We’ve all said it, in situations where only enunciating the full name of our Savior would convey the gravity of the situation:

Jesus H. Christ!

But what does that “H” stand for? Turns out, it’s Greek:

There have been various theories, but the one that seems most plausible is that it comes from the Greek monogram for Jesus, IHS or IHC. This is formed from the first two letters plus the last letter of His name in Greek (the letters iota, eta, and sigma; in the second instance, the C is a Byzantine Greek form of sigma). The H is actually the capital letter form of eta, but churchgoers who were unfamiliar with Greek took it to be a Latin H.

Makes sense. It’s amazing how many assumptions are made on the basis of identical, or even similar-looking, symbols like alphabetical letters. Because we’re ingrained, at an early age, with assigning specific meanings to such symbols, we automatically assume those meanings are universal.

Still, given the widespread popularity of The Passion of the Christ, I wonder if that “H” won’t eventually get supplanted by “T”. A bit cheesier, but the sound is similar enough.