Christ (title)

Christ, used by Christians as both a name and a title, unambiguously refers to Jesus. As a title it is used both in the reciprocal form "Christ Jesus", meaning "the Messiah Jesus" (or "Jesus the Khristós"; lit. "Jesus the Anointed"), and independently as "the Christ". The earliest texts of the New Testament, the Pauline epistles, often refer to Jesus as "Christ Jesus", or simply "Christ". The concept of the Christ in Christianity originated from the concept of the messiah in Judaism. Christians believe that Jesus is the messiah foretold in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Although the conceptions of the messiah in each religion are similar, for the most part they are distinct from one another due to the split of early Christianity and Judaism in the 1st century. Although the original followers of Jesus believed Jesus to be the Jewish messiah, e.g. in the Confession of Peter, he was usually called "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Jesus, son of Joseph". He came to be known by the name "Jesus Christ" among Christians, who believe that his crucifixion and resurrection fulfill the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament, especially the prophecies outlined in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.