Christ

[Technosoul]

I am wondering about the real background for the word "Christ". Looking in the dictionary was of little help as they more of less difine the word relative to our modern Christian useage.

I do not recall anything in the Old Testiment about a Christ.

I was told by someone that their was a small religious cult who used that name before it was used by Peter or the Christians, and the cult was not welling liked by the established religions or the majority of the Jewish community.

So I was wondering who first coined that word and what it's historical origins really are. So far the only sources I can find are those with modern Christain objectives and so that does not help much.

Some new age people talk about "christ consciousness" and some claim it had to do with the Nostic Religion which Thomas may have later on joined up with.

Anyone got answers?

[kharmajunkie]

It's the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word "Messias" meaning annointed. I got
this off the Jeeves site.

CHRIST

The word Christ, Christos, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messias, means "anointed." According to the Old Law, priests (Exodus 29:29; Leviticus 4:3), kings (I Kings 10:1; 24:7), and prophets (Isaias 61:1) were supposed to be anointed for their respective offices; now, the Christ, or the Messias, combined this threefold dignity in His Person. It is not surprising, therefore, that for centuries the Jews had referred to their expected Deliverer as "the Anointed"; perhaps this designation alludes to Isaias 61:1, and Daniel 9:24-26, or even to Psalms 2:2; 19:7; 44:8. Thus the term Christ or Messias was a title rather than a proper name: "Non proprium nomen est, sed nuncupatio potestatis et regni", says Lactantius (Inst. Div., IV, vii). The Evangelists recognize the same truth; excepting Matthew 1:1, 18; Mark 1:1; John 1:17; 17:3; 9:22; Mark 9:40; Luke 2:11; 22:2, the word Christ is always preceded by the article. Only after the Resurrection did the title gradually pass into a proper name, and the expression Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus became only one designation. But at this stage the Greeks and Romans understood little or nothing about the import of the word anointed; to them it did not convey any sacred conception. Hence they substituted Chrestus, or "excellent", for Christians or "anointed", and Chrestians instead of "Christians." There may be an allusion to this practice in I Peter 2:3; hoti chrestos ho kyrios, which is rendered "that the Lord is sweet." Justin Martyr (Apol., I, 4), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, iv, 18), Tertullian (Adv. Gentes, II), and Lactantius (Int. Div., IV, vii, 5), as well as St. Jerome (In Gal., V, 22), are acquainted with the pagan substitution of Chrestes for Christus, and are careful to explain the new term in a favourable sense. The pagans made little or no effort to learn anything accurate about Christ and the Christians; Suetonius, for instance, ascribes the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Claudius to the constant instigation of sedition by Chrestus, whom he conceives as acting in Rome the part of a leader of insurgents.

The use of the definite article before the word Christ and its gradual development into a proper name show the Christians identified the bearer with the promised Messias of the Jews. He combined in His person the offices of prophet (John 6:14; Matthew 13:57; Luke 13:33; 24:19) of king (Luke 23:2; Acts 17:7; I Corinthians 15:24; Apocalypse 15:3),and of priest (Hebrew 2:17; etc.); he fulfilled all the Messianic predictions in a fuller and a higher sense than had been given them by the teachers of the Synagogue

[orgaelin]

Damnit Kharma - that's what I was going to say!

[Technosoul]

