Origin and Meaning of the Reverend Title

Most Christian pastors throughout the world today attach the title, “Reverend” to their names. However, many do not know its origin and meaning.

Did Jesus Christ give it to His servants to use? No. Did any man of God ever use it in the Bible? No. This short article seeks to explore how it came to be used in the Church.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica describes Reverend as the ordinary English prefix of written address to the names of ministers of most Christian denominations.

Now, there are two schools of thought regarding its origin and meaning. While one school of thought links it to the description of God’s name as stated in Psalm 111:9, another traces it to a Latin word.

Reverend as used in the Bible is translated from a Hebrew word “yare” which means “awesome”, “awe-inspiring,” “terrifying,” “awful,” “terrible” and “fearful”.

However, European ministers who first used it claim to have taken it from a Latin word, “reverendus” meaning “to respect or to revere.”

In 15th century Reverend was used as a general respectful address for all men, but it has been habitually used as a title prefixed to the names of ordained clergymen since the 17th century.

This means that between 1st century when the Christian Church was started and 16th century, no pastor attached the Reverend title to his name.

Alexander Strauch writes that although both the Greeks and Jew employed a wealth of titles for their political and religious leaders in order to express their power and authority, the early Christians avoided such titles.

According to him, the early Christians used common and functional terms to describe themselves and their relationships. Some of these terms are “brother”, “beloved”, “fellow worker”, “labourer”, “slave”, “servant”, “prisoner”, “fellow-soldier,” and “steward”.

Strauch further argues that there were prophets, teachers, evangelists, elders and deacons within the first churches, but these were not used as formal titles for individuals.

By James Quansah