Daily Word: Christ vs. Messiah

We have spent a few days learning the true name of the Messiah. Now, we are going to study why He is called the "Christ" as opposed to the "Messiah" in our English Bibles. The phrase commonly used in referencing the Messiah is "Jesus Christ." Where does "Christ" come from? Is there any significance to the use of "Christ?" The Hebrew word for "Messiah" is Mashiach and it means anointed. Messias would be the Greek transliteration. Christos would be a translation for the anointed. Dr. Bullinger in The Companion Bible said: "Hence, the Noun [Christos] is used of and for the Messiah, and in the Gospels should always be translated 'Messiah'."

In John 4:22, the Messiah said: You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. (NKJV) Philip Doddridge commented: "for truly the salvation God has promised to his people is to arise from the Jews, and the way of obtaining it is with the greatest advantage to be learn among them." Notice the underlined portion of his comment. We would do well to remember that salvation is of the Jews. That is why we seek to reconnect with our Hebraic roots. Yeshua was a Jew; His early followers were all Jews. We need to understand the history and culture of the Jews to better understand our Messiah. But what does this have to do with Christos? There is a similarity between Christos and pagan deities. Chrestos was a common Greek proper name and it means "good." Chrestos was the name for Osiris, the sun deity of Egypt. The similarity in sound is obvious. The word Christos would have been more acceptable to Krishna worshipers, because of the similar sounding of it and Krista the pagan god. This would have made easier to convert the pagans to Christianity.


Today, begin to refer to the Savior as The Messiah. As you do, you are beginning to place Him in the proper Hebraic context. He is Jewish and we should use Hebraic terms to describe Him. As we travel the road away from the Greek model, it will require some adjustments. However, those changes will bring us closer to the Father and His Son.