Faith & RitualGreek → English
Christology
/krɪˈstɒlədʒi/noun
The part of theology concerned with the person and nature of Christ.
The Greek roots
Χριστός
Khristós
anointed one
λόγος
lógos
account, study
Literally: “study of the anointed one”
The story of the word
Χριστός is not a name but a job description, the participle of χρίω, to smear with oil, chosen by the Greek translators of the Hebrew scriptures to render mashiach. Anointing was how kings and priests were installed, oil poured on the head in public. The same verb sits inside chrism, the consecrated oil still used at baptisms, and the discipline itself was named in English in the seventeenth century.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
chrismChristiantheologysoteriology
In a sentence
The council's decision settled a Christology that had split the eastern churches for a generation.