more significant ones of 'the Holy One of God ' and * the Son of God,' — varied to ' the Son of the Most High God,' and ' the Son of the Blessed,' — and Jesus' own chosen self-designation, ' the Son of Man.'
The evangelist himself nowhere in the course of his narrative speaks of Jesus by one of these titles. As we have seen, his narrative name of our Lord is ex- clusively the simple ' Jesus.' No reader will doubt, however, that he considered all of them applicable to Jesus; and he announces his book, in the heading he has prefixed to it, as intended to recount the origins of " the Gospel of Jesus Christ " — possibly adding also the further Messianic designation of " the Son of God." This compound name ' Jesus Christ ' occurs extremely rarely in the Gospels, * Jesus Christ' and never except In the most formal and ceremonious circumstances.^^ It appears. Indeed, to be reserved as an august name, weighted with the implication of the entire content of Jesus' claims, and therefore suitable only for setting at the head of documents designed to exhibit His life and work, or at the opening of accounts of significant periods or acts of His career. It is very fairly described by Holtzmann, therefore, as " the solemn designation of the Messianic personality."^* Although in It the
23 It appears only in the headings of Mt (i^) and Mk (i^) and at the starting point of the narrative of Mt (i^^) and the new beginning made at Mt 16"^: and similarly in John only at the first mention of Jesus (i^^), which may be accounted the beginning of his narrative, and at the opening of the great sacerdotal prayer (17^). It begins to be frequent in Acts (a^s 36 4I0 gi^.lsT] iqSb jq^s h" 1526 igis 20^1 28^1) ; and in Paul it is very frequent. The contrary combina- tion, ' Christ Jesus,' does not occur at all in the Gospels : but appears occasionally in Acts (320 5-12 [173 i85,28j 24-*) and in Paul very often.
^* Hand-Corn., p. 37.
The Designations in Mark 15
term ' Christ ' has ceased to be an appellation and be- come a portion of a proper name,^* its use as such bears all the stronger testimony to the ascription of the Mes- siahship to Jesus. Other Messiah than He had ceased to be contemplated as conceivable, and the very ap- pellation ' Messiah ' had become His distinguishing name.
Although this compound name occurs nowhere else In Mark, and the reverse combination, ' Christ Jesus,' which Is also In use In Acts and 'The Christ' Paul, never, the simple 'Christ' ap- pears In his narrative with sufficient fre- quency to evince that It was a favorite designation of the Messiah (8^^ 12^^ 13^^ 14^^ i5^^)j applied as such to Jesus {%^^ 14^^ 15^^) ill order to mark Him out as the Messiah; and accepted as such by Jesus, who thus asserts Himself to be the Messiah (8^° 14^-, cf. 9^^ 12^^ 13^^). Its significance, as the simplest of all Messianic titles, Is well brought out by the synonyms with which it Is coupled. When Peter assigned it to our Lord In his great confession (8-''), our Lord at once takes It up as the equivalent of His own favorite self-designa- tion of ' the Son of Man.'^^ When our Lord would In- struct the scribes with respect to the real dignity of the Messiah, He asks them how they can speak of the Christ as ' the Son of David,' when David himself
25 Wellhausen, on Mk i^: "But in 'Jesus Christ,' [Christ] has already become a part of a personal name and has therefore lost the article, — like Adam, Gen 5^." Holtzmann, as cited : " The nomen pro- prium ^Jjjffous Xpiaroii ... in which the personal name Jesus . . . appears as the fore-name, the official name JCpiffT6<i as the sec- ond personal name."
26 Cf. also the parallels, Lk 920, "the Christ of God"; Mt i6i% "the Christ, the Son of the living God."
1 6 The Designations of Our Lord
calls Him his ' Lord ' (i2^^'^'^). When the high-priest at His trial adjured Him to say whether He was ' the Christ, the Son of the Blessed,' in His assenting reply He calls Himself the ' Son of Man ' ( 14''-'*^^) . And in like manner the scoffing Jews mockingly addressed Him as He hung on the cross as ' the Christ, the King of Israel' (15^"). In all these instances the term is ob- viously used as an appellation, and has no different content from the general one common to all the desig- nations which impute Messiahship. It is the com- plete synonym of 'the King of Israel' (15^"), 'the Son of David' (12^^), 'the Son of the Blessed' (14*^1), 'the Son of Man' (8^^ 14"^-). In a word it is the general title of the Messianic Sovereign, whom Jesus claims to be in His acceptance of this designation, and whom He is asserted to be by its application to Him by His followers.
In the remarkable passage, 9^^ alone does ' Christ '
appear without the article. And therefore it has been
frequently supposed to be employed
^fou^^f"^ there not as an appellation but as a 'Christ' 1 r r • 1
proper name, and thererore agam to be