Originally posted by kharmajunkie, It's the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew word "Messias" meaning annointed. I got this off the Jeeves site. CHRIST The word Christ, Christos, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messias, means "anointed." According to the Old Law, priests (Exodus 29:29; Leviticus 4:3), kings (I Kings 10:1; 24:7), and prophets (Isaias 61:1) were supposed to be anointed for their respective offices; now, the Christ, or the Messias, combined this threefold dignity in His Person. It is not surprising, therefore, that for centuries the Jews had referred to their expected Deliverer as "the Anointed"; perhaps this designation alludes to Isaias 61:1, and Daniel 9:24-26, or even to Psalms 2:2; 19:7; 44:8. Thus the term Christ or Messias was a title rather than a proper name: "Non proprium nomen est, sed nuncupatio potestatis et regni", says Lactantius (Inst. Div., IV, vii). The Evangelists recognize the same truth; excepting Matthew 1:1, 18; Mark 1:1; John 1:17; 17:3; 9:22; Mark 9:40; Luke 2:11; 22:2, the word Christ is always preceded by the article. Only after the Resurrection did the title gradually pass into a proper name, and the expression Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus became only one designation. But at this stage the Greeks and Romans understood little or nothing about the import of the word anointed; to them it did not convey any sacred conception. Hence they substituted Chrestus, or "excellent", for Christians or "anointed", and Chrestians instead of "Christians." There may be an allusion to this practice in I Peter 2:3; hoti chrestos ho kyrios, which is rendered "that the Lord is sweet." Justin Martyr (Apol., I, 4), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, iv, 18), Tertullian (Adv. Gentes, II), and Lactantius (Int. Div., IV, vii, 5), as well as St. Jerome (In Gal., V, 22), are acquainted with the pagan substitution of Chrestes for Christus, and are careful to explain the new term in a favourable sense. The pagans made little or no effort to learn anything accurate about Christ and the Christians; Suetonius, for instance, ascribes the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under Claudius to the constant instigation of sedition by Chrestus, whom he conceives as acting in Rome the part of a leader of insurgents. The use of the definite article before the word Christ and its gradual development into a proper name show the Christians identified the bearer with the promised Messias of the Jews. He combined in His person the offices of prophet (John 6:14; Matthew 13:57; Luke 13:33; 24:19) of king (Luke 23:2; Acts 17:7; I Corinthians 15:24; Apocalypse 15:3),and of priest (Hebrew 2:17; etc.); he fulfilled all the Messianic predictions in a fuller and a higher sense than had been given them by the teachers of the Synagogue

This as I noted was likewise reported in the dictionary that the word christ would mean someone anointed as a religious teacher.

There was a book about Christus out of Canada that has been debated but the ideas have little support from other sources.

Further research of non-christian sources has produced some interesting connections with interpretaions made of tomb inscriptions in Eqypt. Only the same sounding word was spelled Krist with a k instead of with the letters ch.

At first the researchers just thought the word meant crypt because it was carved on a casket used to burry some royal person. While other interpeters reading the anicent writing, which was many years B.C. said the word Krist was used for King only it would be a Divine King, a god in human form. This god had a following of 12 deciples.

However that dates further back to pagan ideas about the our solar system. In our local solar system we have 9 planets listed plus the moon which they added as a planet for a total of 10. Talked about by Daniel as the 10 kings or 10 kingdoms. The orbital patterns of these planets follow the sun (Ra) and so we got a total of 11 objects ruling our solar system in that cosmology. The lastest discovery (by modern people) of yet another planet which has a very wide orbit that takes thousands of years to complete a circle will return (I think the estamated time is every 36,000 years) and it then passes through our solar system near earth close to the astroid belt. For a total of 12 making up the solar system. Such would be the return of the Krist into our solar system and the gravity pull of that planet on earth would cause some weather changes, earthquakes, tidal waves and so forth, and those who knew this could predict it as a doomsday event in during the end times, but not total distruction. Other anicent stories say that the gods "krist people" dwell on that 12th planet and they visit earth when it comes close enough for them to do so.

And so we have also the comsic christ story which is more or less a secular science report about the solar system, aka astrology in addition to the more popular stories about a divine king, or the anointed teacher.

Technosoul.

[orgaelin]

Fascinating stuff Tech. Is it that Sitchin?

[Technosoul]

Originally posted by orgaelin, Fascinating stuff Tech. Is it that Sitchin?

