{"id":9372,"date":"2018-06-18T07:30:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T11:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/?p=9372"},"modified":"2018-06-17T20:01:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T00:01:39","slug":"jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2018\/06\/18\/jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Is the Christ | Michael F. Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0830828230\/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=meditonezeki-20&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0830828230&amp;linkId=e3b4032a627ce5d25fa7d60b5c18b5af\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9373\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stephenbarkley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MBird-JesusIstheChrist-200x300.jpg?resize=200%2C300\" alt=\"The cover of Bird's Jesus is the Christ\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stephenbarkley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MBird-JesusIstheChrist-200x300.jpg?resize=166%2C249&amp;ssl=1 166w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stephenbarkley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MBird-JesusIstheChrist-200x300.jpg?fit=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n<p>Today this pairing of words functions as an interjection\u2014Christians use it as praise while pagans use it pejoratively. What does the expression actually mean?<\/p>\n<p>A little background. Christ is the English transliteration of a Greek word which is a translation of the Hebrew word transliterated into English as Messiah. It literally means &#8220;anointed&#8221; and refers to a person who was set apart for a special task like a King.<\/p>\n<p>The word &#8220;Christ&#8221; has become so associated with the name of Jesus that scholars are unclear whether its use in the gospels still functions as title (Jesus Christ = Jesus the Messiah) or as merely a second name. Fun fact: my family name (Barkley) comes from &#8220;birch tree,&#8221; so these shifts do happen! While much twentieth century Jesus scholarship argues for Christ as a name, Bird argues that even the nominal (name-like) use of Christ &#8220;does not evacuate the designation of its titular and messianic significance&#8221; (13).<\/p>\n<p>The four main chapters of\u00a0<em>Jesus Is the Christ<\/em> explain how each of the four gospels use the title Christ\/Messiah in carefully nuanced ways. For Bird, it is precisely these four understandings of Christ\u2014not metaphysical speculation\u2014that lies at the heart of biblical Christology.<\/p>\n<p>Bird&#8217;s book is meticulous yet readable. It provides the reader with a high view of Christ from the perspective of his first four biographers.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"hangingindent\">Bird, Michael F.\u00a0<em>Jesus Is the Christ: The Messianic Testimony of the Gospels<\/em>. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2012.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus Christ! Today this pairing of words functions as an interjection\u2014Christians use it as praise while pagans use it pejoratively. What does the expression actually mean? A little background. Christ is the English transliteration of a Greek word which is a translation of the Hebrew word transliterated into English as Messiah. It literally means &#8220;anointed&#8221; and refers to a person who was set apart for a special task like a King. The word &#8220;Christ&#8221; has become so associated with the name of Jesus that scholars are unclear whether its use in the gospels still functions as title (Jesus Christ = Jesus the Messiah) or as merely a second name. Fun fact: my family name (Barkley) comes from &#8220;birch tree,&#8221; so these shifts do happen! While much twentieth century Jesus scholarship argues for Christ as a name, Bird argues that even the nominal (name-like) use of Christ &#8220;does not evacuate the  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,418],"tags":[1057,405,1624,1834,44,1987,1105,147,1861,101,2512],"class_list":["post-9372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-theology-books","tag-christ","tag-christology","tag-gospels","tag-ivp-academic","tag-jesus","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew","tag-messiah","tag-michael-f-bird"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jesus Is the Christ | Michael F. Bird - Stephen Barkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2018\/06\/18\/jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus Is the Christ | Michael F. Bird - Stephen Barkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jesus Christ! Today this pairing of words functions as an interjection\u2014Christians use it as praise while pagans use it pejoratively. What does the expression actually mean? A little background. Christ is the English transliteration of a Greek word which is a translation of the Hebrew word transliterated into English as Messiah. It literally means &#8220;anointed&#8221; and refers to a person who was set apart for a special task like a King. The word &#8220;Christ&#8221; has become so associated with the name of Jesus that scholars are unclear whether its use in the gospels still functions as title (Jesus Christ = Jesus the Messiah) or as merely a second name. Fun fact: my family name (Barkley) comes from &#8220;birch tree,&#8221; so these shifts do happen! While much twentieth century Jesus scholarship argues for Christ as a name, Bird argues that even the nominal (name-like) use of Christ &#8220;does not evacuate the [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2018\/06\/18\/jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stephen Barkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StephenDBarkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StephenDBarkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-18T11:30:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stephenbarkley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MBird-JesusIstheChrist-200x300.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephen Barkley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Stephen Barkley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2018\/06\/18\/jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/2018\/06\/18\/jesus-is-the-christ-michael-f-bird\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Stephen Barkley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/stephenbarkley.com\/#\/schema\/person\/cbaba12b06deff97c6dce1f38d94201c\"},\"headline\":\"Jesus Is the Christ | Michael F. 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