Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament | HearLore
Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament
The name Jesus is not merely a sequence of identifying symbols but includes intrinsic divine power, a belief that has shaped Christian devotion for two millennia. In the Gospel of Luke, an angel instructs Mary to name her child Jesus, while in the Gospel of Matthew, an angel tells Joseph to do the same, linking the name directly to the act of salvation. The etymology of the name traces back to the Biblical Hebrew form Yehoshua, a theophoric name meaning YHWH saves, which underwent a phonological shift to Yeshua and was later transliterated into Koine Greek as Iēsous. This Greek form, lacking the Semitic letter shin, replaced it with sigma, and eventually moved into Latin as IESVS, evolving into the modern English Jesus. The significance of this name is underscored by the fact that Matthew pays more attention to the name and its theological implications than the actual birth event itself, establishing a salvific attribute that has been central to Christian theology since the earliest days of the Church.
The Anointed One
The title Christ, derived from the Greek word Christos, means anointed one and serves as a loan translation of the Hebrew mashiaħ, from which the English word messiah is derived. In the Gospel of Mark, the text begins by calling Jesus the Son of God, and the title Christos is used so closely with Jesus that early Christians felt no need to claim that Jesus is Christ, as that was considered widely accepted. The Apostle Peter, in what has become a famous proclamation of faith, declared, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, a statement that Jesus accepted and called a divine revelation. While the New Testament lacks any account of a formal literal anointing of Jesus with oil, early followers developed symbols like the Chi Rho, formed by superimposing the first two Greek letters of Christos, to represent him. The term Christos, used in the Septuagint to express the Hebrew mashiach, became a title that defined the long-awaited savior who had come, bridging the gap between Jewish expectation and the emerging Christian faith.
Lord of the World
Early Christians viewed Jesus as the Lord, and the Greek word Kyrios, which may mean God, lord, or master, appears 775 times in the New Testament, referring to him. In everyday Aramaic, Mari was a very respectful form of polite address, well above Teacher and similar to Rabbi, but in Greek, Kyrios came to represent his lordship over the world. Pauline writings further established the theological consequences of the Lord concept, emphasizing attributes of Jesus as not only referring to his eschatological victory but to him as the divine image in whose face the glory of God shines forth. The high frequency of the use of the term Kyrios in the Acts of the Apostles indicates how natural it was for early Christians to refer to Jesus in this way, and the title persisted as the predominant perception of Jesus for centuries. The question of the deity of Christ is inherently related to the Kyrios title, for early Christians believed that if Christ is one with God, he must have been united with God from the very beginning, a concept that remains central to Christian liturgy today.
The Gospel of John calls Jesus the Logos, often used as the Word in English translations, and this identification appears only at the beginning of the Gospel and in two other Johannine passages. The series of statements regarding the Logos build on each other, asserting that the Logos existed at the beginning, was with God, and was God, thus stating the unity of Jesus with God the Father and affirming his divinity as God the Son. Although the use of the title Logos gave rise to debate between the Alexandrian and Antiochian schools of thought regarding the interaction of the human and divine elements in the Person of Christ, after the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and Council of Chalcedon in 451, the Logos and the second person of the Trinity were often used interchangeably. This title, unique to the Johannine literature, consciously affirms the belief in the divinity of Jesus, presenting him as God who came to be among men as the Word Incarnate, a concept that has been foundational to Christian theology for nearly two thousand years.
Son of God and Son of Man
The title Son of God is applied to Jesus in many cases in the New Testament, often used to refer to his divinity, from the beginning in the Annunciation up to the Crucifixion. The declaration that Jesus is the Son of God is made by many individuals, on two separate occasions by God the Father as a voice from Heaven, and is also asserted by Jesus himself. In contrast, the title Son of Man appears many times in all four gospel accounts, yet its proclamation has never been an article of faith in Christianity, serving instead as a natural counterpart to Son of God that affirms the humanity of Jesus. The term Son of Man, which appears 25 times in Luke and 30 times in Matthew, is distinct from Son of God, yet some gospel passages equate them, as in Mark 14:61, where Jesus responds to the high priest by saying, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power. This duality, viewed by Saint Augustine in the 5th century as the dual nature of Christ in hypostatic union, suggests that the Son of God became the Son of Man through the act of incarnation, allowing him to be full of grace as well.
The Davidic King
The title Son of David indicates Jesus' physical descent from David, as well as his membership of the Davidic line of kings, establishing the claim of Jesus Christ to the Davidic Throne based on the promises God made to King David through Nathan the prophet. The phrase Son of David is used a number of times in the gospel of Matthew, appearing on the lips of the blind men healed in Galilee, the crowd who are amazed at Jesus' healing of a blind, mute and demon-possessed man, and the Canaanite woman whose daughter is exorcised. A variant of this title is found in Revelation, where Jesus refers to himself as the Root and the Offspring of David, and according to Anglican Bishop Charles Ellicott, Son of David was the most popular of all the names of the expected Christ. The title King of the Jews, used only by gentiles such as the Magi, Pontius Pilate, and Roman soldiers, leads to dramatic results, including the Massacre of the Innocents and the Crucifixion, as the assumption of the title King implies rebellion against the Roman Empire.
The Sacrificial Lamb
The title Lamb of God, or Agnus Dei, only appears in the Gospel of John, with the exclamation of John the Baptist: Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The second use of the title takes place in the presence of the first two apostles of Jesus, who immediately follow him, address him as Rabbi with respect, and later bring others to meet him. These two proclamations of Jesus as the Lamb of God closely bracket the Baptist's other proclamation, I have borne witness that this is the Son of God, and together they reinforce the divine element of the Person of Christ. The Book of Revelation includes over twenty references to a lion-like lamb, which is of the tribe of Judah and the root of David, found worthy to take the judgment scroll from God and break the seals. The theme of a sacrificial lamb which rises in victory as the Resurrected Christ was employed in early Christology, with Saint Augustine writing in 375 that the lamb underwent death without being guilty of any inequity, while the lion in his resurrection slew death.
The Light and The Last Adam
Jesus is called a light in seven instances in the New Testament and Light of the World only in the Gospel of John, where he states, I am the light of the world: he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. The terms Bread of Life and Life of the World are also applied by Jesus to himself in John's Gospel, building on the Christological theme that he possesses life just as the Father does and provides it to those who follow him. In the Pauline view, Adam is positioned as the first man and Jesus as the second and last Adam, the first having corrupted himself by his disobedience, also infected humanity and left it with a curse as inheritance. The birth of Jesus, on the other hand, counterbalanced the fall of Adam, bringing forth redemption and repairing the damage done by Adam, a tradition continued by Church Fathers like Irenaeus, who suggested the Virgin Mary as the second Eve who had set a path of obedience for the second Adam. This cosmic view emphasizes that Jesus' birth, Crucifixion, and Resurrection brought forth a new man and a new world, a theme that has been central to Christian theology since the earliest days of the Church.