It has been argued that the term Xpio-rtai'os im- plies a Western and Latin origin. But the term- ination -avo's was in wide use among Greeks every- where {HDB i. 384).
The use of this name was the first step in the differentiation of Christians from Jews in the public eye. Previously the two classes had been confounded ; and the confusion was advantageous to Christians in many respects, as the Jews were a priWleged nation before the Roman law. As the Church grew in numbers the confusion ceased, and the new name emphasized the distinction.
As the name XpicrTd^ was often confused with Xprj<rT6s ('good,' 'useful'), so XpiaTiavos was often misspelt XpT]aTiav6s. This was intelligible enough in pagan writers. Suetonius says that Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they were always raising_ tumult under the instigation of Chrestus. Christian A\Titers are not disinclined to tum the mistake to account. Tertullian (Apol. 3) does this intentionally, saying to pagans : ' When vou wrongly say Chrestians [Chrestianos] (for your knowledge of the name is limping), it is composed of suavity and benignity ' [de suavitate et benigni- tate]. Clem. Alex. {Strom, ii. 4) also writes : ' Thev who believe in Christ both are and are called good (xpv^roi)' ; Justin (Apol. i. 4): 'You ought rather to punish those who accuse (us) be- cause of our name. For we are accused of being Christians ; but it is unjust for that which is good (rb xpTjcTdv) to be hated ' ; Lactantius {Div. Inst. iv. 7) : ' Ignorant of our affairs, they call Christ Chrest (Christum Chrestmn) and Christians Chres- tians (Christianos C'hi-estianos).'
We can imagine nothing more fitting than that Christians should bear their Master's name (Christ) in their own (Christian). There was more than accident in such an origin. The name betokens the vital union between Christ and believers, of ■which the Epistles make so much ('they that are Christ's'). An early Liturgy says: 'We thank thee that the name of thy Christ is named upon us, and so we are made one with thee.' What a Christian is called he is. He has the mind of Christ. He thinks and feels, loves and acts, as Christ does.
His name is an index to his heart. ' We are called children of God, and such we are. ' ' A Christian is one who has Christ in his heart, mouth and work ' (k Lapide). Passages like Mt IQ'-" 24^* found a literal fulfilment in the Church : see Mk 9^^ ' Be- cause ye are Christ's,' and margin, the name stand- ing for the person ; Ac 4^^, ' Neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved.' To believe on the name is to believe on Chiist (Jn I^^)^
LiTERATirRB.— Comm. of Meyer, Rackham, Alford, Words- worth on Ac 1126; artt. in II DB, EBi, DCG, and Kitto's Cyclo- pcedia, s.v. ; Conybeare-Howson, Life and Epintles of St. Paul2, 1S77, i. 146 f. ; A. Carr, Horce Biblicce, 1904 ; F. H. Chase, The Credibility of the Book of Acts, 1902.
J. S. Banks.
CHRISTIAN LIFE The type of moral and re- ligious life which was lived by the Christians of the Apostolic Age had already been so far fixed as to be described in the phrase Kara xp^(^Tiavi<T/j.bv ^ijv by Ignatius (Magn. x. 1) towards the close of that period ; and the Didache (xii. 4), possibly at an earlier date, used the title 'Z.picrTLav6's, showing that the name which Antioch invented (Ac 11-^ ; cf. 26^ and 1 P 4'^) was now accepted as specifying a person whose life was distinctive alike in ideal and practice. If we take the year A.D. 100 as mark- ing the extreme limit of the Apostolic Age, our authorities for determining the characteristics of Christian practice and of the Christian life in its inner and outer aspects are but meagre, consisting of the NT writings, the Didache, 1 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Epistles of Ignatius, some fragments of Papias and Hegesippus preserved by Eusebius, and a few contemporary references in pagan writers like Tacitus and Suetonius. There is a difficulty in using and classifying the informa- tion of these authorities, inasmuch as the chron- ology of the NT writings is a subject of inquiry and even of controversy ; while the traditional origin and authorship of writings like the Epistle to the Ephesians and the Pastoral Epistles, of the Johannine writings and several others, are dis- puted by competent critics (see art. Dates). Some scholars (e.g. Gwatkin) regard the Didache as one of the earliest works of Christian literature ; while others, like von Dobschiitz, place it beyond the limits of the Apostolic Age. Nevertheless, in spite of the various opinions on questions of chronology and authorship, it is possible to arrive at some definite conclusions on universally accepted pre- misses, and to form a clear, if in details an incom- plete, conception of the practice of the Christian life exhibited by Christian communities from the death of Christ to the close of the 1st century.
One general principle may be laid down by way of preface. The earliest witnesses of Christianity are more concerned with Christ than with a system of Christian morals. It is not primarily a new code of ethics which they unfold ; it is a new Personality. Not the teaching, but the Teacher is their theme. The summum bonum had been realized in the life of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount, indeed, entered into the apostolic con- sciousness, as we see from the precepts of Ro 12 ; but the Law-givor, as on the occasion of its utter- ance, is more than His precepts (Mt 7-^). The devotion to a living historical Person, the Son of God and Redeemer of the world, who was capable of conmiunicating His Spirit to all mankind — this is the note of the earliest preaching of the gospel.* The apostles preach 'Christ and him crucified.' ' They seem to think that if they can only fill men