More Speculation
About That Damn 'H'
Dave Clarke
From: "Dave Clarke"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org> Subject: Positive_Atheism_Letters_Section
Date: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 6:08 PM
The "H" in Christ
According to Straight Dope author Cecil Adams, there are several possible sources for the "H" in Christ, some of which may be correct or partially correct and others which are pure whimsy. These include: Holy as in Jesus Holy Christ; Hebe, or Hebrew (southern epithets); Haploid (biological reference to supposed immaculate circumstance of Christ's conception and his lack of a biological father); the letter "H" in IHS which was an old logo put on much Christian paraphernalia and meant as an abbreviation of Jesus in classical Greek characters (the Greeks pronounced Jesus as "Iesous" with the "e" sound represented as the character eta which looks like an "H").
Adams states that "when the symbol passed to Christian Romans for whom an "H" was an "H," the unaccountable character eventually became accepted as Jesus's middle initial." Adams also notes that the "H" may come from the taunting letters INRH supposedly nailed to the cross by Roman soldiers which meant "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Hebrews." But this is now written as INRI, or Jesus Christ, King of the Jews.
Personally, I think the "H" stands for Hokum.
Dave Clarke
Jefferson, OR
IHS, I guess, being a contraction of IHSVS, would then be the Greek equivalent of shouting "Jeez!"
Obviously the "Where The 'H' Came From" letter is a tongue-in-cheek comment on a tennis association's rules which were obviously written by someone who either had too much clout or was a bit sensitive. Or both.
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
people with no reason to believe
From: "Dave Clarke"
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: Re: Positive_Atheism_Letters_Section
Date: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 1:04 AM
I probably came across as too serious in that. Adams intended that has tongue-in-cheek and so did I.
From: "Positive Atheism Magazine" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: "Dave Clarke"
Subject: Re: Positive_Atheism_Letters_Section
Date: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 12:36 AM
Just in case a few readers didn't get it, I wanted to make sure that nobody took this too seriously. Also, I just had to rub it in about having so much clout that one's specific religious views get to prevail over everyone else's by becoming policy.
Cliff Walker
"Positive Atheism" Magazine
Five years of service to
people with no reason to believe
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