Accurately Defining the Christ

The term Christ came from the Greek word Christos. The meaning of that word was anointing or the rubbing on of oil or ointment. The Hebrew word for Messiah, mashiyach was translated into Greek as Christos. The word messiah was associated with the King of Israel or the anointed one. So, when Jesus asked in Matthew 16:13-20, who do people say I am, Peter’s answer was you are the Messiah the Son of God. The same question can be found in Mark 8:27-29, and Luke 9:18-20.

However, I believe that orthodox dogma has erroneously conflated these passages in the synoptic gospels with “the Christ” as it was developed in John’s gospel, and the writings of the Apostle Paul. The writings of John and Paul greatly expanded the term Christ and connected it with the Logos or the Word. There is not a one-to-one correlation between Jesus of Nazareth and the Logos/word. This is where the term Christ comes into play.

When one is anointed with oil, the oil soaks into the skin. One could say that the oil indwells the skin. It becomes part of the skin. Therefore, the Christ as it was used in early Christian literature described the indwelling of the Logos. The Logos is the creative consciousness aspect of the divine parent. The Logos is the creative power that thinks and speaks reality into existence. Jesus knew that he was indwelt by the Logos and was therefore the son of God. However, he went on to teach that we too are indwelt by the Logos and are children of God.

Being created in the image of God is being created with the indwelling Logos. It is safe to say that the Logos and consciousness are synonymous. The word Logos is Greek and it means word or reason. It is a spoken word or a thought, in essence it is consciousness. The Greek philosophers especially the stoics saw the Logos as the creative source of the universe. However, it was the Jewish Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Alexandria that expanded on the word.

Philo was born between 15 and 10 BCE and died between 45 and 50 CE. He was contemporary with Jesus of Nazareth. He wrote that the Logos was the creator and the firstborn son of God. Since he was dead before the writing of John’s gospel, and he wrote in his work, “The Confusion of Tongues” that the Logos was a mediator between God and humanity and that the Logos was the “firstborn” son of God. It is important to note that the concept was not in any way unique to the gospel of John.

What is unique about John’s gospel is that it states that Jesus was indwelt by the Logos or in other words the Logos incarnate. However, Jesus went on to teach according to both John and Paul that we are also indwelt by the Logos. John stated that as Jesus was in the world that is true of humanity as well. Jesus said that he was in the Father and the Father was in him and both were in humanity.

The point of this is that to correctly speak of the Christ, one must understand that it is the Christ of the Logos or the anointing of the Logos. This makes the trinity then, the Father/Parent, the Logos, and humanity. All three are aspects of the divine. This is more clearly stated in some of the Gnostic texts found in the Nag Hammadi Library, but we know that Orthodoxy squashed Gnosticism in the late second and third centuries. However, the canon was not settled until late in the fourth century. One of the early Gnostic gospels was the Valentinian “Gospel of Truth.” It was from no later than the middle of the second century. The Valentinians are thought to be followers of Paul and the gospel of truth teaches that we forgot our divinity upon our incarnation into this world. In other words, we forgot that we were indwelt by the Logos, or had the Christ of the Logos. We were anointed with the Logos and did not realize it. Helping us remember who we really were was the mission and ministry of Jesus.

Sin is missing the mark and the mark missed was remembering our divinity. You can see this in John 1:1-14. In John 1:10 we’re told that the Logos was in the world but not recognized or known. It says that some knew the Logos, but most did not. The ones who recognized the Logos knew that they were the sons and daughters of God. It is finally in verse 14 that we are told that the Logos became flesh. The Logos was in the world before Jesus was born.

You may be asking who were the ones who received the Logos? The answer is the mystics and prophets and anyone who realized they were divine. Jesus then explained that humanity was anointed, indwelt by divinity. That should have been understood from Genesis. That was a fact from creation. Humanity was image bearers, and that meant they were indwelt with consciousness.

In the wrap up it is important to realize that the term Christ is anointing, and as it is used it is the anointing or the indwelling of the Logos. Therefore when we speak of or refer to the Christ, to be precise it should be the “Christ of the Logos.”