What Does the X in Xmas Mean?

Ligonier Ministries ^ | R.C. Sproul

[SeekAndFind]

The X in Christmas is used like the R in R.C. My given name at birth was Robert Charles, although before I was even taken home from the hospital my parents called me by my initials, R.C., and nobody seems to be too scandalized by that.

X can mean so many things. For example, when we want to denote an unknown quantity, 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.

There’s No X in Christmas

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.

X Has a Long and Sacred History

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.

[SeekAndFind]

[SeekAndFind]

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Inyo-Mono]

Now I get it.

[rlmorel]

Thank you. My whole life, I thought it was an intentional slur by people who didn’t want to see the name “Christ”.

Learn something every day...:)

[lee martell]

And I thought the ‘X’ was a symbol based on the crucifix, but different so not to confuse Christmas with Easter.
Nevermind!

[Jyotishi]

Not the same as what the “X” in “Xi” or “Xiden” means, that’s for sure.

[BusterDog]

Stands for Xi, because he made literally almost everything you bought for presents.

[rockinqsranch]

“What Does the X in Xmas Mean?”

Means you’re lazy is what it means.

[Beowulf9]

I thought the same thing. This is really interesting.

[Beowulf9]

I cannot understand this. Where did the top word come from and how is it those letters correspond?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Where did the top word come from

Remember, Greek was the lingua franca of the world Christ lived in. The Romans, who ruled the world then were Helenized by Greek culture. The New Testament was originally written in Greek. Hence, Christ is spelled that way ( the top word ) in Greek.

The top word is GREEK and pronounced as Ch-r-i-s-t-o-s.

The first Greek Letter ‘X’ ( not the English X, but the Greek X ) has the CH sound in English. Hence the Greek word is read CHRISTOS by English Speakers.

If you spelled it in Greek the letters spell as:

Chi Rho Iota Sigma Tau Omicron Sigma

[Celtic Conservative]

Greek. “Christos”.

CC

[Beowulf9]

Thank you for that explanation. It still is a bit hard for me to understand, I get it but I guess I don’t get why it was shortened to ‘x’mas, which would be Chi-mas. ?

But be that as it may, I really do thank you for that explanation, I will still try to follow this up but the most exciting thing about this to me is it finally explains to me why I have read the original people called him ‘Christus’. I never understood that. It confirms for me, which I already believed in trust to historians, that the documents written in Rome in that first century AD WERE about Jesus.

[scrabblehack]

Chi and Xi are different letters.

[Tennessee Nana]

When it was put on Christmas cards in British countries the X represented the cross that the Savior died on ... it was acknowledging that the Baby Jesus was Lord and was born to die on the cross for our sins...

[chajin]

And here I thought it was Malcolm, the reason for the Xmas season...

Merry Christmas!

[Birdman]

Agreed. It is a nice try though.

[NFHale]

Same here…

Merry Christmas, brother!!!