Jesus (name)

The proper name Jesus /ˈdʒiːzəs/ used in the English language originates from the Latin form of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς ("Iēsous"), a rendition of the Hebrew Yeshua (ישוע‎), also having the variants Joshua or Jeshua.^[1][2] In a religious context, the name refers to Jesus, the central figure of Christianity. The name Jesus is a very popular masculine name in Latin America.

Etymology

The name Jesus used in the English New Testament comes from the Latin form of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), a rendition of the Hebrew Yeshua (ישוע‎), related to the name Joshua.^[1][2] The name is thus related to the Hebrew verb root √yšʿ "rescue, deliver" and one of its noun forms, yešuaʿ "deliverance".^[3]

It is generally agreed by historians that Jesus and his disciples primarily spoke Aramaic (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic), the common language of Judea in the first century AD, most likely a Galilean dialect distinguishable from that of Jerusalem.^[4] The towns of Nazareth and Capernaum in Galilee, where Jesus spent most of his time, were Aramaic-speaking communities.^[5] It is also likely that Jesus knew enough Koine Greek to converse with those not native to Judea or Galilee, and it is also possible that Jesus knew some Hebrew for religious purposes.^[6][7][8]

There have been various proposals as to how the literal etymological meaning of the name should be translated, including Yah saves, (is) salvation, (is) a saving-cry, (is) a cry-for-saving, (is) a cry-for-help, (is) my help.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

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This early biblical Hebrew name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‬ Yehoshuaʿ underwent a shortening into later biblical יֵשׁוּעַ‬ Yeshua`, as found in the Hebrew text of verses Ezra 2:2, 2:6, 2:36, 2:40, 3:2, 3:8, 3:9, 3:10, 3:18, 4:3, 8:33; Nehemiah 3:19, 7:7, 7:11, 7:39, 7:43, 8:7, 8:17, 9:4, 9:5, 11:26, 12:1, 12:7, 12:8, 12:10, 12:24, 12:26; 1 Chronicles 24:11; and 2 Chronicles 31:15 – as well as in Biblical Aramaic at verse Ezra 5:2. These Bible verses refer to ten individuals (in Nehemiah 8:17, the name refers to Joshua son of Nun). This historical change may have been due to a phonological shift whereby guttural phonemes weakened, including [h].<sup>[14]</sup> Usually, the traditional theophoric element Yahu יהו‬ was shortened at the beginning of a name to יו‬ Yo-, and at the end to יה‬ -yah. In the contraction of Yehoshua` to Yeshua`, the vowel is instead fronted (perhaps due to the influence of the y in the triliteral root y-š-ʿ). During the post-biblical period the further shortened form Yeshu was adopted by Hebrew speaking Jews to refer to the Christian Jesus, however Yehoshua continued to be used for the other figures called Jesus.^[15] However, both the Western and Eastern Syriac Christian traditions use the Aramaic name ܝܫܘܥ (in Hebrew script: ישוע) Yeshuʿ and Yishoʿ, respectively, including the ʿayin.^[16]

In both Latin and Greek, the name is declined irregularly:

By the time the New Testament was written, the Septuagint had already transliterated ישוע Yeshua` into Koine Greek as closely as possible in the 3rd-century BCE, the result being Ἰησοῦς Iēsous. Since Greek had no equivalent to the semitic letter ש‬ shin [ʃ], it was replaced with a σ sigma [s], and a masculine singular ending [-s] was added in the nominative case, in order to allow the name to be inflected for case (nominative, accusative, etc.) in the grammar of the Greek language. The diphthongal [a] vowel of Masoretic Yehoshua` or Yeshua` would not have been present in Hebrew/Aramaic pronunciation during this period, and some scholars believe some dialects dropped the pharyngeal sound of the final letter ע‬ `ayin [ʕ], which in any case had no counterpart in ancient Greek. The Greek writings of Philo of Alexandria^[17] and Josephus frequently mention this name. It also occurs in the Greek New Testament at Acts 7:45 and Hebrews 4:8, referring to Joshua son of Nun.

From Greek, Ἰησοῦς Iēsous moved into Latin at least by the time of the Vetus Latina. The morphological jump this time was not as large as previous changes between language families. Ἰησοῦς Iēsous was transliterated to Latin IESVS, where it stood for many centuries. The Latin name has an irregular declension, with a genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative of Jesu, accusative of Jesum, and nominative of Jesus. Minuscule (lower case) letters were developed around 800 and some time later the U was invented to distinguish the vowel sound from the consonantal sound and the J to distinguish the consonant from I. Similarly, Greek minuscules were invented about the same time, prior to that the name was written in Capital letters: ΙΗϹΟΥϹ or abbreviated as: ΙΗϹ with a line over the top, see also Christogram.

Modern English Jesus derives from Early Middle English Iesu (attested from the 12th century). The name participated in the Great Vowel Shift in late Middle English (15th century). The letter J was first distinguished from 'I' by the Frenchman Pierre Ramus in the 16th century, but did not become common in Modern English until the 17th century, so that early 17th century works such as the first edition of the King James Version of the Bible (1611) continued to print the name with an I.^[18]

From the Latin, the English language takes the forms "Jesus" (from the nominative form), and "Jesu" (from the vocative and oblique forms). "Jesus" is the predominantly used form, while "Jesu" lingers in some more archaic texts.

