Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/436

 JESUS

374

JESUS

Idem, feruvian Bark (London. ISSO); Fluckiger. Die China- rinde (Berlin, 18S3); Idem. Pharmakognosie (BerVm. 1891).

Joseph Rompel.

Jesus, Daughters of, founded at Kerniaria, in the Diocese of Vannes, France, in 1834, for the care of the sick poor and the education of girls. The congrega- tion received government authorization 31 October, 1842. In 1893 a provincial house for Canada was founded at Three Rivers. The sisters in Canada num- ber (1910) 2G7, choir and lay, in charge of 25 schools, chiefly model and elementary, in addition to 9 board- ing schools, a hospital, and an orphanage; they also have the domestic care of 2 religious houses. In the United States they conduct an academy and hospital at Lewiston, Montana, and the school connected with the French parish at Waltham, Massachusetts. The con- gregation has over 200 convents throughout the world. Heimbtjcher. Orden vnd Kongregalionen (Paderborn, 1908); Le Canada eccUsiastiquc (1910).

F. M. RUDGE.

Jesus, Son of Sirach. See Ecclesiasticus.

Jesus and Mary, Sisters of the Holy Childhood OF. — (1) A congregation founded in 1835 in the Dio- cese of P^rejus, for the education of girls and the care of the sick, with mother-house at Draguignan; gov- ernment authcirization was granted in 1853. (2) A congregation estalilished at Sens, in 1838, for the work of teaching and the care of the sick in their own homes, the direction of asylums, boarding-schools, etc.; it received state authorization in 1853. Under the mother-house at St-Colombe-les-Sens are over 36 filial establishments. (3) Sisters of the Holy Childhood of Jesus and Mary of Ste-Chretienne, known also as Sisters nf Ste-Chrctienne, founded in 1807 by Mine Anne-Victoire M^janes, nee Tailleux, for the education of girls and the care of the sick poor. At the invita- tion of Bishop Jauffret of Metz, Mme M6janes and her community went from Argancy to Metz and took up their abode in the Abbey of St. Glossinde, where, on 20 .\pril, 1807, they bound themselves by vow to fol- low the statutes drawn up for them by the bishop. Their numbers soon increased until now (1910) there are about 1400 sisters in over SO houses. The reli- gious are divided into choir and lay sisters, the latter occupied with the domestic care of their various insti- tutions, the former engaged in the works peculiar to the congregation, the direction of elementary and higher schools, industrial schools, and orphanages. The vows are made annually for ten years, after which final vows are taken. The congregation received the approval of the Holy See in 1888, and in 1899 its statutes were granted papal approbation. The sisters have houses in Lorraine, France, Austria, Belgium, England, and the United States. In the United States about 90 sisters have charge of 5 schools in the Archdiocese of Boston, with a total attendance of 2400. There is a novitiate of the congregation in Salem, Massachusetts.

Heimbucher. Orden und Konr/regationen (Paderborn, 1908); The Official Catholic Directory (1910).

F. M. RUDGE.

Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh. Who redeemed man by His Death on the Cross, and Whose Divine mission is continued by the ministry of the Church. Without considering the numberless theo- logical questions connected with Jesus Christ, we shall in the present article merely furnish a brief .sketch of His life as it ap[)ears in the light of historical docu- ments, premising, however, an explanation of the two words which compose the Sacred Name.

I. Tin; Sacked Na.me. — The word Jesus is the Latin form of the (Ircck 'r?)(roDs, which in turn is the tran.s- literation of tlic Hclirrw Jeshua, or Joshua, or again Jehnshua, meaning ".Jehovah is salvation". Though the name in one form or another occurs fre(]uently in

