The Christian name for 'Christian'

Discussion in 'עברית (Hebrew)' started by ServusMagnaeReginae, Feb 5, 2013.

  1. ServusMagnaeReginae New Member

    Not having found a similar post I submit this question: What is the Christian name for 'Christian' in modern Hebrew? I know that the common word is נוצרי, notzri, but I hardly think that it would be in use by the Christian community.
  2. JLanguage Senior Member

    Georgia, US
    USA: American English, Learning Hebrew and Spanish
    As far as I know נוצרי would be correct in either case. There are very few Christians who speak Hebrew as a native language and amongst Arabic-speaking Christians within the state of Israel they would use the Arabic. What makes you doubt that נוצרי would be in use amonst Christians?
  3. Egmont Senior Member

    Massachusetts, U.S.
    English - U.S.
    WRF member Nunty is a bilingual (English-Hebrew) Catholic nun who lives in Jerusalem. You might send her a private message asking her to reply to this thread, since she might not see it otherwise.

    That said, as far as I know, Israeli Christians, or Hebrew-speaking Christians in general, use נוצרי. It comes from the name of the town Nazareth (נצרת); there's no reason a Christian would avoid it.
  4. ServusMagnaeReginae New Member

    A Christian would likely want to emphasise Jesus' Messiahship, just as Arab Christians do who use مَسِيحِيّ Masīḥī rather than the Koranic نَصْرَانِيّ Naṣrānī. Plus the vast majority of Christians don't hail from Nazareth.
  5. fdb Senior Member

    Cambridge, UK
    French (France)
    “Nazoraean” has a complicated history, which may or may not be of interest to people on here. The only occurrence of "Nazoraeans" (plural) in the New Testament is in Acts 24:5, where Paul's opponents refer to him disdainfully as the ‘leader of the sect of the Nazoraeans’, and in subsequent history ‘Nazoraean’ is usually used in a negative sense by non-Christians, including Jews and Muslims. Arabic-speaking Christians do (or did in the past) call themselves naṣārā, but the preferred self-designation today is definitely masīḥī, as was noted above.
  6. Tararam Senior Member

    Wikipedia says "משיחיים". Though I must say, "נוצרי" is the one used.
  7. GeriReshef

    GeriReshef Senior Member

    There is a difference in the name of Jesus: we would generally treat him in Hebrew as ישו though Hebrew speaker Christians would call him ישוע which is related to ישועה (solvation).

    נוצרי, נצרות etc. are the prevailing terms, and are absolutely neutral (don't have any bad connotation).
  8. airelibre

    airelibre Senior Member

    English - London
    ישו is seen as derogatory because it is very similar to יש"ו (obliterate his name and memory), or so I have heard.
  9. GeriReshef

    GeriReshef Senior Member

    Jesus appears as ישו already in the Talmud.
    The acronym יש"ו you have mentioned is what we call a מדרש: a kind of popular/folkloric posterior "explanation"..
  10. Abu Rashid

    Abu Rashid Senior Member

    Melbourne, Australia
    Australian English
    I think this is a more modern usage, Arabic speaking Christians never used this term in the distant past. Remember that Arabic-speaking Christians were around for many centuries before Arabic-speaking Muslims, and the term used in the Qur'an was merely the one they used to refer to themselves at the time. Probably under influence of European Christians during the colonial period, they began to reject this term and use a translation of the European term. The term نصراني derives from the root meaning helpers or disciples, and so this term was one they probably held on very strong to, as it linked them with those who followed and helped Jesus (pbuh).
  11. fdb Senior Member

    Cambridge, UK
    French (France)

Share This Page