Biblical references

A 3rd century papyrus of the Gospel of Luke.

The name Jesus appears to have been in use in Israel at the time of the birth of Jesus.^[2][19] Moreover, Philo's reference in Mutatione Nominum item 121 to Joshua (Ἰησοῦς) meaning salvation (σωτηρία) of the Lord indicates that the etymology of Joshua was known outside Israel.^[20] Other historical figures named Jesus include Jesus Barabbas, Jesus ben Ananias and Jesus ben Sirach.

In the New Testament, in Luke 1:31 an angel tells Mary to name her child Jesus, and in Matthew 1:21 an angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus during Joseph's first dream. Matthew 1:21 indicates the salvific implications of the name Jesus when the angel instructs Joseph: "you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins".^[21][22] It is the only place in the New Testament where "saves his people" appears with "sins".^[23] Matthew 1:21 provides the beginnings of the Christology of the name Jesus. At once it achieves the two goals of affirming Jesus as the savior and emphasizing that the name was not selected at random, but based on a Heavenly command.^[24]

Other usage

Other languages

Isho or Eesho, the Aramaic/Syriac name of Jesus

In East Scandinavian, German and several other languages, the name Jesus is used. Some other language usage is as follows:

Language	Name/variant
Afrikaans	Jesus
Albanian	Jezusi
Arabic	`Isà عيسى‎ (Islamic or classical arabic) / Yasū` يسوع‎ (Christian or latter Arabic)
Amharic	ኢየሱስ
Aragonese	Chesús
Aramaic/Syriac	ܝܫܘܥ (Isho)
Arberesh	Isuthi
Armenian	Հիսուս (Eastern Armenian) Յիսուս (Western Armenian) (Hisus)
Azerbaijani	İsa
Belarusian	Ісус (Isus) (Orthodox) / Езус (Yezus) (Catholic)
Bengali	যীশু (Jeeshu/Zeeshu) (Christian) 'ঈসা ('Eesa) (Islamic)
Breton	Jezuz
Catalan	Jesús
Chinese	simplified Chinese: 耶稣; traditional Chinese: 耶穌; pinyin: Yēsū
Coptic	Ⲓⲏⲥⲟⲩⲥ
Cornish	Yesu
Croatian	Isus
Czech	Ježíš
Dutch	Jezus
Estonian	Jeesus
Filipino	Jesús (Christian and secular) / Hesús or Hesukristo (religious)
Fijian	Jisu
Finnish	Jeesus
French	Jésus
Galician	Xesús
Garo	Jisu
Georgian	იესო (Ieso)
Ghanaian	Yesu
Greek	Ιησούς (Iisús modern Greek pronunciation)
Haitian Creole	Jezi
Hausa	Yesu
Hawaiian	Jesu
Hebrew	Yeshua יֵשׁוּעַ‎
Hindustani	ईसा / عيسى (īsā)
Hmong Daw	Yexus
Hungarian	Jézus
Icelandic	Jesús
Igbo	Jisos
Indonesia	Yesus (Christian) / Isa (Islamic)
Irish	Íosa
Italian	Gesù
Japanese	イエス (Iesu)/イエズス (Iezusu)(Catholic)/ゼス(zesu) ゼズス(zezusu)(Kirishitan)イイスス(Iisusu)(Eastern Orthodox)
Jinghpaw	Yesu
Kazakh	Иса (Isa)
Khmer	យេស៑ូវ (Yesu)
Kisii	Yeso
Korean	예수 (Yesu)
Kurdish	Îsa
Latvian	Jēzus
Ligurian	Gesû
Limburgish	Zjezus
Lithuanian	Jėzus
Lombard	Gesü
Luganda	Yesu
मराठी-Marathi	येशू - Yeshu
Malagasy	Jeso, Jesoa, Jesosy
Malayalam	ഈശോ (Isho), യേശു (Yeshu)
Mirandese	Jasus
Maltese	Ġesù
Mongolian	Есүс
Neapolitan	Giesù
Norman	Jésus
Occitan	Jèsus
Piedmontese	Gesù
Polish	Jezus
Portuguese	Jesus
Romanian	Isus (almost all) / Iisus (Eastern Orthodox)
Russian	Иисус (Iisus)
Sardinian	Gesùs
Serbian	Isus / Исус
Sicilian	Gesù
Sinhala	ජේසුස් වහන්සේ - Jesus Wahanse
Scottish Gaelic	Ìosa
Slovak	Ježiš
Slovenian	Jezus
Spanish	Jesús
Swahili	Yesu
Sylheti	যীশু (Zishu) (Christian) 'ঈছা ('Eesa) (Islamic)
Tajik	Исо (Iso)
Tamil	இயேசு - Yesu
Telugu	Yesu
Thai	เยซู - "Yesu"
Turkish	İsa
Turkmen	Isa
Ukrainian	Ісус (Isus)
Urdu	عیسیٰ
Uzbek	Iso
Venetian	Jesu
Vietnamese	Giêsu, Dêsu
Welsh	Iesu
Yoruba	Jesu
Zulu	uJesu

See also

• Isa
• Joshua (disambiguation)
• Jehoshua
• Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament
• Yeshua
• Yeshu

References