I had just done a keyword search about Christ in reply to another poster on a different thread just before I read Ben’s post.
Here’s a link to all the times of occurrence of the word *Christ* in the Epistles only; that’s Romans through Jude. Not counting Acts and anything following Jude.
SEVENTEEN pages of occurrences.
“I had just done a keyword search about Christ”
Direct reference refers to events that have been independently witnessed. The last one of these is Christ’s ascension which is referred to in Acts 1. That’s the end of Christ’s earthly ministry.
Again, everything after refers back to the events of the Gospel. The things that he did back then, the Apostles explaining the significance thereof.
“SEVENTEEN pages of occurrences.”
How many direct references, and not citations?