The life and work of St. Paul

THE 8ECOND CAPITAL OF CHBISTIANKre. 169
life-time of the Apostles it does not seem to hare acquired any currency
among the Christians themselves,1 and they preferred those vague and loving
appellations of "the brethren," 2 "the disciples," 3 "the believers,"* "the
saints," 6 "the Church of Christ," 6 "those of the way," 7 "the elect," 8
" tho faithful," 9 which had been sweetened to them by so much tender and
hallowed intercourse during so many heavy trials and persecutions. After-
wards, indeed, when the name Christian had acquired a charm so potent that
the very sound of it was formidable, Julian tried to forbid its use by edict, 10
and to substitute for it the more ignominious term of " Nazarene," which is
still universal in the East. A tradition naturally sprang up that the name
had been invented by Evodius, the first Bishop of Autioch, and even adopted
at a general synod. 11 But what makes it nearly certain that this is an error,
is that up to this time " Christ " was not used, or at any rate was barely
beginning to be used, as a proper name ; and tho currency of a designation
which marked adherence to Jesus as though Christ were His name and not
His title, seems to be due only to the ignorance and carelessness of Gentiles,
who without further inquiry caught up the first prominent word with which
Christian preaching had made them familiar. 12 And even this word, in tho
prevalent itacism, was often corrupted into the shape Chrestiani, as though
it came from the Greek Chrestos, "excellent," and not from Christos,
" anointed." 13 The latter term arising from customs and conceptions
which up to this time were almost exclusively Judaic would convey little
or no meaning to Greek or Boman ears. We may therefore regard it as
certain that the most famous of all noble words was invented i by the wit
'for which the Antiochenes were famous in antiquity, and which often displayed
itself in happy appellations. 14 But wliatever may have been the
spirit in which the name was given, the disciples would not be long in
welcoming so convenient a term. Bestowed as a stigma, they accepted it
as a distinction. They who afterwards gloried in the contemptuous re-
1 The allusion to it in Jas. ii. 7 is, to say the least, dubious.
2 Acts xv. 1 ; 1 Cor. vii. 12. Acts ix. 26 ; xL 29.
4 s Acts v. 14.
Rom. viii. 27 ; xv. 25. Eph. v. 25.
1 Acts xix. 9, 23. Compare the name Methodist, 8 2 Tim. ii. 10, &c.
9
i. Eph. 1, &c. Later names ]ike pisciculi, &c., had some vogue also.
10
Greg. Naz. Oral. iii. 81; Julian, Epp. vii., be.; Gibbon, v. 312, ed. Milman;
Kenan, Lcs Apdtres, 235.
11 Suid. ii. 3930 o, ed. Gaisford ; Malala, Ckronpgr. 10, p. 318, ed. Mill. Dr.
riumptre (Paul in Asia, 74) conjectures that Evodius and Ignatius may have been
contemporary presbyter-episcopi of the Judaic and Hellenist communities at Antioch.
Babylas the martyr and Paul of Samosata, the heresiarchs, were both Bishops of
Antioch, as was Meletius, who baptised St. Chrysostom.
12 "
Christus non proprium nomen est, sed nuncupatio potestatis et regni " (Lact. Div.
I'nstt. iv. 7 ; see Life of Christ, i. 287, n.). The name "Christian" expressed contemptuous
indifference, not definite hatred. Tacitus uses it with dislike "quos vvlgus
Christianos appellabat " (Ann. xv. 44).
u In 1 Pet. ii. 3, some have seen a sort of allusion to "the Lord" being both XPTTO
and xpt]