2:11

who is Christ: The angel’s use of this title was evidently prophetic, since the outpouring of holy spirit at the time of Jesus’ baptism marked the time of his becoming in actual fact the Messiah, or Christ.​—Mt 3:16, 17; Mr 1:9-11; Lu 3:21, 22.

Christ the Lord: The Greek expression here rendered “Christ the Lord” (khri·stosʹ kyʹri·os, lit., “Christ Lord”) occurs only here in the Christian Greek Scriptures. The angel’s use of these titles was evidently prophetic, and the clause could therefore be rendered “who is to be Christ the Lord.” (See study note on who is Christ in this verse.) Under inspiration, Peter explains at Ac 2:36 that God had made Jesus “both Lord and Christ.” However, the expression rendered “Christ the Lord” has also been understood in other ways. Some scholars have suggested the rendering “the anointed Lord.” Others have considered this combination of titles to mean “the Lord’s Christ,” which is the reading found in a few Latin and Syriac translations of Lu 2:11. Along these lines, some translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures into Hebrew (referred to as J^{5-8, 10} in App. C) use the rendering ma·shiʹach Yeho·wahʹ, that is, “Jehovah’s Christ.” For these and other reasons, some have understood the term at Lu 2:11 in a way similar to the Greek expression rendered “the Christ of Jehovah” at Lu 2:26.