Did Jesus have a last name?

p326 [To the same.] W G Heney, As to "the Christ," there is no ground whatever for making the Christ the church. Nine-tenths of the cases where we have Christ in English, it is the Christ in Greek. Christ was not properly a name, but a title, meaning (the same as Messiah in Hebrew), in English 'anointed': "Jesus is the Christ"; but it very soon became a name, but the personal name is Jesus. The only place out of, I suppose, hundreds, where the Christ is used for the principle of union among saints, is 1 Corinthians 12 - tantamount to 'so it is in the case of the Christ.' It never means properly the body, but is used for a name which brings us into relationship with Him, because the anointed One is the Head of all the anointed ones. (See John 1:33.) Hence the change in Romans 8:11, where Jesus is used as the personal name, and Christ not at all as the body, but as the Head of those who will be raised, because of Him.

Jesus is His personal name as a Man born in this world. Christ, meaning the Anointed One, is rather descriptive of an office He fills. But Jesus is the Christ (see Acts 17:3), and there is no other Christ but He. The talk to which you allude is just an instance of that "sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." "The Christ" is turned by them into an empty ideal, and "the historic Jesus" is treated as One of the Christ order showing us how we too may become "Christs." Thus they deny "Jesus Christ come in the flesh," and prove themselves of that spirit of antichrist of which 1 John 4:3 speaks.

The somewhat strangely sounding expression used by us, "The Christ," instead of "Christ," has been purposely chosen, in order to mark the distinction between the office and the name of the Lord. "Christ" has become in the parlance of the present day a simple name; in earlier days this was not the case. "Christ" (Greek), or "Messiah" (Hebrew), means "the Anointed," who, according to the promise of God, was expected. This word therefore expresses more than merely the name of a person, although this use of it had already appeared at the time the scriptures of the New Testament were written; and since, in our opinion, the designation of the office and the name should not be confounded, in order to retain the force of the word, we have written "Christ" when it is used as a proper name, and "the Christ" when it designates the office of the Messiah, the Anointed. In the Greek, the article ὁ marks the distinction.

"Wherever two or three are gathered together unto (εἰς) my name, there am I in the midst." Clearly this is not a promise, but a simple statement of fact dependent upon the fulfilment of a condition. In other words, the Lord here says that He is ever in the midst of those who are gathered together unto His name. Everything, therefore, rests upon what this condition means. When the Lord was down here on the earth His name was Jesus (Matt. 1); but He was also the Christ. (John 1:41, etc.) After His death and resurrection He was made Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36); and He still retains the name of Jesus. (Acts 7:59; Phil. 2:9-11, etc.) His full name for believers now (though He will have other names and titles by-and-by) is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now name in Scripture is the expression of the truth of what a person is; and so understanding it here, it will be the expression of all that Christ is as the Lord Jesus Christ. The term Lord signifies authority (see Luke 6:46); Jesus is His personal name (Luke 1:31); and inasmuch as He was made Christ after His death and resurrection, this term includes His work. When, then, we are truly gathered unto His name, we are gathered to the truth of His person, His work, and His authority; and these are the three things those gathered unto His name have to maintain. To surrender one only of these would be to give up Christianity — as to its public maintenance. Hence John says, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine — the doctrine of the Christ — receive him not into your house, nor bid him God-speed: for he that biddeth him Godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 10, 11.) Such an one indeed has given up the truth of the work of Christ.

ὁ χριστός. An official title of the Lord Jesus, which became used as a name. In John 1:41; John 4:25 this title is linked with the Messiah of the O.T. The Jews and Samaritans were expecting THE MESSIAH, "which is called Christ." We find the title 'Messiah' in Dan. 9:25-26 in the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks. The Hebrew word is mashiach and signifies 'anointed.' This term is employed as to the Lord Jesus in Ps. 2:2: the rulers set themselves against Jehovah and His 'Anointed.' The same word is used in reference to the high priest and the king as God's anointed; but the Lord Jesus is emphatically 'the Anointed,' this being the signification of the Word 'the Christ' which should be read in many places in the N.T. where the A.V. simply has 'Christ.' In the Gospels it is nearly always 'the Christ,' and often in the Epistles, except where it is Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus which has more the character of a name. It refers to the Lord as Man, being anointed with the Holy Ghost.

It is with design that we have sometimes written "Christ," and sometimes "the Christ," that is, the Anointed One, the Messiah. An attentive study of the word will shew that, in the Gospels, the word Christ is almost always preceded by the article, and generally expresses that which a Jew would have called "the Messiah." In the Epistles, on the contrary, the use of the article is rare, and in most instances may simply depend on the grammatical exigencies of the Greek language, without taking away from the word "Christ" the character of a proper name. In the latter case French rejects the article, and the translator has therefore to form a judgment as to the intention of the sacred writer. We cannot affirm that we have always succeeded in discerning it; but in the greater number of the passages the reader will easily distinguish between the office and the name of the person.

