Jesus Titles — the doctrine of Christ through his names
The names Scripture gives to Jesus
The names Scripture gives to Jesus are not decorative. Each title — Christ, Lamb of God, Son of David, Logos, Immanuel — opens a different door into the same person, and the whole counsel of God reads more clearly when the doors are read together. What follows is the cluster, grouped by the kind of weight each title carries.
Identity
4 titlesChrist / Messiah
ΧριστόςThe Anointed One — the title that gathers the OT offices of priest, king, and prophet into a single figure, and the confession around which the apostolic preaching organized itself.
Son of God
Υἱὸς τοῦ ΘεοῦThe eternal Son of the eternal Father — a title carrying both the OT messianic register of Psalm 2 and Hebrews and the higher claim of homoousios that the early church confessed at Nicaea.
Son of Man
בַּר אֱנָשׁJesus's most-used self-designation — a title that at once veils his identity in unremarkable Aramaic idiom and unveils it through Daniel 7's enthroned figure who receives dominion.
Son of David
בֶּן־דָּוִדThe Davidic-covenant title — Messiah qualified by lineage to occupy the throne God promised would never lack a Davidic heir, and the title under which the Gospel crowds first acclaimed Jesus.
Sacrificial Office
3 titlesLamb of God
Ἀμνὸς τοῦ ΘεοῦThe title that condenses every OT sacrificial type into one name placed on one person — Passover, Day of Atonement, Isaianic servant, and Abraham's provided ram all resolve at the same point.
The Suffering Servant
עֶבֶד יְהוָהThe title that gathers Isaiah's four Servant Songs into a single figure — the innocent one whose suffering is vicarious, redemptive, and accepted by God for many.
Great High Priest
Ἀρχιερεὺς μέγαςThe title under which Hebrews develops the longest sustained Christology in the NT — a priesthood superior to the Levitical, after the order of Melchizedek, offering the once-for-all sacrifice of his own blood.
Cosmic
3 titlesThe Word / Logos
ὁ ΛόγοςThe pre-incarnate Word through whom all things were made — John's prologue gathering Genesis 1, the personified Wisdom of Proverbs 8, and the rabbinic Memra tradition into the climactic "and the Word was made flesh."
Alpha and Omega
τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ ὮThe first and the last — Jesus speaking in his own voice the divine self-designation that belongs to YHWH in Isaiah, claimed in Revelation as both ontological and eschatological encompassing of all things.
Bright Morning Star
ὁ ἀστὴρ ὁ λαμπρὸς ὁ πρωϊνόςJesus's self-designation closing the Bible (Rev 22:16) — the Star of Jacob foretold in Balaam's oracle and the day star of Peter's letter, rising in the hearts of those who watch for him.
I AM
1 titleRoyal
2 titlesKing of Kings
Βασιλεὺς ΒασιλέωνThe royal title that closes the Bible — the conquering Lamb whose name is written on his thigh and whose dominion extends over every earthly throne.
Root of David / Lion of Judah
ἡ ῥίζα Δαυὶδ · ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς ἸούδαThe two titles announced together at Revelation 5:5 — the Lion of Judah promised in Jacob's blessing of Genesis 49, and the Root of David that is at once before and after David's line.
Relational
2 titlesGood Shepherd
ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλόςThe shepherd-king motif of Ezekiel 34 fulfilled — the one who lays down his life for the sheep, in deliberate contrast to the hirelings and false shepherds whom the OT prophets indicted.
Bridegroom
ὁ νυμφίοςThe covenantal-marriage title — Christ as the Husband of his Church, gathering Hosea, Ezekiel 16, the Song of Solomon, and Ephesians 5 into the eschatological marriage supper of the Lamb.
Incarnational
2 titlesSecond Adam / Last Adam
ἔσχατος ἈδὰμThe Last Adam who undoes what the first Adam loosed — Paul's recapitulation theology of Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 making Christ the federal head of a renewed humanity.
Immanuel
עִמָּנוּאֵלThe name Matthew places at the start of his Gospel — Isaiah's Hebrew compound (Immanu-El, "with us, God") condensed into the entire theology of incarnation.