The Narrow Path Ministries

Just a brief observation/question:

Do you think it would matter much if our translations translated the word christos as "(the) anointed (one)"? That would be the literal translation to English, I think, just as christos was a translation of the Hebrew mashiach, I think. The word "anointed" harkens back, at least in my mind, to the OT anointing of kings, which is what Jesus is, of course (Luke 1:31-33). The word "Christ" hides the meaning of the word/title.

On the other hand, it may be that the our use of "Christ" is more in keeping with the NT usage of Christos (as in Matt 1:16).

Any thoughts on that?

I think a lot of people in America just think of 'Christ' as Jesus' last name. It doesn't seem to communicate well to our culture the kingly connotation. The Anointed One would probably work better, though my preference would probably be "Messiah"

Yes, the literal meaning of the Greek word "χριστος" (christos) or in English "Christ" is "anointed one".
Likewise the Hebrew word for Messiah, namely "mashiyach" is "anointed one". For that reason, I agree with Matt that the most meaningful translation of ""χριστος" is "Messiah".

Messiah has more meaning than Christ, to most people, I guess. However, most people would understand it to mean "savior" or "deliverer", which is good and true, but maybe not technically accurate?

Apparently, christ is deemed to have been a "technical-specific" term *, for which there is no easy translation. That's understandable, but it seems like our translations are not very consistent. Christos is transliterated as "christ", whereas logos is translated to "word", but then gehenna is replaced with "hell". Seems like consistency would be nice, but what do I know. (I wonder if other language translations are the same way.)

Maybe next time someone I know uses "Christ" as an expletive, I can point out what it means. Me: "You know I read that 'christ' means 'anointed' or 'anointed one' in Greek, which is a translation of the old Hebrew word 'messiah'. So back in old times, kings or prophets of Israel were anointed or chosen and set apart for some special purpose. Of course Jesus was and is considered God's chosen, holy, king or lord, so he's called 'the Christ' or just 'Christ'. That's why it's called 'profanity' by the way: to take something or someone deemed holy and revered and using it in a base, dishonorable way." Response: "Oh."

Thank ya'll for the responses. (I was out of town for a couple of days after my original post.)

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Those are interesting, dizerner. I just heard something about The Voice the other day, but I didn't know what it was. From glancing through it, I do like some of what they do. Overall, though, it takes a lot of liberties. It's a commentary. They do use "anointed one" instead of "christ", though, which I quite fancy.

The Complete Jewish Bible seems to be more consistent and literal (Yochanan the Immerser! ). It uses "messiah" instead of "christ".

Thanks!