Christian
Michael Abernathy
mabernat at cub.kcnet.org
Tue May 25 01:16:23 EDT 1999
Mike Abernathy here,
Denny Diehl asked about the word Christian and after reading the responses, I thought I'd throw in my two cents.
First, on the meaning of the word Christian itself. Jim West gave you a pretty standard answer on the meaning of the word; however, I am not certain that is correct. I am not a Latin scholar so if any of you can give me better information on this I will be glad to hear it. Years ago, I researched this Latin ending at a small mid-west Bible college. I could find only one reference that studied the historical usage of the word and documented the time for each usage. That work (sorry I don't remember the source) claimed that the word was not used as a diminutive until the late third or early fourth century A.D. In the first century, the author claimed the meaning, "belonging to, slave of," or "follower of."
The question of whether or not Christian was derogatory is bound up with the interpretation of chrêmatizein. CHRMATIZW can mean "to take and bear a title or name," or "to be called," or "to change or be changed" (Liddell & Scott), or "transact business" or "to give a divine command or admonition" (Thayer).
In the past several commentators took the position that the name Christian was given by God. For example, Calvin wrote, "After this he adds that such a godly alliance was blessed by God. For it was no ordinary honor that the sacred name of Christians originated." (Compare Mt. 2:12, 22; Acts 10:22; Heb. 8:5, 11:7).
Note that Lampe's Patristic Greek Lexicon gives as the primary meaning "utter a message of God." I'm not really certain if the shift in interpretation came from theological or linguistic grounds. Perhaps someone else can shed some light on this.
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