Sitchin did make note of that in one part of one of this books but he did not orginate that research or study. Not sure where I first found out about it.
But if you look at books and famous spiritual leaders of India I am sure would would find lots of Kristna sounding names. (aka christ-na). The communities of India, Eqypt, and the migration of Abraham from Ur (one of the cities in the kingdom of Sumer) all came out of Sumer and started up at about the same time in history - giving each a simular background of knowledge. The name used in Eqypt would have been more like "krut" but you must add vowels and so forth to make it fit our modern English word for translation purposes.

Babylon was also part of the kingdom of Sumer (the farming capital - each city in the kingdom had a special purpose and/or occupational purpose). They were guilty of changing the words of Sumer to make their own new "dictionary". But modern researchers were lucky to have found a dictionary in the Babylon ruins that showed both the old words of Sumer and the new words of Babylon, so with that help they were able to translate the clay tablets found in Sumer. Daniel, in his study to become a dream interpreter for Babylon had studied both the anicent text and the (then) modern texts of Babylon (as he had to know how to interpret dreams using the anicent terminology of symbolism (now thought to be pagan). And that is why Daniel could read the writing on the wall.

Technosoul.

[orgaelin]

Interesting again. What you said this time sounds a bit like David Rohl's ideas.

He has a book called (in the UK, different name in the US) "Genesis: The Legend of Civilisation"

He is an archaeologist, and has tried to trace the earliest origins of civilisation. Believe it or not, most of this thick book is taken up describing history before Sumer!

He has an interesting idea about the name of God.

Of course, the bible gives his name as "I am", even going so far as to say that God tells Moses to go to his people and say, "I am has sent me", which is clearly ludicrous!

The Hebrew for "I am that I am" is "Ayer asher Ayer". Rohl suggests that the bible writers were being typically clever, hiding the true name of God in an expression you wouldn't recognise unless you should...

He suggests the name of the god was in fact Ea (pronounced 'ayer') who is synonymous with Enki. I'm sure you've heard of him, and I'm sure you'll agree he fits the true character of the biblical God quite well.

That's the best explanation I've heard for it.

[Technosoul]

Perhaps through the study of anicent so-called mythology one could learn about pre-Sumer history, because Sumer popped up after the last big Ice Age and likewise would not have have pre-dated the so-called biblical flood - in the legend of Altantis that Plato mentioned pre-dated Sumer (information he might have gotten from the nomadic Druids).

One thing that struck me about the name "I Am that I Am" (other then the later book "I think therefore I am") was how those words are also used a lot in the writings of Egypt (where Moses was educated) and in particular in the "book of the dead" (book of the afterlife).

They would have poems by some Goddess and she would start each line with "I Am" but the whole poem would relate that God/dess is "everything and everyone". The concept that God is the "All", the totality.

Now if the word "I AM" means "God" then when Jesus said "I AM the truth, the light, and the way, none can come unto the Father save by me" we could translate that as saying "God is the truth, the light, and the way, and none can come to God save by God". Such a translation would totally alter a major foundation for the Christian belief system.

Later I post a tread about the "secret name for God that all can see".

Now in Sumer the heavenly father was called ANU, the symbol "A" meaning "first". The sons of ANU had names starting with the letter E, such as EL or EN, etc. Adam also started with A as "first man" and althought this means nothing at all - I noted the letters AD-AM, an addition of AM added as a likeness there of. E.den and Eve, also starting with letters E (aka 3). Apparently the goddess mate of ANU was 2 and/or it's lettered counterpart. Note that ANU was for the complete title "heavenly father" where as the name was AN if you drop the "heavenly" from it.

AN is very close to AM as I is very close to 1 (one).

I think also historically it was not holy to say the name for God outloud because his name was hallowed and sacred (speaking now of the Spirit God and not the physical father-god the dwelled on some other heavenly planet in a kingdom that is not of or on the earth).

So I can see where that writer would come up with EN as the god who visited earth as sent here by AN.

So we have so far four basic concepts for God. the "All". The Spirit oversoul conscousness. The physical beings that visited humanity from the sky. As well as the "anonymous msytery" riddle.

whatcha think?
Technosoul.