Etymology of "Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick"

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Just before I leave for the gym, I will introduce my radical (and first of its kind??) defense of “Jesus H. Christ” as a valid name for Jesus.

Here’s my explanation:

In the Koine Greek of the New Testament, one can refer to Jesus in various ways.

ὁ Χριστός Ἰησοῦς
HO CRISTOS IESOUS (“the Christ Jesus”)

HO is the masculine singular article. The “backwards apostrophe” mark above the omicron (ὁ) is the rough-breathing mark or aspiration. It turns the O-sound into a HO-sound.

The word “Christ” is simply an English rendering of the Greek word CRISTOS, which means “anointed one”—which in Hebrew is the Messiah. So “Jesus the Christ” really means “Jesus the Anointed One” or “Jesus the Messiah.” Thus, it is also quite possible to refer to Jesus as:

Ἰησοῦς ὁ Χριστός
IESOUS HO CRISTOS (“Jesus the Christ”)

With that in mind, it actually is not entirely out of line to think of “Jesus H. Christ” as a reminder that HO CHRIST, “the Christ” is a valid title (“the Anointed One”)—even though it mixes Greek and English in an odd way.

Of course, I am NOT asserting that somebody first coined “Jesus H. Christ” with this explanation in mind!

(Yeah, this is kind of a strange post. But I can’t help but notice that odd but arguable validity of the “H.” in “Jesus H. Christ.”)

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I have never been able to hear the words “Jesus the Christ” without it resulting in my singing the theme song to “Felix the Cat,” with modified lyrics.

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Thanks for the interesting tidbit but where did the phrase “Jesus Christ on a pogo stick!” come from? :thinking:

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Well, “po go” is Greek for “I’m going,” so I suspect it is a phrase recognizing that before there can be a second coming, there has to be a going. The pogo stick itself is sort of a mechanical rendering of the theme of ascending and descending.

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Wow. I hadn’t thought about Felix and his song for many years.

I recalled something about Felix the Cat being the first “test pattern” back in the 1920’s—but it turns out that a little figurine of Felix the Cat rotating on a turntable was an entire two hour program for a few years!

If not for the Great Depression and WWII (especially) one wonders just when TV would have first taken off.

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It seems as if you’re intentionally attempting to be disrespectful in dragging out an irrelevant conversation after I had already asked that another irrelevant conversation be moved to a relevant thread.

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I split out the off-topic discussion. Thanks for bringing it to moderator attention.

I don’t think there was any intent to disrespect - it is often the case that active discussion will spark interesting side topics.

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Nor, indeed, anything anyone could feasibly regard as disrespectful.

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I’m a born-again type of evangelical Christ-follower and I didn’t interpret Puck’s “Jesus H. Christ” mentions in a disrespectful way. In a forum like this one, we discuss cultural phenomena quite often and even things which other people may mean in a disrespectful way. Yes, “Jesus H. Christ” is often used by some people in a mocking way but here we kind of tend to dissect and discuss everything. Just about everything has been topical at one time or another.

@johnb, every Internet forum is different so I do understand that it can take a while for newcomers to get familiar with “Peaceful Science culture.” We can also be a somewhat eccentric bunch. (I suppose the fact that various evangelical Christians and various agnostic and atheist regulars can get along well here is also a bit atypical.)

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Yes, but in general it is better to start a new topic, and this is especially the case for regulars who should know how to do this.

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I don’t want to be disrespectful, but could it be that the cross looks like a pogo stick, albeit upside down?

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Keep in mind, however, that nobody knows for sure what Jesus’ cross looked like. The Romans used various versions, from a simple pole to an X-shape to a ±shape.

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If I recall correctly, in the Charlton Heston film of Planet of the Apes, the apes used X-shaped crosses. Perhaps it’s a 48-chromosome thing.

I think that those who revere pogo sticks will forgive any possible offense you may have caused. It certainly would be bad for sales if people thought that they were liable to wind up crucified on one!

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Making a prediction - NO peeking until this thread is done, or it may bias the results. :slight_smile:

I predict this thread will run longer than the original.

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Yeah. Highbrow threads are inevitable when so many elite intellectuals frequent a forum.

(Sort of.)

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I just assumed that by adding the H one could claim semi-seriously that they were not taking the Lord’s name in vain since JHC is not THE JC.

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When I lived in another city I knew of an Hispanic fellow by the name of Jesus H. Christo who was starting a landscaping business. He wanted to use his full name in the company name but people warned him that their might be negative reactions from some people if they saw “Jesus H. Christo Landscaping Services” on a truck. (He also considered "Jesus Christo & Son Landscaping, but some would find that even more strange.)

I never heard what he decided.

Of course, one could argue that the Spanish pronunciation of “Jesus” is closer to New Testament Koine Greek than is Modern English.

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Can you please tell me how this is disrespectful and to whom? I am always looking for new ways to be blasphemous, heretical, and defamatory against God.

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Patrick, I could imagine you hiring the aforementioned Mr. Christo’s Landscaping Services company just so you could enjoy telling people who you pay to mow your lawn!

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I have a brother in law who is a carpenter. He is also Jewish.If he ever decides to buy a van and have his business name printed on the side, he will receive a gift from me of a bumper sticker from the local Christian book store which reads “My boss is a Jewish carpenter!”

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