What does IHS stand for?

  • Thread starter Thread starter crob_58
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
IHS are not Latin letters, but Greek. Iota, Eta, Sigma.They are the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek (iEsous).

Some mistakenly mean it to say “Iesus Hominem Salvator”; “Jesus, Savior of Men”, but that is incorrect (even if the phrase is the truth).
 
thistle said:
IHS are not Latin letters, but Greek. Iota, Eta, Sigma.They are the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek (iEsous).

Some mistakenly mean it to say “Iesus Hominem Salvator”; “Jesus, Savior of Men”, but that is incorrect (even if the phrase is the truth).
Click to expand...
You’re right. But it would translate as IHC. Of course C and S are interchangable depending on what era you are looking at in the development of the written language. J and I at the beginning are also interchangeable in the Latin sense as earlier in Latin J and I are indistinguishable.
 
I thought it was Jesus’ name with Roman letters, but spelt like the Hebrews do it i.e. Joshua, minus the vowels.
 
I’m pretty sure it stands for

In Here Sunday!!!

for those of us in the English world.

I have also heard it was the first 3 letters of Jesus (in greek). Since I’m not greek, I’ll go with the english :cool:
 
Just found this in the Modern Catholic Dictionary:

I.H.S. Iesus (Jesus) Hominum Salvator (usual interpretation), Jesus Savior of Men. Really a faulty Latin transliteration of the first three letters of JESUS in Greek (IHS for IHC).
 
IHS is a traditional abbreviation of the holy name of our Lord, transliterated from Greek into Latin.

In Greek, “Jesus” is written “Ιησούς”, as you can see on Google Translate here:

translate.google.com/#en/el/Jesus

The first Greek letter is “Iota”, or “I” and “i” in both Latin and English. The second Greek letter is “Eta”, or “H” and “h” in both Latin and English. The third Greek letter is “Sigma”, or “S” and “s” in both Latin and English. This is according to the Greek alphabet table here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_alphabet

“Sigma”, which is pronounced and written as “S” and “s” in both Latin and English, can be written with three symbols in Greek: “Σ”, “σ”, or “ς”.

Therefore, an abbreviation of the holy name of Jesus written in Greek, transliterated into Latin and English, is “IHS”.

New Advent clarifies this as well, where it says:

“From the beginning, however, in Christian inscriptions the nomina sacra, or names of Jesus Christ, were shortened by contraction, thus IC and XC or IHS and XPS for Iesous Christos.”

“IHS was sometimes wrongly understood as ‘Jesus Hominum (or Hierosolymae) Salvator’, i.e. Jesus, the Saviour of men (or of Jerusalem=Hierosolyma).”

newadvent.org/cathen/07649a.htm

:knight1:
 
The letters “IHS” are acronyms for the Latin phrase “In Hoc Signo” which means “In this sign.” But “in this sign” what??? The fourth letter “V” was removed so that people wouldn’t know the real nature and purpose of the Christian banner. The “V” stands for the Latin word “vinces” (which means “conquer”). So the entire message here is “In this sign we shall conquer.” It’s about the program world conquest through bloodshed.
 
I wonder what it is about this thread? It seems to get resurrected every two years or so. 🤷
 
I remember about two years ago researching this. It is indeed a Christogram much like Chi Rho stands for Christ by using the first two letters of the Greek spelling, IHS uses the first three letters of the Holy Name of Jesus. The misinterpretation “Iesus hominum salvator” became popular not long after.
 
Wow!

And here I was thinking that it was Greek: “Iesous, Huis Theos, Soter” (Jesus, Son of God, Saviour). Forget where I read that, though. 😉
 
RPRPsych said:
Wow!

And here I was thinking that it was Greek: “Iesous, Huis Theos, Soter” (Jesus, Son of God, Saviour). Forget where I read that, though. 😉
Click to expand...
You’re probably thinking of ΙΧΘΥΣ (‘fish’).
ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Iēsous)
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos)
ΘΕΟΥ (Theou)
ΥΙΟΣ (Huios)
ΣΟΤΗΡ (Sotēr)
 
Cavaradossi said:
You’re probably thinking of ΙΧΘΥΣ (‘fish’).
ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (Iēsous)
ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ (Christos)
ΘΕΟΥ (Theou)
ΥΙΟΣ (Huios)
ΣΟΤΗΡ (Sotēr)
Click to expand...
😊 My bad. Apologies, that was indeed what I was thinking of. :o
 
RPRPsych said:
😊 My bad. Apologies, that was indeed what I was thinking of. :o
Click to expand...
No need to apologize! It is good that you would be able to recall such a phrase in Greek, even if you couldn’t quite remember the context.
 
Cavaradossi said:
No need to apologize! It is good that you would be able to recall such a phrase in Greek, even if you couldn’t quite remember the context.
Click to expand...
Thanks. The old saying is true: you learn something new every day! 👍
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top