How Yeshua Became Jesus

Many people are surprised to discover that Jesus wasn’t his name. How do we know? Well, to begin with there are two basic facts.

1. The word “Jesus” begins with the letter “J” and that letter did not enter the English language until the 16^th century CE, over 1,500 years after he lived and taught in Galilee and Judea.

2. The English language first appeared centuries after he lived and taught in Galilee and Judea.

“Jesus” is an English word so his name could not be “Jesus.” Now let’s find out what his name was and how it became “Jesus.”

1. The history of the name begins in the Bible in Numbers 13:16 -- These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun, Yehoshua.

● There was a man named Hoshea; Oshea in some translations.

● Moses, for some unstated reason, decided to call him Yehoshua (“Joshua” in most English translations) – in Hebrew it is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ. He became known as Yehoshua son of Nun.

● Yehoshua means "Yahweh is Salvation," but "salvation" did not mean “life after death,” “going to Heaven” or “being saved from going to Hell.”

2. The next stop is Nehemiah 8:17 -- So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Yeshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness.

● As a result of the Aramaic influence of the Babylonians, Yehoshua was shortened to Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ).

● Yehoshua son of Nun became Yeshua son of Nun.

3. In 250 BCE, the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in Alexandria, Egypt. The new translation was called “the Septuagint.”

● The translators transliterated the Hebrew letters of “Yeshua” -- יֵשׁוּעַ -- into Greek as Ιησούς. Transliterate means replace each Hebrew letter or symbol with a corresponding Greek letter or symbol.

● When we transliterate the Greek word Ιησούς into English we get “Iesous.” Yeshua”is the transliteration of the Hebrew word יֵשׁוּעַ into English.

4. The earliest surviving manuscripts of the books of the New Testament are written in Greek.

● The Greek word Ιησούς is the word in those Greek manuscripts that modern translators transliterate into English as “Jesus.”

● Look at #3 above and you will see that it is the same Greek word -- Ιησούς – that was used in the Septuagint to transliterate the Hebrew word יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua).

5. In 382 CE when Jerome translated the New Testament into Latin. He transliterated Ιησούς into Latin as Iesous (Iesus).

● The Latin word Iesous was the official name of Yeshua in Western Christianity for the next thousand years.

6. The first King James Version was made in 1611. The word the English translators used was a transliteration of the Latin word Iesous.

● Matthew 1:1 (1611 King James Translation) – The booke of the generation of Iesus Christ, the sonne of Dauid, the sonne of Abraham.

7. In 1769 Benjamin Blayney edited the King James Version.

● Matthew 1:1 (1769 King James Translation) -- The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

In first century Judea and Galilee he was called יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua). Yeshua was his name. The Hebrew word I have been using for his name is written in symbols that did not exist in the first century. Below is how he would have written name.

Now you know how he became “Jesus”. When we reconnect him to his real name we reconnect his words to his Hebrew language and Jewish culture. We also remember to view his life and teachings in the original cultural context in which his audience heard his words.                                                 BHC

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