[B-Greek] IHS a Greek abbreviation
Matthew Baldwin
baldwin at apocryphum.com
Tue Dec 16 19:37:08 EST 2003
To all who have discussed IHS:
This conversation must be put to rest!
Any first year student of Latin Paleography or Greek Paleography can tell
you that IHS is a Latin adaptation of the common Greek abbreviation for
IHSOUS (i.e. IHC, see also the post of Carl Conrad). The abbreviation IHS
is found throughout many Latin texts, for instance in Latin manuscripts of
the Gospels, standing in the syntactic position of the nominative subject,
clearly meaning "Jesus" in context; IHM can also be found, quite easily,
standing for accusative (this represents a very hybrid adaptation of the
originally Greek abbreviation). As they are used in Latin texts, these
abbreviations really do MEAN "Jesus (subject)" and "Jesus (object)." They
do not have an additional coded meaning. Compare the very frequently used
abbreviation XPS/XPM for Christ, also a Greek loaner, and then of course the
ubiquitous DS/DM abbreviations for "God," and then of course the MANY MANY
examples of native Latin abbreviations and suspensions. Abbreviation saves
ink and wrist muscles; there is no other reason for their use. Latin
abbreviations clearly do MEAN the word they abbreviate; scribes make every
effort to properly conjugate the words; in any case their meaning in
sentences is always obvious from the context.
By the way, strangely, a number of Latin texts, many from North Africa or
bearing North African characteristics, occasionally also use the "Chi-Rho"
abbreviation for "Christ" in texts. Occasionally, this version of the XPS
abbreviation, where the "Chi" is formed by placing a cross-piece over an
elongated upright on the Greek "Rho," has apparently been misread by later
copyists, who mistakenly expanded the abbreviation into the word "PAX," i.e.
peace.
On the subject of the formation and use of Latin Nomina Sacra, please see
the most authoritative handbook available:
Bernhard Bischoff, _Latin Paleography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages_ (tr.
Croinin and Ganz; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Also see the important article on the use and development of the Latin
Nomina Sacra published by E. A. Lowe in his _Paleographical Papers:
1907-1965_ (ed Ludwig Bieler; 2 vols; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1971).
FINALLY, and this is VERY IMPORTANT to grasp for the history of text and
religion: the abbreviation most certainly does not "mean" _in hoc signo_ ,
or _iesus hominum salvator_; or any other thing besides the word it
abbreviates. It is not functioning in texts as an acronym. HOWEVER, such
"readings" of the nomina sacra are indeed interesting, because they are like
theological poems; they are acrostic midrashes on Jesus' name or on
religious iconography. But they have nothing to do with the "real" meaning
of the abbreviation. They represent meanings attached to the abbreviation
which represent the ideas of the later readers of texts, and more commonly,
of the later "readers" of paintings and representations of the cross and
crucifixion, where IHS is sometimes found replacing the text of the
"charge," which is itself shortened at times into the acronym INRI (Iesus
Naz. Rex Iudaeorum).
By the way, in my opinion the most wonderfully fanciful later "reading" of
IHS is found in a terrible tract by Jack Chick, probably the anti-catholic
one called "the poison cookie," (either that or the anti-masonic tract)
where he claims, as I recall, that the IHS abbreviation is a Satanic/Pagan
code for the Egyptian gods Isis, Horus, and Set, or something like that, a
kind of poisonous infection of true Christianity in which the divine trinity
is replaced by the pagan demons, who are subsequently worshipped by the evil
priests of --gasp-- Roman Catholicism (or Freemasonry).
Matthew Baldwin
Mars Hill College
mbaldwin at mhc.edu
Cheers.
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