Saviour.  “Neither is there salvation in any other:  for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."[039] It is important therefore to bear in mind that Jesus is a name not only given to Him by God, but a name itself Divine; not only the name by which, as that of a Mediator, we worship God, but the name under which, as that of God Himself, we worship Him.  “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."[040]

SECTION 3.—­CHRIST

In ancient times no such appellations as those now termed surnames were given to individuals.  One name only was distinctive.  Both among the Jews and among the Greeks this system of nomenclature prevailed, family names being unknown.  It was different with the Romans, by many of whom more names than one were borne.  In reading ancient Greek history, we find illustrious personages known by one name only, as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Solon.  The same feature marks early Jewish history.  Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Job were not known by any other names than these.  Sometimes names were changed or modified in order to express some speciality of character or achievement—­Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Hoshea to Joshua.  In later times appellations descriptive of the work or office of individuals were attached to their original names, as in the cases of John the Baptist, of Matthew the Publican, and of our Lord Himself, Jesus the Christ.  This latter practice prevailed in early English history, and famous kings appear bearing descriptive epithets in addition to their original single names—­Alfred the Great, Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror.

Christ is not a proper name but an official title.  Although now often used to designate the person of the Lord Jesus, it was not so when He lived in the world.  As John was the Baptist or Baptizer, Jesus was the Christ—­the Anointed.  The title is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Messiah, and means the Anointed.  It denotes that He who bore it was separated, consecrated, and invested with high office.  These distinctions met in Jesus, rendering the title appropriate.

At the time of the birth of Jesus, the coming of a great deliverer was at once the desire and the expectation not of Jews only, but of many nations.  Roman historians of that period tell us that a redeemer was to make his appearance from among the nation of Israel.  This belief was no doubt spread abroad by Jewish exiles, who, scattered through many lands, carried with them the hopes and prophecies which had been given from time to time to their own people.