It does
seem logical to us in 2014 that Christ should be Jesus’ last name, however, it
was not! In the days of Jesus, the
Jewish custom was to call a man the son of his father. Like the apostles James and John were called the
sons of Zebedee. And, Sometimes people were identified by the
name of the town from which they came.
For example; the man who helped Jesus carry the cross was named Simon of
Cyrene. He was from that area in
northern Africa.
‘Christ’
is actually a Greek translation of the Hebrew word meaning ‘anointed.’
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains how those meanings are
actually an excellent description of who Jesus is: Christ “became the name proper to Jesus only because
he accomplished perfectly the divine mission that ‘Christ’ signifies. … In
Israel those consecrated to God for a mission” given to them by God “were
anointed in His name. This was the case
for kings, for priests and, in rare instances, for prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for
the Messiah whom God would send to inaugurate His kingdom … It was necessary that the Messiah be
anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as king and priest, and also as
prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic
hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet, and king.” (CCC436)
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