WORD FOR WORD: Masihi instead of ‘Isai —Khaled Ahmed
Sunday 8 Rabi al-Awal 1426
In English, the name of the Christ is Jesus. In Urdu, we call him ‘Isa, which we take from the Quran. Christ is a recent title. In fact English did not have it before the 16th century. Another name for Christ in English is the Messiah.
The Quran speaks of ‘Isa as one of its more distinguished prophets. The Quran calls him Masih too. Thus we in Pakistan should have no problem if either of the two is used to address the Christian community.
A Christian citizen has approached the Lahore High Court, through the city’s famous though litigious lawyer Mr MD Tahir, with the plea that Christians be henceforth addressed officially as Masihis instead of ‘Isais. (‘Isai becomes Asai in common parlance and thereby hangs a tale!)
I am sure that the High Court will accept the plea on the basis of the Quran. Masihi sounds better than Asai!
Jesus as name is a changed form of Joshua. This means that two prophets came down bearing the same name. Joshua is the prophet who succeeded Moses.
The name means ‘Jehovah is salvation’. Christians in Pakistan pronounce it Yesu’. That is the word that has come into Urdu too. Jesus Christ is Yesu’ Masih. The French too pronounce Jesus as Yesu.
Most Christian and Jewish names starting with ‘j’ refer to Jehovah or the Lord. The Arab etymologist has not paid heed to that. In the case of ‘Isa there is a tendency to look at a root that means white camel.
The words Christ and Messiah are however very interesting. Christ is Indo-European while Messiah is Semitic. The earliest translation of the Bible was in Greek. Christ is a Greek word meaning the anointed.
How does one anoint someone? You put oil on him and massage him. The Greek word for massage is khri from where we have khristos (Christ). Any divine person has to be anointed to give him divinity. Oil and divinity are old associates. The Egyptians probably started it all.
In Sanskrit the oil with which the saintly person is anointed is purified butter and it is called ghee today. Its original form was ghri. Max Muller, the great Sanskrit scholar, discusses the word in great detail. Ghri is obviously the same as Greek khri which has gone into Christ (Khristos).
I have often wondered if words like grease don’t connect with our ghee (ghri). Our Urdu ghisna (to rub) has an ‘r’ in it in the Hindi version: ghrisna.
Messiah is an exciting word and it too means one that is rubbed with oil. It is an old Syriac word. The Arabic root is ‘msh’. Those who say namaz regularly and are familiar with the law of wuzu (ablution) will recall masah.
Masah is the rubbing of the limbs in a symbolic fashion when you don’t have water. My Klein dictionary of English etymology says the word massage is Semitic and comes from the Middle East. So when we say masih in Urdu we are referring to the act of rubbing (oil).
Why has our normal reference to Christians (‘Asai) become degraded? Not long ago a Muslim — who was also an unqualified doctor (‘atai) — accidentally burnt the Quran in Gujranwala. A neighbourhood mullah announced on the mosque speaker that an ‘atai (quack) had burnt the Quran.
The luckless quack (‘atai) was thereafter killed by a mob thinking he was an ‘Asai! Had the mob known that ‘asai was actually ‘atai they would not have killed him. Such are the drawbacks of an unfair blasphemy law.
Christians in Pakistan should be called Masihi!
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_17-4-2005_pg3_4
A very nice historical explanation indeed. But do Christians all over the world know the real name of Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him)?
A rather poorly written article.