IV. Significance of the nmne. — St. Luke evidently wishes to connect the origin of the name with the final departure of Christianity from merely Jewish ideals and the dawning consciousness of this fact in the (Jentile mind. It is then fair to ask, ' What were the distinctive marks of the new sect to those who first used the word Christian ? ' If it did not originate as a sarcastic jeu d'esprit, it very soon came to be used with a contemptuous signification. It occurs with an implication of scorn in the mouth of Agrippa, 'With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian (Ac 26'*).
* Many editors take this pas«af;e as a direct allusion to the name 'Christian.' The expres*iion « ita^i rn*i it. t,»» ««/i'iV is a Hebraism which occurs many times in the LXX. The Ileb. equivalent dennles that the person whose name is *calle<l over' a tliiiiff po-vsesses the rights of ownership in It. See csp. 2 S 12** * Lent I take the city, and my name be called ujM)n it' (HVm), and the note of Driver, ad too (llrh. Tejct of Sam.\ Tlie allusion in Ja 2' is, then, mors correctly referred to baptism In the name of Christ (SM M«yor, Bp. of Si. James, ad toe.). See also art. Call.
986
CHRISTOLOGY
CHRISTOLOGr
From 1 P we learn that in heathen mouths ' Chris- tian ' was practically equivalent to ' malefactor ' (415. 16^ (.f. 2'- 3'"). What were the reasons for this malice and contempt t They were perhaps mainly four.
(a) The object of the Christians' worship was a crucilied mar., ' unto Jews a stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness' (1 Co l'^). Compare the contempt expressed in the Palatine grattito, prol)ably of the 2nd cent., representing a Christian worshipping a crucified man with an ass's head.
(6) 1 lie Christians themselves were ' not many wise after the flesh, not many miglity, not many noble' {ib."), but 'base' and 'despised' (ib.^). Many of them were slaves (Eph 6», Col S^, 1 P 2", 1 Co 7^')-
(c) There was much in heathen social life which, even if innocent in itself, suggested associa- tions offensive to Christian scruples (1 P 4'- *, 1 Co 8'"'', Ro 14'-''). Again, it must have caused many heart-burnings and domestic strifes when the new religion made its way into families. Hence arose the hatred of Christians as morose and unsociable Puritans.
(rf) Besides merely holding aloof from heathen society. Christians were fearlessly outspoken in condemnation of its vices and idolatry (Eph 2'"' 4", Ro l'*'^). The secret consciousness that such condemnation was not at bottom unfounded, em- bittered the heathen world still more against its self-constituted censors. From this hatred it was but a short step to the fabrication of slanders (1 P 2" 3"), and such charges found a shadow of support in the mystery with which the Christians invested their acts of worship. At the same time the proofs of their world-wide organization gave them the aspect of a secret society banded together against the religion and manners of the day.
Somewhat later in the corrupted form ' Chres- tianus ' the Apologists applied the word to themselves as tne ' good ' (x/n^fToO- The word Xpiirrdi, though known to the Greeks as an ad- jective, was not used as a proper name except to translate the Hebrew ' Messiah.' X/rrjirrSi, on the other hand, was a tolerably familiar name. Hence arose the corruption (probably towards the middle of 2nd cent.) into Xpri<mai>oi. Suetonius (Claud. 25) nses ' Chrestus ' for ' Christus ' ; but there is no evidence that he connected the name with ' Chris- tiani,' which appears (Nero, 16) without any variant reading ' Chrestiani.' It appears as ' Christiani ' also in Tacitus and Pliny [loc. cit.). Justin Martyr plays on the double name (Ap, i. 55 A), Scov ye iK ToO 6v6fiaTQS roin KarTjyopovyrai uaXXoi' KoXd^eiv 6tp^l\cTe. XptffTtafol yhp cXvat KaTijyopovfifda' rd 5^ Xpv<rrbv fufffurdai ov ^/Katof. Cf. Tert. Ap, 3, ' cum et perperam Chrestianus pronuntiatur a vobis (nam nee nominis certa est notitia penes vos) de ■uavitate et benignitate compositum est.'
LtTKRATlTRB. — R. A. LipsiuB, tjber den Urspruna und ditfsUn tie^rauch de^ Chrixiennaintmg, lb73 ; Zeller, Bwl. W&rterbxich f.r. 'Christ'; Lit;htfoot, Ai>ost. Fathers, 1889, It^natius. i. pp. 41S-419; Keira, Atig dfm Crchritt. Essjiy vi., t ragmente ant dtr mm. Verfolguiuj, § I, ' Das neroni.sche Verbrechen und der Chribttruiame' ; C. V. Arnold, Neron. ChrutfiiverJUij. ; Ivanisay, Church in homan Empire (jiastim). S. C. (jAYFORD.
CHRISTOLOGY. — The purpose of this article is to reproduce the conception of Himself and of His relation to God left bj' Christ in the minds of His earliest followers; and then to estimate the i/Hith and worth of this conception. For this inquiry, we fortunately have, in the NT, abund- ant materials. We there find various, and in great part independent, witnesses speaking to us from the first und second generations of the fol- lowers of Christ, and comprising some who stood in close relation to Him.
L 1. The undisputed and well-attested genuine
ness of some of the Epistles of St. Paul, and the probable genuineness of tlie others, make these the best starting-point for our inquiry. For in them we have a secure platform on which we may stand firmly, and from wliich we can survey the entire evidence. We shall then consider the Synoptic Gospels and the writings attributed to the Apostle John.