I read a timely article
recently on why people use the term “Xmas” for Christmas. As we know, the
letter “X” can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an
unknown quantity in mathematics, we use the symbol X. It can refer to an
obscene level of films, something that is X-rated. People seem to express
chagrin about seeing Christ’s name dropped and replaced by this symbol for an
unknown quantity X. Every year you see the signs and the bumper stickers
saying, “Put Christ back into Christmas” as a response to this substitution of
the letter X for the name of Christ.
First of all, you have to
understand that it is not the letter X that is put into Christmas. We see the
English letter X there, but actually what it involves is the first letter of
the Greek name for Christ. Christos is the New Testament Greek for
Christ. The first letter of the Greek word Christos is transliterated
into our alphabet as an X. That X has come through church history to be a
shorthand symbol for the name of Christ. We don’t see people protesting
the use of the Greek letter theta, which is an O with a line across the
middle. We use that as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first
letter of the word Theos, the Greek word for God.
The idea of X as an
abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent
to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish
historically because it is an acronym. Fish in Greek (ichthus) involved the use
of the first letters for the Greek phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”
So the early Christians would take the first letter of those words and put
those letters together to spell the Greek word for fish. That’s how the symbol
of the fish became the universal symbol of Christendom. There’s a long and
sacred history of the use of X to symbolize the name of Christ, and from its
origin, it has meant no disrespect.
This excerpt is adapted from “Now,
That’s a Good Question!” by R.C. Sproul.
Christmas blessings to you and yours.
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