formulas are employed as practically proper names of our Lord, and it is difficult to trace any difference in the implications of their use. Along with these simple compounds Paul also employs the more elaborate formulas, * the (or our) Lord Jesus Christ,' 'Jesus Christ our Lord,' ' Christ Jesus, the (or our, or my) Lord.' The first of these meets us most frequently, occurring indeed no fewer than 49 times, pretty evenly distributed through the Epistles. The second occurs only four times (Romans 3 and i Cor i) : and the last only ten times (two central groups of Epistles only) . In these sonorous formulas the Apostle ex- presses his deep sense of reverence to the person of Jesus, and he tends to fall into one or the other of them whenever he Is speaking of his Master with solemnity and exalted feellng.^^ It is noticeable that
phrase would be in fact transitional between A'ptffro^ or 6 XptiTTo^ of the Gospels and the later Xpiffrd<s ^I7j(tou<s or Xpiar6<i simply as a proper name." He refers us to his own Bampton Lectures, p. 289 seq., and to an article by the Rev. F. Herbert Stead in The Expositor, 1888, i. pp. 386 seq. According to Peine, then XpiffTo? '/ijffoD? is more of a proper name; according to Sanday it is less of a proper name, than '/ij<Tou? XptffT6<i. The truth seems to be that both are prac- tically proper names: and neither has lost the whole implication of office. For the rest is it not rash to speak of one as an " earlier " or a "later" form than the other? "Jesus Christ" is, indeed, placed once on our Lord's lips (Jno 17^), and is used by the evangelists (Mt ji.is i62i^ ]y[if ji^ Jno ii7 [17^]), but "Christ Jesus" already appears on the lips of the earliest followers of Jesus (Acts 3^**), and in Paul's earliest epistle (i Thess 2^* 5^®)- "Jesus Christ" appears not only in 1 Thess (ii 3I 59,23,28)^ but also in James (ji 2^).
-8 Cf. Feine, op. cit., pp. 41 seq.: "'Irjffou^ Xptffro^ and 6 xupto^ 'IrjtTou'} are already solemn names of Jesus: and this is in still higher degree the case with 6 xvpcog (ij[iu>v) 'lyjffoui Xptffro^. It gives expression formally and ceremoniously to the majesty of Jesus over against the believers, and has something in it of the nature of a
244 The Designations of Our Lord
they are apt to be employed in the formal solemn opening and closing sections of his Epistles, and when- ever Jesus is named in direct connection with God.
In the Pastoral Epistles the compound names ' Jesus
Christ ' and ' Christ Jesus ' occur also In composition
with the epithet ' Saviour ' : ' Christ
J6SUS the T O • » / "T^' , 4\ < T
'Saviour' Jesus our baviour ( 1 itus i*), Jesus Christ our Saviour' (Titus 3®), 'our Saviour Christ Jesus' (2 Tim i^°), 'our Saviour Jesus Christ' (Titus 2^^). In the earlier Epistles, Jesus is indeed not only treated as our ' Saviour,' but the epithet is given Him as a title of honor, it being a mark of Christians that they look for a ' Saviour ' from heaven, even 'the Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil 3*^ cf. Eph 5-''). But the precise forms of expression occurring in the Pastorals are not found in these. The significance of the epithet ' Saviour ' thus applied to Jesus may perhaps be suggested by the circumstance that it is in the same Epistles a standing epithet of God. Paul describes himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ " according to the command of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our hope" (i Tim i\ cf. Titus i^), and wishes Timothy to live so as to be acceptable " in the sight of God our Saviour" (2^, cf. Titus 2^°) w^hose glory it is to be 'the Saviour' of man (4^°), in accordance with His love to men as our ' Saviour ' (Titus 3^).^^ The ascription of this epithet thus in-
confession. ... In Paul this formula occurs for the most part in the opening and closing greetings. . . . And it occurs frequently when Jesus is named in connection with God." " Both of the formulas ^XpiffTQii 'Ii^fTou? 6 xoptoq (jjiimv^ /xou^ and ^Ifjaoo^ XptffTo^ 6 xfjpio? rjpiibv'^ have something very solemn about them."
29 Cf. Swete on Rev 71" : " The cry 'H awTTjpia r(h 6e<^ xai t(^ apvio) is equivalent to attributing to Both the title of lojTrjp, so freely
The Corroboration of Paid 245
terchangeably to God and to Jesus assimilates Jesus
to God and leaves us in less doubt how we are to take
the passage in Titus 2^^ which in contrast
* Till* f^rpaf-
qq,, with Christ's first coming in grace
speaks of the impending " appearing of the glory of " — shall we say " the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ " ? — or shall we not rather say " our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ " ? If the latter construction is followed, as it seems it should be,^° it provides us with one of the most solemn ascrip- tions of proper deity to Jesus Christ discoverable in the whole compass of the New Testament.