Christ (/kraɪst/) (ancient Greek: Χριστός, Christós, meaning 'anointed') is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Māšîaḥ), the Messiah, and is used as a title for Jesus in the New Testament.
The followers of Jesus became known as Christians (as in Acts 11:26) because they believed Jesus to be the Messiah (Christos) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible. Christians designate him Jesus Christ, meaning Jesus the Christos. Christ was originally a title, but later became part of the name "Jesus Christ", though it is still also used as a title, in the reciprocal use Christ Jesus, meaning "The Messiah Jesus". In common usage "Christ" is generally treated as synonymous with "Jesus of Nazareth".
Jesus is not accepted by the majority of Jews as their Messiah. The Jewish people still await the Messiah's first coming, while Christians await his second coming, when they believe he will fulfill those parts of Messianic prophecy left unfulfilled in the first century AD.
The area of Christian theology called Christology is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament.
Read more about Christ: Etymology and Origins, Background and New Testament References, Pre-existence, Incarnation and Nativity, Christ and Salvation in Christianity, Symbols
Famous quotes containing the word christ:
“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
—Bible: New Testament, 1 Corinthians 6:11.
“Odour of blood when Christ was slain
Made all Platonic tolerance vain
And vain all Doric discipline.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)