the Old Testament, it was not borne by a person of prominence between the time of Josue, the son of Nun, and Josue, the high-priest in the days of Zorobabel. It was also the name of the author of Ecclesiasticus, of one of Christ's ancestors mentioned in the genealogy found in the Third Gospel (Luke, iii, 29), and of one of St. Paul's companions (Col., iv, 11). During the Hel- lenizing period, Jason, a purely Greek analogon of Jesus, appears to have been adopted by many (I Mach., viii, 17; xii, 16; xiv, 22; II Mach., i, 7; ii, 24; iv, 7-26; V, 5-10; Acts, xvii, 5-9; Rom., xvi, 21). The Greek name is connected with the verb idadai, to heal; it is therefore not surprising that some of the Greek Fathers allied the word Jesus with the same root (Euseb., "Dem. Ev.", IV; cf. Acts, ix, 34; x, 38). Though about the time of Christ the name Jesus appears to have been fairly common (Jos., "Ant.", XV, ix, 2; XVII, xiii, 1; XX, ix, 1; "Bel. Jud.", Ill, ix, 7; IV, iii, 9; VI, v, 5; " Vit.", 22), it was imposed on our Lord by God's express order (Luke, i, 31; Matt., i, 21), to foreshow that the Child was destined to "save his people from their sins". Philo (" De Mut. Nom.", 21, ed. Pfeiffer, IV, 374) is, therefore, right when he ex- plains 'Itjo-oCs as meaning aarripla Kvplov; Eusebius (Dem. Ev., IV, ad tin.; P. G., XXII, 333) gives the meaning GeoO o-ur^pioi/j while St. (>»'ril of Jerusalem interprets the word as equivalent to aur-fip (Cat., x, 13; P. G., XXXIII, 677). This last writer, however, ap- pears to agreewith Clement of Alexandria in consider- ing the word 'IrpffoDs as of Greek origin (Psedag., Ill, xii; P. G., VIII, 677); St. Chryscstom emphasizes again the Helirew derivation of the word and its meaning cuttip (Hom. ii, 2), thus agreeing with the exegesis of the angel speaking to St. Joseph (Matt., i, 21).

The word Christ, 'S.purrU, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, means "anointed". Ac- cording to the Old Law, priests (Ex., xxix, 29; Lev., iv, 3), kings (I Kings, x, 1 ; xxiv, 7), and prophets (Is., Ixi, 1) were supposed to be anointed for their respec- tive offices; now, the Christ, or the Messias, coinlMned this threefold dignity in His Person. It is not surpris- ing, therefore, that for centuries the Jews had referred to their expected Deliverer as "the Anointed"; per- haps this designation alludes to Is., Ixi, 1, and Dan., ix, 24-26, or even to Ps., ii, 2; xix, 7; xliv, 8. Thus the term Christ or Messias was a title rather than a proper name: "Non proprium nomen est, sed nuncu- patio potestatis et regni", says Lactantius (Inst. Div., IV, vii). The Evangelists recognize the same truth; excepting Matt., i, 1, 18; Mark, i, 1; John, i, 17; xvii, 3; ix, 22; Mark, ix, 40; Luke, ii, 11; xxiii, 2, the word Christ is always preceded by the article. Only after the Resurrection did the title gradually pass into a proper name, and the expression Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus became only one designation. But at this stage the Greeks and Romans understood little or nothing about the real import of the word anoiiiiid: to them it did not convey any sacred conception. Hence they substituted Chrestus, or "excellent", for Christus, or "anointed", and Chrestians instead of "Christians". There may be an allusion to this practice in I Pet., ii, 3; Sri xpvrrii o Kvpios., which is rendered "that the Lord is sweet". Justin Martyr (Apol., I, 4), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., II, iv, 18), Tertullian (Adv. Gentes, II), and Lactantius (Inst. Div., IV, vii, 5), as well as St. Jerome (In Gal., V, 22), are acquainted with the pagan substitution of Chrestus for C'hristus, and are careful to explain the new term in a favourable sense. The pagans made little or no effort to learn anything accurate about Christ and the Christians; Suetonius, for instance, ascribes the expulsion of the Jews from Rome under ('laudius to the constant insti- gation of sedition by Chrestus, whom he conceives as acting in Rome the part of a leader of insurgents.

The use of the definite article before the word Christ and its gradual devflopment into a jiropcr name show