Did you know that the name “Jesus” is less than 400 years old? Where did this name come from,
and what was the original name of our Messiah? The spelling of the name “Jesus” has been in
use for less than 400 years. This can be seen in the fact that the 1611 King James
Version of the Bible still spelled His name “Iesous” with an “I”, not “Jesus” with a “J”.
The name Iesous was used in Greek, Latin, and English until the 17th century
when the letter “J” was introduced as a replacement for the letter
“I” when used as a consonant. However, it was still pronounced “Yea-soos” for many
years before it eventually took on the hard “J” sound that we know today in the word “Jesus”.
This means the pronunciation of the name “Jesus” is a very recent development in
the English language. So, what was the original name of our Messiah?
Bible Scholars know His original name, and the way they know this is because
there is another person in the Bible who has the same Greek name as Jesus,
and that person is Joshua son of Nun. We see this in the book of Acts when it speaks about Joshua.
“Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to
make it according to the pattern that he had seen, 45 which our fathers, having received it in turn,
also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the
face of our fathers until the days of David,” – Acts 7:44-45
We also see this in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Every time
Joshua son of Nun is mentioned in Greek, his name is translated as Iesous. So, if Joshua
and Jesus have the same name in Greek, we can assume they also have the same name in Hebrew.
So, what was Joshua’s Hebrew name? We see in the Hebrew Bible that his name
is written as Yehoshua in Hebrew and Yeshua in Aramaic.
In the first century, the Jewish people primarily spoke Aramaic,
so we conclude that our Messiah probably went by the Aramaic version of his name, which was Yeshua.
The English name “Jesus” is a transliteration of the Greek name “Iesous”, which is a
transliteration of the Aramaic name “Yeshua”. But how did Yeshua become Iesous? The “Ie”
represents the “Y” sound, the “s” represents the “sh” sound, the “ou” represents the “ua” sound,
and the “s” at the end makes it masculine.
The only way to spell “Yeshua” in Greek is “Iesous”, which is why the Jewish scholars
who translated the Septuagint used “Iesous” when translating both Yeshua and Yehoshua
into Greek. Anyone who has studied Biblical languages understands this.
It is interesting to note that the name Iesous was used in Greek, Latin,
and English until the 17th century, when the letter “J” was introduced as
a replacement for the letter “I” when used as a consonant, and thus His name became “Jesus.”
So, if Joshua and Jesus share the same Hebrew and Greek names,
why do they have different English names? Some people assume there is a great conspiracy involved
in why the names are different, however, it is a very simple reason. When the Old Testament
Hebrew text was translated into English, they phonetically translated “Yehoshua” as “Joshua”,
and when they translated the Greek New Testament into English, they phonetically translated
“Iesous” as “Jesus”, with one exception, when “Iesous” referred to Joshua son of Nun
the translators chose to continue using the name Joshua to avoid confusion.
In the Bible, names have significant meanings. For example, the name
Abram means “exalted father”, but the name Abraham
means “father of a multitude”. This is why God changed his name from Abram to Abraham saying,
“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you
a father of many nations.” – Genesis 17:5
Likewise, the name of our Messiah has significant meaning. When the Angel of
the Lord spoke to Joseph, he told him what to name the child, and because Joseph was a Jew,
he would have spoken Aramaic, which means the name was given to him in Aramaic.
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Yeshua, for He will save His people
from their sins.” – Matthew 1:21
This is significant because the name “Yeshua” means “salvation”.
The Angel was saying, “call Him Salvation, because he will save His people from their sins.”
Is it wrong to call Him Jesus? No, that is His English name.
But I prefer to call Him by His original name, Yeshua. To me, it is a more intimate
way to refer to Him, because that is the name He was known by in the First Century.