{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/007/0070089.htm","path":"chr/ecf/007/0070089.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/007/0070089.htm","text":"Some one may perhaps ask who this is who is so powerful, so beloved by God, and what name He has, who was not only begotten at first before the world, 523 but who also arranged it by His p. 106 wisdom and constructed it by His might. First of all, it is befitting that we should know that His name is not known even to the angels who dwell in heaven, but to Himself only, and to God the Father; nor will that name be published, as the sacred writings relate, before that the purpose of God shall be fulfilled. In the next place, we must know that this name cannot be uttered by the mouth of man, as Hermes teaches, saying these things: \u201cNow the cause of this cause is the will of the divine good which produced God, whose name cannot be uttered by the mouth of man.\u201d And shortly afterwards to His Son: \u201cThere is, O Son, a secret word of wisdom, holy respecting the only Lord of all things, and the God first perceived 524 by the mind, to speak of whom is beyond the power of man.\u201d But although His name, which the supreme Father gave Him from the beginning, is known to none but Himself, nevertheless He has one name among the angels, and another among men, since He is called Jesus 525 among men: for Christ is not a proper name, but a title of power and dominion; for by this the Jews were accustomed to call their kings. But the meaning of this name must be set forth, on account of the error of the ignorant, who by the change of a letter are accustomed to call Him Chrestus. 526 The Jews had before been directed to compose a sacred oil, with which those who were called to the priesthood 527 or to the kingdom might be anointed. And as now the robe of purple 528 is a sign of the assumption of royal dignity among the Romans, so with them the anointing with the holy oil conferred the title and power of king. But since the ancient Greeks used the word \u03c7\u03c1\u03af\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 to express the art of anointing, which they now express by \u1f00\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03c6\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9, as the verse of Homer shows,\n \u201cBut the attendants washed, and anointed\u00a0529\n them with oil;\u201d\non this account we call Him Christ, that is, the Anointed, who in Hebrew is called the Messias. Hence in some Greek writings, which are badly translated 530 from the Hebrew, the word eleimmenos 531 is found written, from the word aleiphesthai, 532 anointing. But, however, by either name a king is signified: not that He has obtained this earthly kingdom, the time for receiving which has not yet arrived, but that He sways a heavenly and eternal kingdom, concerning which we shall speak in the last book. But now let us speak of His first nativity.\nLiterally, \u201cwhose first nativity not only preceded the world.\u201d He speaks of the eternal generation of the Son, as distinguished from His incarnation, which he afterwards speaks of as His second nativity. [See vol. vi. p. 7.]\n106:524 106:525\nJesus, that is, [Joshua = ] Saviour.\n106:526\nSuetonius speaks of Christ as Chrestus. The Christians also were called Chrestians, as Tertullian shows in his Apology. The word \u03c7\u03c1\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03cc\u03c2 has the signification of kind, gentle, good. [Vol. i. p. 163.]\n106:527\nEach has reference to Christ, as He is King and Priest. Of the anointing of kings, see 1 Sam., and of priests, Lev. viii. [Of prophets, 1 Kings xix. 16.] The priesthood of Christ is most fully set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews.\n106:528\nThus Horatius, Carm., i. 35, \u201cPurpurei metuunt tyranni;\u201d and Gray, Ode to Adversity, \u201cPurple tyrants vainly groan.\u201d\n106:529 106:530\nInterpretat\u00e6 sunt, used here in a passive sense.\n106:531 106:532","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII: Lactantius: Chap. VII.\u2014Of the name of Son, and whence he is called Jesus and Christ","type":"page"}