by Christian, when was the last time you were called an Xtian? Likely never! Sadly, Christ is systematically being removed from everything including CHRISTmas. “Xmas” has become a catch phrase the world grabbed hold of, taken from scholarly Christians who do not call themselves Xtians.
Xmas is said to be used as shorthand because the Greek letter for the beginning of Christ, “Ch,” is “X.” For my scholarly and not so scholarly friends, if this is the case then it would not be Xmas but Xristmas. This is simple grammatical logic, yet there is no biblical shorthand ever given in any form for the name “Christ.” In reality, the Greek spelling for Christ is 7 characters while English is 6. It seems here that the English is already shortened.
So, where did Xmas originate? I did my homework by reading books from the 19th century to find an answer. In this century, very few churches used “Xmas” while I found it used primarily in Catholic publications. Though not many churches used Xmas, it is called an ordinary abbreviation for Christmas by the world. Further back in history, “X” or “Xp” was found in the catacombs on grave markers as an identification with Christ, and “Xn” or “Xtian” for Christian was found as well.
My thought for our day is that no one uses Xn or Xtian at all, but so many easily accept Xmas. Considering our day, where very few know Greek or even Latin, making practically no grammatical connection to the Greek “X,” the original use as an identification with Christ does not exist. Therefore, I see today’s inconsistent use of “X” as removing “Christ” rather than identifying with Christ. Question, where in the Bible do we find anything transliterated:
- “Now the birth of Jesus X was on this wise”
- “born Jesus, who is called X”
- “X Jesus came into the World to save sinners”
- “thou art X, the Son of God”
- “the man X Jesus”
- “the only true God, and Jesus X”
- “Revelation of Jesus X”
- “testimony of Jesus X”
- “the power of his X”
- “preserved in Jesus X”
- “servant of Jesus X”
Praise God, Christ never looked for shortcuts on our behalf, so let’s labor full-bore for the Name that is above all names, JESUS CHRIST (Philippians 2:9-11).
