What is the meaning of the phrase "Jesus Christ"?
Here is what we find in A Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I, pp. 952 & 1038-39, by Professor William Smith & Others, Boston, 1863.
"JESUS (Iesous, Jesu, Jesus, Josue), the Greek form of the name Joshua or Jeshua, a contraction of Jehoshua, that is, 'help of Jehovah' or 'Saviour' (Numb. xiii. 16)"
"JEHOSHUA (Iesous : Josue). In this form -- contracted in the Hebrew, but fuller than usual in the A. V. -- is given the name of Joshua in Num. xiii. 16, on the occasion of its bestowal by Moses. The addition of the name of Jehovah probably marks the recognition by Moses of the important part taken in the affair of the spies by him, who till this time had been Hoshea, 'help,' but was henceforward to be Jehoshua, 'help of Jehovah' (Ewald, ii. 306). Once more only the name appears in its full form in the A. V. -- this time with a redundant letter -- as
"JEHOSHUAH (Iesoué, in both MSS. : Josue), in the genealogy of Ephraim (1 Chr. vii. 27). We should be thankful to the translators of the A. V. for giving the first syllables of this great name their full form, if only in these two cases; though why in these only it is difficult to understand. Nor is it easier to see whence they got the final h in the latter of the two."
The A. V. referred to above is the "Authorized Version" of the Bible. Then we can read the following :
"JESUS CHRIST. The name Jesus (Iesous) signifies Saviour. Its origin is explained above, and it seems to have been not an uncommon name among the Jews. It is assigned in the New Testament (1.) to our Lord Jesus Christ, who 'saves His people from their sins' (Matt. i. 21); also (2.), to Joshua the successor of Moses, who brought the Israelites into the land of promise (Num. xxvii. 18; Acts vii. 45; Heb. iv. 8); and (3.) to Jesus surnamed Justus, a converted Jew, associated with St. Paul (Col. iv. 11).
"The name of Christ (Xristos, from xrio, I anoint) signifies Anointed. Priests were anointed amongst the Jews, as their inauguration to their office (1 Chr. xvi. 22; Ps. cv. 15), and kings also (2 Macc. i. 24; Ecclus. xlvi. 19). In the New Testament the name of Christ is used as equivalent to Messiah (Greek Messias; Hebrew Khashem, John i. 41), the name given to the long promised Prophet and King whom the Jews had been taught by their prophets to expect; and therefore = o erxomenos (Acts xix. 4; Matt. xi. 3).
"The use of this name as applied to the Lord has always a reference to the promises of the Prophets. In Matt. ii. 4, xi. 2, it is assumed that the Christ when He should come would live and act in a certain way, described by the Prophets. So Matt. xxii. 42, xxiii. 10, xxiv. 5; Mark xii. 35, xiii. 21; Luke iii. 15, xx. 41; John vii. 27, 31, 41, 42, xii. 34, in all which places there is a reference to the Messiah as delineated by the Prophets. That they had foretold that Christ should suffer appears in Luke xxiv. 26, 46.
"The name of Jesus is the proper name of our Lord, and that of Christ is added to identify Him with the promised Messiah. Other names are sometimes added to the names Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus : thus 'Lord' (frequently), 'a King' (added as a kind of explanation of the word Christ, Luke xxiii. 2), 'King of Israel' (Mark xv. 32), Son of David (Mark xii. 35; Luke xx. 41), chosen of God (Luke xxiii. 35).
"Remarkable are such expressions as 'the Christ of God' (Luke ii. 26, ix. 20; Rev. xi. 15, xii. 10); and the phrase 'in Christ,' which occurs about 78 times in the Epistles of St. Paul, and is almost peculiar to them. But the germ of it is to be found in the words of our Lord Himself, 'Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me' (John xv. 4, also 5, 6, 7, 9, 10).
"The idea that all Christian life is not merely an imitation and following of the Lord, but a living and constant union with Him, causes the Apostle to use such expressions as 'fallen asleep in Christ' (1 Cor xv. 18), 'I knew a man in Christ' (2 Cor. xii. 2), 'I speak the truth in Christ' (1 Tim. ii. 7), and many others." [King James' Version]
So once again, what is a "Jesus Christ"? It would simply mean "Anointed Savior" and could be used as a "title" for anyone, even Apollonius of Tyana.
And the name "Jesus" was only a nickname, or contraction, of the name "Joshua" or "Jehoshua" -- and perhaps, also, "Justus"? This would be comparable to the nicknames of Bob for Robert (English) and Beto for Roberto (Spanish), where linguistic dissimilarities also occur. There is nothing "illogical" about this historian's statement.
This historian does, however, express a certain doubt as to what exactly is meant by the expressions "in Christ" and "Christ of God." It is not uncommon philosophically to hear someone distinguish between what is called "Christ Consciousness," of which our modern-day Drunvalo Melchizedek speaks, and "Jesus Christ." One doesn't necessarily have to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to experience "Christ Consciousness," according to such philosophers, because the term "Christ Consciousness" preceded the era of "Jesus of Nazareth" by many centuries. Buddha, for example, is cited as a teacher of "Christ Consciousness."
Therefore, when Paul of Tarsus referred to someone as being "in Christ," he merely meant that they were devoted to the principles of "Christ Consciousness" that were being promulgated by his contemporary colleague and regional nextdoor neighbor, Apollonius of Tyana. And as will be noted in a subsequent section, Paul and Apollonius logically could not have been one and the same man, as some befuddled religious historians have stated in their futile effort to give legitimacy to Apollonius of Tyana by having him become the equivalent of the Apostle Paul in the New Testament saga.
