Curious about the name "Jesus"

by tec 25 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • tec
    tec

    My NIV has notes at the bottom of pages, regarding other possible meanings and some definitions, etc.

    Anyway, it says that Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the LORD saves.

    Would that mean that Joshua is the English form of His name?

    thanks for your comments,

    Tammy

  • doubtful
    doubtful

    Yep! That's it. I believe the Hebrew was something like YEHOSHUA... the Greeks would have a mighty difficult time pronouncing that being that there was no "sh" sound in Greek, a sound which is very common in Hebrew. Apparently Jesus of Nazareth went by the abbreviated form of the name known as "YESHUA".

    Jesus comes to us from the Greek form of Yeshua, which was Iesous.

    Hebrew/Aramaic - Yeshua - Ye-shoo-ah

    Greek - Iesous - Ee-eh-soos

    Latin - Iesus - Ee-eh-soos

    Jesus - Gee-zus

    The English letter "J" was once pronounced like "Y" and in Latin as in many modern Romance languages, the "Y" sound is represented by "ie"..hence the Latin "Iesus".

  • Mat
    Mat

    Aw Tammy! you read my post on teh Jesus thread! The bit about Jesus being Jah and Zeus can be read here, and more information here. To quote a bit:

    The name YH-Zeus comes from merging the Jewish god YHVH and the Greco-Roman god Zeus.

  • tec
    tec
    Aw Tammy! you read my post on teh Jesus thread!

    I did, yes ;)

    I have heard many theories about the name, including the Jah - Zeus theory. I had also heard that Joshua would be the proper English translation of his name in its various hebrew forms - Yeshua, Yehoshua (as shared by doubtful), and also the one that Shelby has shared, Jaheshua. But I just never read that in the little footnotes of my bible before. Funny, the things a person stumbles upon. I was looking up some sayings of Christ to share with my kids tonight (which I haven't done in a long time), and that footnote caught my eye (perhaps because my mind was on that topic because of what you said on another thread)

    Thanks for the links, and your comments too, Doubtful.

    Peace,

    Tammy

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    I asked this in church a couple of weeks ago. Joshua is correct. Also, it was a very common name. Jesus was similar to John or Tom, Dick and Harry. It is funny because Latinos use Jesus frequently and I thought it was such blasphemy. It is common in some other cultures that I can't recall now.

    Joshua doesn't have the same impact as Jesus.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    How do the French pronounce Jesus? Germans? I refuse to ask about Finnish, or Luxembourgs?

  • AGuest
    AGuest

    Considering what occurred the last time I commented on this topic, dear tec (peace to you!), I'm going to refrain this time, if that's okay with you. My comments can be found in other threads, of course, but you already know what I shared, so...

    But, again, peace to you!

    Your servant, sister, and fellow of Christ,

    SA

  • PSacramento
    PSacramento

    The name YH-Zeus comes from merging the Jewish god YHVH and the Greco-Roman god Zeus.

    Quite incorrect as Leolaia shoed on another thread.

    It is quite simple a translitration/translation of the Greek to Latin to english.

    Note that IF "Zeus" had any part in Jesus's name, when Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Ephesia, they would NOT have called Barnabas ZEUS ( and Paul Hermes).

    How could ZEUS ( Barnabas) be preaching about another God named ZEUS ??

    Remember that ZEUS in Greek is NOT zeus but:

    In Greek mythology, Zeus ( play/ ' z ju? s / zews ; Ancient Greek: Ζε?ς ; Modern Greek: Δ?ας, Dias)

    And Jesus was:

    ?ησο?ς or Iesoûs

    And :

    Daniel Botkin pinpoints the interchangeableness of the names, Joshua and Jesus, noting that Neh. 8:17 has Yeshua (Jesus) for Yehoshua (Joshua). 3 Joshua’s name in Greek is also Yeasous and is seen in the Septuagint (Josh. 1:12; 2:11; 3:1; 4:4, etc.), which predates Messiah’s birth by more than 200 years. Botkin also says that this, too, is proof that ‘Yeasous has no connection to Zeus’ 4 for the Jewish Sages, who wrote the Septuagint, would have been well aware of the pagan god by that name and wouldn’t have used those Greek letters to form Joshua’s name if they had thought there was a connection to it (or to ‘Hail Zeus!’ as some wrongly infer). These wrong concepts are the product of people who don’t know Hebrew or Greek.

    The following reveals how the English name of Jesus came to be from the Hebrew Yeshua and the
    Greek Yeasous:

    “The English name Jesus derives from the Late Latin name Iesus, which transliterates the Koine Greek name ?ησο?ς Iesoûs. In the Septuagint and other Greek-language Jewish texts, such as the writings of Josephus and Philo of Alexandria, ?ησο?ς Iesoûs is the standard Koine Greek form used to translate both of the Hebrew names: Yehoshua and Yeshua. Greek ?ησο?ς or Iesoûs is also used to represent the name of Joshua son of Nun in the New Testament passages Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8.” 5

    “During the second Temple period (from 538 BC—70 AD), Yeshua first became a known form of the name Yehoshua. All occurrences of Yeshua in the Hebrew Bible are in I Chron. 24:11, II Chron. 31:15, Ezra, and Nehemiah where it is transliterated into English as Jeshua.” 6

    “In English the Name has gone through some interesting changes reflecting its origin from the Greek Yeasous. In Middle English (1066–1450 A.D.) the Name was written as IHS ‘an abbreviation of (the) Greek IHSOYS (‘Iesous’).’ 7 In the 16th century the Name was Iesu or Iesus and in William Tyndale’s 1526 New Testament we find Mt. 1:1 being written as ‘The boke off the generacion off Ihesus Christ,’ with Mt. 8:29 as ‘O Iesu the sonne off God.’” 8

    In the 17th century the J replaced the I to make Jesu. By the 18th century the ‘s’ was added to make our familiar ‘Jesus.’ 9 The point of this is that the name Jesus has evolved linguistically directly from the ancient Greek New Testament which was a proper way of saying Yeshua in Greek. The name Jesus is OK. Changing Messiah’s Hebrew name to Yeasous was not unbiblical or a sin. It was the Greek way of saying Yeshua.

  • Band on the Run
    Band on the Run

    The Church fathers called him Jesu until about the Renaissance? Is that why the famous hymn goes, Jesu,.......my desiring?

    I'm so bonded to Jesus.

    If anyone knows French, I'd still like a translation. Maybe there is a speaking french dictionary on the internet.

  • tec
    tec

    Interesting, thanks PSac.

    Shelby, yes, I do know, and I do understand your refraining. I was just curious about "Joshua".

    BOTR - Its spelled the same in French, with a little added thingy at the end: Jesus' As far as I can see it is still Jesus in most languages, perhaps some different emphasis on sound. Yesu for one that I read, and most commonly accepted in Hebrew that I read, Yeshua. I just googled though.

    Tammy

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