thanks to mp , on the NWT translation thread,
I have looked this up, what an eye opener. It answers so many of my inner questions.
Chrestian - www.natzraya.org
The appearence of ''Christian'' in the Greek text is clearly an anachronism which has been paraded as supporting evidence for the christian name and faith
both of which are counterfeit.
In fact, some lineages of Greek manuscripts were still faithfully copying Chrestian right up until 1044.
Chrestian - Greek - Chrestos
having the meaning, good manners, or morals, pleasant, better, useful, kind, gracious
Christos - means to be anointed
The literal translation of Christians is ''anointed men'' or ''anointlings''
this is far removed from the general meaning of Chrestians which ''good men'.
Christians are fond of saying that christian menas ''followers of Christ'' as perhaps it should.
In practical terms, a Christian is one who practices Christianity, just as a Jew, Judaism, Hindu, Hinduism etc.
''Christians'' reveals a systematic effort to legitimise a new religious movement that otherwise had no scriptural or historical backing .
Consequently, the long standing tradition is the Church that Nero persecuted Christians is a historical fallacy.
this suggests that it was probably the natzraya (Nazarenes) that suffered, the only group called Chrestians by the common people.
Marcion the gnostic, and contrarian, certainly played a 'role' in popularising the name Christian.
he also switched the Greek titl of the Messiah from Christos to Chrestus.
Why did these heretics choose the name Christian?
Some researchers have suggested that the practical benefits of adopting the moniker derived from the illustrous name ''Christos''
loaned instant credibility to the new cult.
Notzrim (Nazarenes) are not Christians.
Since christianity is not what ''Christ'' practiced, then those who do practice Christianity can not literally be ''followers of Christ''.
Clearly Rabbi Yeshua was Jewish and practiced Judaism. There is nothing identifiably Christian about him.
Rabbi Yeshua's theology and religion was Judaism.
In the minds of Christians, christian means ''follower of Christ''
but in practical terms it means ''follower of the tenets of Christianity'' just like Ignatius defined.
The name originated with unbelievers who despised true believers, to designate themselves apart fom the original belief.