with the two terms aredifferent, and 
> this would be apparent to anyone with no theologicalaxe to grind.
> >
> >
>
> HH: The ideas belonging to the terms come from the Bible. When the New
> Testament uses the term CRISTOS, it gives it the meaning of the Tanakh
> term. Of course there are many new connotations that accrue to the word
> in the NT, and you refer to those. The term Christ embodies the
> additional connotations given to the word in the NT, but it is still the
> same figure called Mashiach in the Tanakh, at least from a NT perspective.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
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--
Yonah Mishael ben Avraham
Joplin, MO
yonahmishael AT gmail.com