Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament

This article is about the names of Jesus. For other uses, see Name of Christ (disambiguation).
Latin inscription of Philippians 2:10: "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow", Church of the Gesù, Rome.

Two names and a variety of titles are used to refer to Jesus in the New Testament.[1] In Christianity, the two names Jesus and Emmanuel that refer to Jesus in the New Testament have salvific attributes.[2][3][4] After the crucifixion of Jesus the early Church did not simply repeat his messages, but focused on him, proclaimed him, and tried to understand and explain his message. One element of the process of understanding and proclaiming Jesus was the attribution of titles to him.[5] Some of the titles that were gradually used in the early Church and then appeared in the New Testament were adopted from the Jewish context of the age, while others were selected to refer to, and underscore the message, mission and teachings of Jesus.[5] In time, some of these titles gathered significant Christological significance.[6]

Christians have attached theological significance to the Holy Name of Jesus.[7][8] The use of the name of Jesus in petitions is stressed in John 16:23 when Jesus states: "If you ask the Father anything in my name he will give it you."[9] There is widespread belief among Christians that the name Jesus is not merely a sequence of identifying symbols but includes intrinsic divine power.[4][9][10]

  1. ^ Names and Titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. by Charles Spear 2003 ISBN 0-7661-7467-0 pages ix-x
  2. ^ Bible explorer's guide by John Phillips 2002 ISBN 0-8254-3483-1 page 147
  3. ^ All the Doctrines of the Bible by Herbert Lockyer 1988 ISBN 0-310-28051-6 page 159
  4. ^ a b Theology of the New Testament by Georg Strecker, Friedrich Wilhelm Horn 2000 ISBN 0-664-22336-2 page 89
  5. ^ a b Jesus: a Gospel portrait by Donald Senior 1992 ISBN 0-8091-3338-5 pages 145-147
  6. ^ The Titles of Jesus in Christology: Their History in Early Christianity by Ferdinand Hahn, Harold Knight, George Ogg 2002 ISBN 0-227-17085-7 pages 11-12
  7. ^ Outlines of dogmatic theology, Volume 2 by Sylvester Hunter 2010 ISBN 1-146-98633-5 page 443
  8. ^ Jesus: the complete guide by Leslie Houlden 2006 ISBN 0-8264-8011-X page 426
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference CathHoly was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Spiritual theology by Jordan Aumann 1980 ISBN 0-7220-8518-4 page 411