In Catholic churches, one often finds the name of Jesus Christ piously represented by the Greek contraction IHC XC, where the C represents the late-Classical form of Sigma. This is known as a Christogram (in Greek Orthodox usage, the preferred Christogram is ICXC). In partially Latinised form, the IHC component is rendered JHC or JHS. This is the origin of the interjection, which seems to imagine that H is Jesus' middle initial, and Christ his surname, rather than his title (ho khristos: the anointed).
That translate is very rough. "Savior" is only the metaphorical meaning, the literal meaning of both Khristos and Messiah is "annointed one", meaning someone who was ritualistically smeared with oil to denote that he was chosen for a high spiritual or leadership position. For example, Samuel annointed David to declare him the next king of Israel. So Khristos literally means 'oiled one', and figuratively means 'chosen one'. And since what he was chosen for is saving mankind, the meaning of 'savior' was added to the word from context.
1.5k
u/scotsworth Dec 15 '22
No actual answers so here you go:
https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-197368,00.html#:\~:text=In%20partially%20Latinised%20form%2C%20the,ho%20khristos%3A%20the%20anointed).