Christ (XpiarSci anomted, a Greek translation of the Heb. n*^ip^, Mestiah^ and so used in the Sept.), the official title of our Saviour (occurring first in 2 Esdr. Tii, 29, and constantly in the New Test.), as hav- ing been consecrated to his redemptive work by the baptism at Jordan, the descent of the Holy Spirit and his plenary unction, as the prophet, priest, and king of his people. See Christ, Offices of ; Messiah. It thus also distinguishes the individual Jesus (q. v.), wliicb is his human appellation, fh>m others of the same name ; while his relations to the Grodhead are ex- pressed by the term "the Word" or Logos (q. v.), Christ therefore is not, strictly speaking, a proper name, but a designation of office. "Jesus Christ," or rather " Jesus this Christ," is a mode of expression of the same kind as "John the Baptist," or Bapttzer. In consequence of not adverting to this, the import of many passages of Scripture is misapprehended, e. g. ! Acts xvii, 8 ; xviii, 5 ; Matt xxii, 42. Butnhe word, though an appellative, intended to denote a particular official character, came to be used as a strictly personal designation of the Lord Jesus. Even the term Mes- I siah towards the close of the 0. T. came to be used of the expected Redeemer much as a proper name (with- | out the article prefixed) ; and XpuTTog is often sim- ilarly used in the N. T. (e. g. Luke ii, 11 ; John iv, 25 ; especially by Christ himself, John xvii, 8). But as it was not settled in men's minds, when Jesus first ap- peared, that he was really Messiah, we usually find the article prefixed to Xpurrog ** until after the resur- rection, when all doubt vanished from the minds of his followers. So, while in the Gospels the name is rare- ly found without the article, it is almost as rarely found with the article in the Epistles" (Fairbaim, Hermeneutical Manual, p. 286).
1. History of the Title.^1.) UnctioH, from a very early age, seems to have been the emblem of conse- cration, or setting apart to a particular, and especially [ to a religious purpose. Thus Jacob is said to have anointed the pillar of stone, which he erected and set apart as a monument of his supernatural dream at Beth-el ((Jen. xxviii, 18 ; xxxi, 18 ; xxxv, 14). Un- ' der the Old-Testament economy high-priests and kings were regularly set apart to their offices, both of which ' were, strictly speaking, sacred ones, by the ceremony of anointing, and the prophets were occasionally des- ignated by the same rite. This rite seems to have t>een intended as a public intimation of a divine ap- pointment to office. Thus Saul is termed " the Lord's anointed" (1 Sam. xxiv, 6); David, "the anointed of j the God of Israel" (2 Sam. xxiii, 1) ; and Zedekiah, " the anomted of the Lord" (Lanu iv, 20). The high- priest is called " the anointed priest" (Lev. iv, 8). See Anointino. '
(2.) From the origin and design of the rite, it is not wonderful that the term should have been applied, in { a secondary and analogical sense, to persons set apart by God for important purposes, though not actually ! anointed. Thus Cyrus, the king of Persia, is termed "the Lord's anointed" (Isa. xlv, 1) ; the Hebrew patri- archs, when sojourning in Canaan, are termed "God's anointed ones" (Psa. cv, 15) ; and the Israelitish peo- -'- -^ceive the same appellation from the prophet Ha-
bakkuk (iU, IS). It is probably with reference to this use of the expression that Moses is said by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews to have *' counted the re- proach of Christ" (Heb. xi, 26), rov Xpurrov (Xaov), the same class who in the parallel clause are termed the "people of God," "greater riches than the trots- ures of E^ypt"
(8.) In the prophetic Scriptures we find this appella- tion given to an illustrious pereonage, who, under vari- ous designations, is so often spoken of as destined to ap- pear in a distant age as a great deliverer, a. The royal prophet David seems to have been the first who qtoke of the Great Deliverer under this appellation. He rep- resents the heathen (the Gentile nations) raging, and the people (the Jewish people) imagining a vain thing " against Jehovah, and against his Anomted" (Psa. ii, 2). He says, " Now know I that the Lord saveth his Anointed' (Psa. xx, 6). " Thou hast loved righteous- ness and hated iniquity," says he, addressing himself to *' Him who was to oome," " therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Psa. xlv, 7). In all the passages in which the Great Deliverer is spoken of as "the Anointed One" by David, he is plainly viewed as sus- taining the character of a king.
5. The prophet Isaiah also uses the appellation " tiie Anointed One" with reference to the promised deliv- erer, but when he does so, he speaks of him as a proph- et or great teacher. He introduces him as saying, " The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord God hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath sent me to bind up the bro- ken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them who are bound ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn," etc. (Isa. Ixi, 1, etc.).