Expert: Tom Smith - 4/22/2004

Question
In the Gospels, why is the Greek word "Christ" used rather than its English translation "Anointed"?

I suspect some theological problem, but have never heard an explanation.

Thanks for your help.  

Answer
There could be other reasons than the one given in this response, but this is my understanding of the reason that Christ is used rather than "anointed".

What we have in Christ is a special anointing. There are three basic words used for the word anoint, anointing or anointed that I am aware of in the New Testament, and these are:

1) epichrio, Strong's Number 5548

Means "to smear over" (as in oil). chrio is the same as 5548 (see #3 below), and "epi" means "superimposition (of time, place, order, etc.), as a relation of distribution [with the genitive case], i.e. over, upon, etc.; of rest (with the det.) at, on, etc.; of direction (with the accusative case) towards, upon, etc."

2) aleipho, Strong's number 218

Means something along the line of to anoint with perfume.

3) chrio, Strong's number 5548.

Means something similar to epichrio, except carries with it the idea of consecration to office or to a religious service.

In Hebrew, as used in the Old Testament, the Holy One of God, Messiah is the Hebrew word "mashiyach" which, like chrio, carries with it the intent of anointing for the purpose of consecration to an office or position (as you would with a priest or a king).

From chrio (which is a verb), we get the anointed, a noun, which is christos (Strong's number 5547), translated as Christ in the New Testament.

All of these have an association with anointing with oil. In the case of a ritual anointing, a king or priest may be anointed with oil as symbolic of their consecration to the office and in the case of ancient Israel, that would be symbolic of the Holy Spirit having anointed the person for that office. The oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise in the New Testament, one could be anointed with oil for a number of reasons (burial was one), or could be anointed for a special office.

In the case of Jesus, he was not just anointed for an office, but he was The Anointed One (Messiah, christos, Christ), both priest and king, anointed by God Himself as the Messiah, which as can be seen above is best translted into Greek using the word chrio, from which we get Christ.

Thus I would suggest that there is a linguistic basis for the use of the word Christ (christos) in that in the majority of cases chrio is used, it refers solely to Christ, and certainly in context, one would have to reserve a term which differentiates the anointing that Jesus had as the one and only Messiah/Christ vs the an anointing which might be received by one men for one putpose or another.

(Source for definitions above is Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright (c) 1994, Biblesoft and International Bible Translators, Inc.. For your own study of these words, you can check out the Strong definitions and the usage of these words in the OT and NT using the blue letter Bible at http://www.blueletterbible.org).

I hope that this helps.