Jesus of Nazareth (the Nazarene) is the term of reference to the Lord most frequently used by contemporary persons of all classes. He was so known not only in Galilee but also in Judea; for when the whole city of Jerusalem was stirred at His final visit, the multitude said, "This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee" (Matt. 21:11). This name too was the one used on the inscription placed in mockery by Pilate upon the cross: "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews."

But if this title is one of dishonour and disrepute among men, angels are not ashamed to use it. The angel at the tomb said to Mary Magdalene, "Be not affrighted: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified; he is risen; he is not here; behold the place where they laid him" (Mark 16:6). To Jesus of Nazareth the apostles in their preaching testified expressly under this designation as the crucified but risen and glorified Messiah and Lord (Acts 2:22: Acts 3:6; Acts 4:10; Acts 10:38). And more striking still, the exalted One Himself speaking from the glory to Saul of Tarsus, the bigoted Jew and haughty Pharisee, declared Himself under that name of reproach: "I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest" (Acts 22:8).

27 Luke 1:31. — "Jesus." The name (Jeshua), Neh. 8:17, was very common among the Jews of the time. In Col. 4:11, mention made of a Jesus, surnamed Justus, one of the Circumcision. One of the Lord's ancestors, according to the flesh, bore the same name, see Luke 3:29 (R.V.). The Talmud, in order to get rid of the original meaning of "the name" (James 2:7), although using "Jeshua" of all others bearing it, regularly speaks of the Lord by the clipped name Jesu.

We have a new day, and the Lord meaning to go forth into Galilee, which we have seen elsewhere to be the typical place of blessing for Israel (see p. 69 notes) where her ruin is most manifest. And now, instead of a continuation of the former gathering by the testimony of disciples, there is a new beginning, and the work of the Lord Himself, who calls Philip. Now the disciples, work begins again: Philip calls Nathanael with a new testimony; "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth." The being the (titular) son of Joseph, which sounds strange as the voice of faith in John's Gospel, gives Him yet His apparent legal title to the throne. Exceptional in this Gospel it plainly is, but the King of Israel is manifestly intended to be now before us: in principle it is an Israelitish gathering that is begun. Nathanael shows also at first the Jewish unbelief: "Can anything good be out of Nazareth?" And yet the Lord testifies of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." Notice that it is as an "Israelite" he is presented to us. "Whence knowest thou me?" he asks in surprise. "Before Philip called thee," the Lord answers, "when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee." Doubtless there had been some special exercise of heart, — something in which he had been seeking God, — that Christ refers to. And with the true remnant of Israel in the last days, we know that the exercises through which they will pass will be as overshadowed by the fig-tree, which is the figure of a remnant of the nation returned to the land, but not returned to God (Luke 13:6-9), and who will receive Antichrist. The Psalms enter largely into these trials and sorrows; and in them God has provided for them beforehand that which will sustain their faith through that unequalled tribulation through which they will have to pass. In them, when they come to see Him face to face they will find how the Christ they have been seeking has been already with them.

Now when the Lord Jesus gathered His first disciples, Philip went to Nathanael in Bethsaida and said: “We have found (he does not say we have found the Messiah, which is more or less equivalent to King of Israel, Messiah means the Anointed One) ... Him, of Whom Moses wrote in the law.” But did Moses write about Him in the law? Besides many types, in Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses said to the people of Israel: “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” etc. A Prophet like unto me - that is the One of whom Moses has prophesied. And that is what Philip is mentioning here when he says: Him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and the prophets. We cannot now go through all the prophecies about the Lord Jesus, although this is a very valuable study, especially for the younger ones among us to look through the prophets beginning from Isaiah until Malachi, and to seek the Lord in the prophets. The Jews knew that the prophets had spoken about the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the son of Joseph who is from Nazareth. Now this was how the Jews saw the Lord Jesus – son of Joseph from Nazareth, which was not the true characteristic of the Messiah, because He was the son not of Joseph, although legally Joseph is always regarded as the father of the Lord Jesus. There was a legal order, there was no disorder and as son of Joseph, the Lord Jesus was known among the people. Several times this comes to the fore. And from Nazareth – that was not the town of His birth, it was not the town where Messiah should be born according to Micah 5: Bethlehem Judah, Ephrata, but it was the town where He had passed His childhood, and the years until His public appearance. But so He was known among many Jews obviously.