Theophilus to Autolycus · Book I · Chapter XII
Meaning of the Name Christian
Page 87 of 425
And about your laughing at me and calling me "Christian," you know not what you are saying. First, because that which is anointed541 is sweet and serviceable, and far from contemptible. For what ship can be serviceable and seaworthy, unless it be first caulked [anointed]? Or what castle or house is beautiful and serviceable when it has not been anointed? And what man, when he enters into this life or into the gymnasium, is not anointed with oil? And what work has either ornament or beauty unless it be anointed and burnished? Then the air and all that is under heaven is in a certain sort anointed by light and spirit; and are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil of God? Wherefore we are called Christians on this account, because we are anointed with the oil of God.542
Notes
- 541
"The argumentation of this chapter depends on the literal meaning which Theophilus attaches to Christos, the Anointed One; and he plays on this meaning, and also on the similarity of pronunciation between chrestos, useful,' and christos , anointed.'"—Donaldson.
- 542
[Not material oil probably, for it is not mentioned in such Scriptures as , , ; but the anointing () of the Holy Ghost. As a symbol, oil was used at an early period, however; and the Latins are not slow to press this in favour of material oil in the chrism, or confirmation.]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.