Sometimes I hear people say "Jesus H. Christ." What does the H stands for and what is the origin of it? Is it like an abbreviation or something?

mementoflash

There are a number of interesting theories explained here: http://www.christianorigins.com/etymology.html Mar 21 06, 10:11 PM

BOB501

Thought it was for "Holy" Mar 21 06, 11:55 PM

Baloo55th

It's Harold, isn't it? As in 'Harold be thy name...' Mar 22 06, 4:47 AM

kaylofgorons

I've never heard of it before, if that means anything to you. Mar 22 06, 9:19 AM

xfacilitatorx

See question # 63. H for Hoyt??? Ha-Ha! Mar 22 06, 4:04 PM

saganrand

H = Holy, trust me. Grew up Catholic in Phialadelphia years ago in a very, very catholic neighborhood (as in 100% participation in the local parish). We used to say the entire thing outloud (though never when the preists/nuns/parents were around..lol), as in: "Jesus Holy Christ"...later on I did start hearing and using the current-day abreviated version... Mar 23 06, 3:22 PM

CYLOUSE

Also, "Christ" was NOT His last name, it was His title. Christ means "King" in ancient Greek. So the correct way to say it is, "Jesus, THE Christ" (Jesus, the King). Over time people just got lazy and stopped saying "the". If you want Jesus to have a last name it would have been, "Bar-Joseph". "Bar" means, "son of" in Hebrew. So for the first part of His life He would have been known as Jesus Bar-Joseph. Mar 23 06, 4:09 PM

Baloo55th

...although according to the Christians, Joseph wasn't his father. Yeshua ben-Miriam might be more accurate, subject to approval from Arpy. Anyway, the H. is regarded as Harold in my area, from 'Harold be thy name' (as I posted previously - the Harold being presumably God's name and applied to Jesus as a middle name from that). Mar 23 06, 5:21 PM

xfacilitatorx

Yeshua bar-elohim Mar 23 06, 5:27 PM