This Χριστος as a personal name
for Jesus was already in use long before the letters of Paul, e.g., in Rome,
and above all in Antioch, where barely 10 years after the death of Jesus the
Christians were described as Χριστιανοι. This means that they changed the title “The
Anointed One” into a name within an astonishingly brief period, and thereby
usurped it exclusively for their Lord, Jesus of Nazareth.
Accordingly, we find
several times in Paul the formula, “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8; cf. 5:6;
14:9, 15; 1 Cor. 8:11, 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:15; 1 Thess. 5:10; Gal. 2:21; 1 Pet. 3:18).
We can still discern in this formula traces of the originally titular meaning,
for at the center of the new message was this: it was the sinless Messiah,
the eschatological emissary and saviour—not merely a suffering righteous man or
prophet—who sacrificed his life “for the many.” This Paul speaks of “[the]
Christ crucified” as the content of his preaching. The bipartite form of the
name, the familiar ‘Ιησους Χριστος, as well as Χριστος ‘Ιησους preferred by Paul,
were originally formulaic confessions. ‘Ιησους Χριστος derives from ישׁוע משׁיחא, Jesus the Messiah,
whereas Χριστος ‘Ιησους originally was probably used analogously to the cry of acclamation κυριος ‘Ιησους.
That Paul was
perfectly acquainted with the Old Testament Jewish conceptions bound up with
the messianic name ‘Ιησους Χριστος can be seen from any number of texts.
Thus, the reference to Jesus’ descent “from the seed of David” (Rom. 1:3f). Son
of David was an epithet for the Messiah. To be numbered here as well is the rehearsal
of the salvation-historical privileges of Israel (Rom. 9:3-5): “ . . . my
kinsmen by race . . . are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the
glory, the covenants . . . the worship and the promises . . ., the patriarchs, and
of their race, according to the flesh, is [the] Christ.” (Martin
Hengel, “Jesus, the Messiah of Israel: The Debate about the ‘Messianic Mission’
of Jesus,” in William R. Farmer, ed. Crisis in Christology: Essays in Quest
of Resolution [Livonia, Mich.: Dove Booksellers, 1995], 217-40, here, pp.
217-18, emphasis in original)
