First literary mention of Christ in "antichrist" (1,2 John)?

[Leucius Charinus]

What is the earliest literary (or epigraphic) attestation to the word "Christ" Χριστός ?


Unless anyone has any evidence to the contrary my research has indicated that the earliest attestation for the word "Christian" χριστιανος is in Codex Alexandrinus, presently dated to the mid 5th century. All earlier attestations in the literary and epigraphic sources were to the term "Chrestian" [χρηστιανος], or in two cases "Chreistian" and once case "Chresian". Until recently I have assumed this attestation in Codex Alexandrinus to also be the first attestation to "Christ" as opposed to "Chrest" (which surprisingly gets most of the airplay in the sources).

AFAIK the letters of John in Vaticanus or Sinaticus do not use the "nomina sacra" form in the following term:

• Strong's Concordance 500. antichristos
  antichristos: antichrist, (one who opposes Christ)
  Original Word: ἀντίχριστος, ου, ὁ
  Part of Speech: Noun, Masculine
  Transliteration: antichristos
  Phonetic Spelling: (an-tee'-khris-tos)
  Short Definition: antichrist
  Definition: antichrist, either one who puts himself in the place of, or the enemy (opponent) of the Messiah.

I have not yet been able to personally verify that ἀντίχριστος is present in the earlier codices Vaticanus or Sinaticus, however a review of whatever material I could browse seems to conclude that the term "Christ" (not "Chrest"!!!) is made explicit in ἀντίχριστος. All earlier instances being nomina sacra ONLY.

This discovery was actually made possible by mulling over a statement made to blood as follows"

The problem as I see it is that Χριστός actually DOES NOT EXPLICITLY APPEAR in the Bible of the Christians (or "Chrestians") because it is always used in an abbreviated, codified, encrypted, "nomina sacra" scribal form of "XP" or "XC" or "XPC".

Well, I was wrong. Sorry about that blood. Christ Χριστός actually DOES EXPLICITLY APPEAR in the Bible of the Christians in the term "antichrist".

Any comments?

Be well.


LC.

[Leucius Charinus]

This appears to be literary evidence to balance the early appearances of "Chrest" (and "Chrestians") with an early appearance of "Christ". The scribe of Codex Sinaiticus wrote the word chrestianos in the three New Testament passages where that word occurs (Acts 11:26, 26:28 and 1 Pet 4:16). The disciples were first called Chrestians - χρηστιανος - in Antioch. However in the letters of John the scribe writes "antichrist" and not "antichrest".