http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ
Further information: chrism
The spelling Christ in English dates from the 17th century, when, in the spirit of the Enlightenment, spellings of certain words were changed to fit their Greek or Latin origins. Prior to this, in Old and Middle English, the word was spelled Crist, the i being pronounced either as [i] (see IPA pronunciation), preserved in the names of churches such as St Katherine Cree, or as a short i, preserved in the modern pronunciation of Christmas.
The term appears in English and most European languages owing to the Greek usage of Christos in the New Testament as a deion for Jesus. In the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, it was used to translate into Greek the Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah), meaning [one who is] anointed. While many Christian writers claim that this term implied a match to the Jewish predicted saviour, some argue that there is no saviour concept in the Jewish tradition. Christ more closely means someone appointed by God for a task, such as a \'high priest,\' \'leader,\' or even \'ruler.\'[citation needed]
The Greek term is cognate with Chrism, meaning perfumed oil; in fact Christos in classical Greek usage could mean covered in oil, and is thus a literal and accurate translation of Messiah (just as Saul the King was anointed with oil when he was proclaimed king). The Greek term is thought to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root of ghey-, which in Germanic languages, such as English, mutated into gris- and grim-. Hence the English words grisly, grim, grime, gizm and grease, are thought to be cognate with Christ, though these terms came to have a negative connotation, where the Greek word had a positive connotation. In French, the Greek term, in ordinary usage, mutated first to cresme and then to creme, due to the loss of certain \'s\' usages in French, which was loaned into English as cream. The word was used by extension in Hellenic and Jewish contexts to refer to the office, role or status of the person, not to their actually being an oily person, as a strict reading of the etymology might imply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrism
Chrism
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Chrism (Greek word literally meaning an anointing), also called Myrrh (Myron), Holy Oil, or Consecrated Oil, is a consecrated oil used in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Old-Catholic churches, and in Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches in the administration of certain sacraments and ecclesiastical functions.
Pure or scented olive oil used by other Christian denominations, although typically not called Chrism today, have been called Chrism in the past. This includes oil used by Protestants and Restorationists in some forms of Baptism, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick and Feet washing. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Mormons, Chrism was historically used in some of their temple ordinances.
Multiple early Christian documents discuss the ordinance or several ceremonies...explained in the Apostolical Constitutions of chrism, including documents by Theophilus and Tertullian. The most detailed version of the practice is by Cyril of Jerusalem who details how ointment or oil was symbolically applied to thy forehead, and thy other organs of sense and that the ears, nostrils, and breast were each to be anointed. Cyril states that the ointment is the seal of the covenants of baptism and God’s promises to the Christian who is anointed. Cyril taught that being anointed with the oil [Chrism] of God was the sign of a Christian, and a physical representation of having the Gift of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost), and it retains this meaning in Catholicism and Orthodoxy today.