In reading the above dictionary passages, I was naturally intrigued by the existence of another contemporary of Paul, another Jesus also called Justus. So I consulted Colossians 4. A number of men are mentioned in that chapter in verses 4-18, quoted here :
"Tychicus will tell you all about my affairs; he is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant of the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of yourselves. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.
"Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions -- if he comes to you, receive him), and Jesus who is called Justus. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
"Epaphras, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always remembering you earnestly in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and in Hieropolis.
"Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you. Give my greetings to the brethren at Laodicea and to Nympha and the church in her house. And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, 'See that you fulfil the ministry which you have received in the Lord.'
"I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my fetters. Grace be with you."
Paul wrote this letter to the "Christians" of Colossae whilst he was a prisoner at Rome in about 62-63 CE, at the exact same time that Apollonius was visiting Rome and being investigated by Nero's henchmen. Paul says in this letter, "Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving; and pray for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak."
The mystery of Christ. Paul was in prison for discussing the "mystery of Christ," even as Apollonius was under investigation of illegally practicing "magic."
Notice that in Paul's list of names from Colossians 4, one finds the name of "Demas." "Damis" was the name of the lifelong travelling companion of Apollonius. Linguistically, by consonant sequence, these two names are identical, in rather the same way that the names Paul and Paolo would be identical. Paul grew up in Tarsus, the Ionian port-of-call city for the cultural center of Tyana, the childhood home of Apollonius, which was only a short distance away. It would not be too much of a stretch of the imagination to presume that Apollonius and Paul were acquainted. If a man named Damis was the travelling companion of Apollonius, it is more than feasible that the Demas mentioned by St. Paul is the same man.
Where were these places of which Paul wrote? Consulting A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by Professor William Smith & Others, London, 1873, we find that Colossae, Laodicea and Hieropolis -- like other famous Biblical cities such as Philadelphia, Ephesus and Halicarnassus -- were located in the Province of Phrygia, the southwestern region of what is now modern-day Turkish Anatolia. They were located on the main commercial and military routes between the Levant and the Hellespont. Phrygia's eastern border was the River Halys, which also formed the western border of Cappadocia. The Phrygian cities in general were often located quite close to one another, allowing for easy single-day foot travel from one to the other along the route. People of that day and time, like Apollonius and Paul, would have thought nothing of walking for a day from one town to the next as a method of travel. So it is obvious that Paul was addressing his remarks to people who lived in Cappadocia, Cilicia and Galatia.
To put this in a modern perspective, the region that we are talking about here is no bigger in size than the States of Georgia, or Kansas, or Nebraska. It is not irresponsible to presume that people at one end of this region were in communication with people at the other end. The distances involved are not that great, and international travel along these convenient highways was heavy in those days, even as it continues to be in 1998, as this writer has recently seen with my own eyes. These are easy highways to maintain, today or two thousand years ago. And the distance from Tarsus to Tyana is only 100 miles (160 kilometers), which is not very far by the standards of now or then. It would not be difficult at all for me personally to walk 100 miles, as long as I had a modicum of provisions and lodging along the way.
However, regarding the title "Jesus Christ," I personally have some thoughts to add to this linguistic puzzle. Let me first say that my specialty in life in linguistics. I am one of those people who are "good at it." I learn languages quickly and efficiently. It's like anything else in life : some have a talent for it, and some don't. My college major at the University of Texas at Austin was Russian; my minor was French. I have also studied Spanish, Italian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Vietnamese, Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Swahili and Esperanto. I have graduate credits in linguistics from the University of California at Los Angeles.
In the Ge'ez Abyssinian linguistic tradition, with which I became familiar when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, the possessive particle precedes the noun that is possessed. In Amharic, the language of Ethiopia, the syllable YE is used; in Eritrean Tigrinya, NAY is used. Thus, to say the phrase "Robertino's house" in Amharic, one would say :
"yeRobertino bet" or literally "of-Robertino house."
In linguistics the letters I, J and Y are often spoken as the same sound, and linguistics deals with sounds first, spellings second. So where the speaker of English or Italian, for example, would refer to "Jesus" or "Gesù" with an initial hard "J" or "G" sound, others like the Greeks would speak the softer "IE" or "YE" sound, as in the Greek term "Iesous." This is the same soft sound that would be employed by Amharic-speakers.
Also in linguistics, the S and Z are what are called "paired consonants." The position of the tongue in the mouth is identical in the pronunciation of both, except that the S is "aspirated" and the Z is "voiced."
Thus, if we break the name "Jesus" into two syllables, we obtain JE and SUS. As we have seen, the first syllable could mean "OF," as in the Amharic tradition, one of the world's oldest linguistic traditions that have survived into the modern era. Since in the linguistic analysis of words vowels "do not count" (otherwise Texans and New Yorkers would be considered two separate language groupings!), and since paired consonants are interchangeable, the second syllable could be construed as being SS, SZ, ZS or ZZ.
JeSus Christ
IeZus Kristos
YeZeus Kristos
The Christ of Zeus, God of Apollonius
The Christ of God
Apollonius of Tyana, Cappadocia, Ancient Greece
"The Jesus Christ"