Did you know that Christos and Messiah are the same word? They both mean the anointed one. Christos is the Greek form and Messiah is the Hebrew form. I’m sure that I’ve heard this before. I just never paid attention until this week.
I was reading in Matthew and paying more than usual attention to the footnotes. Every time that Christ was used it had a footnote that said, “or Messiah.” After a little more digging, I found out why. Christos is Messiah is Anointed One is Christ. Just for fun if you want two more languages: Christ is Cristo in Spanish and Christus in Latin.
While most people generally say that the New Testament was originally written in Greek, well Koine(common) Greek, it turns out that Matthew may have been originally written in Hebrew or both Greek and Hebrew. This is a hot topic and I wouldn’t even dream of picking a side. I just wanted to mention that it could be. Actually, I finished this blog and then was surfing the web and discovered that there are a few who believe that the whole New Testament was first written in Hebrew. That’s news to me and not the point of this blog, so we’ll move on.
So Jesus Christ is Jesus the Messiah or Jesus the Anointed One. Christ is more of a title than a name. Jesus is His name, but Christ is used interchangeably anymore as His name.
The word ‘Christos’ appears more than 500 times in the New Testament. I’ll just list a few here.
One more note: The NIV I’m using is the Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible with a copyright of 1996. When I was looking at a Parallel Bible website online(at biblehub.com), the NIV translation was usually, but not always the same as mine.
Matthew 1:16 NIV and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (some translations use Christ, some Messiah.)
Matthew 24:5 NIV For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ‘ and will deceive many.
Mark 1:1 NIV The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark 9:41 NIV “I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.”
John 1:41 NIV The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is the Christ). Here the text uses the Greek form of Messiah(Messias) for Messiah and Christos for Christ. This Greek form of Messiah seems to only appear two times in the New Testament. Correct me if I’m wrong. The second follows.
John 4:25 NIV The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes he will explain everything to us.”
Romans 5:8 NIV But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV Now you are the body of Christ, and each on of you is a part of it.
2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test?
Looking for more?
Matthew 26:63
Mark 8:29, 13:21
Luke 23:35,39, 24:26
John 7:41-42
Acts 2:36-38, 16:18
Romans 1:1-8, 8:34-35, 9:1-5, 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 1:22-24, 4:15-17,15:12-23
2 Corinthians 5:14-20,
Galatians 3:24-29
The G/K number for Christos is 5986.
The Strong’s number for Christos is 5547.
The G/K number for Messias (Messiah) is 3549. (Greek)
The Strong’s number for Messias is 3323. (Greek)
