Jesus or Yeshua/Yehoshua?

[WJL]

Lately, I’ve been hearing the claim that it is wrong to refer to Jesus as “Jesus” because His name is Yehoshua or Yeshua in Hebrew and therefore referring to Him as Jesus is “blasphemy” because His name will never change. They further claim that Jesus is “really a Greek name” and that it comes from the name “Zeus” and “is of pagan origin, etc.”

I’ve also heard the same argument used referring to God as “God” and not Yahweh, Yah, or Elohim.

How would you refute the above assertions?

Thanks.

 

[WJL]

How would you refute the above assertions?

Thanks.

 

[Omyo12]

Lately, I’ve been hearing the claim that it is wrong to refer to Jesus as “Jesus” because His name is Yehoshua or Yeshua in Hebrew and therefore referring to Him as Jesus is “blasphemy” because His name will never change. They further claim that Jesus is “really a Greek name” and that it comes from the name “Zeus” and “is of pagan origin, etc.”

I’ve also heard the same argument used referring to God as “God” and not Yahweh, Yah, or Elohim.

How would you refute the above assertions?

Thanks.

This is actually a nice argument to use against people who use “Jesus name” baptism (those who use the formula “in the name of Jesus” and not “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”)

In any case, the books of the New Testament (which were inspired) were written in Greek and therefore “Ἰησοῦς” was written by inspired writers.

So were the New Testament writers committing blasphemy and thinking of Zeus when they wrote the New Testament?

This completely destroys the reliability of the New Testament!

• It’s similar to the claim that Son of God derives from the pagan sun god Ra and his son Horus.
• Or the Virgin Birth deriving from the Greek myth of the virgin Danaë giving birth to Perseus by the power of Zeus when he showered her in golden water.

Another refute to the claim that calling him “Jesus” is blasphemy is one similar to how we refute claims that the baptismal formula should be “in the name of Jesus”

When we say “the name of Jesus” it is taken to mean by his power. His power is what will never change. While ישוע (Yeshua) was how his name was pronounced, calling him Jesus in English, or Ἰησοῦς in Greek, or Iesu in Latin, Иисус in Russian, or イエス・キリスト in Japanese, or 예수 in Korean, or 耶穌 in Chinese does not take away any of his power.

 

[willj1365]

As a side note, I have often wondered why, if the Apostles called Him “Yeshua” or a name that sounded like that, why it would ever have changed at all? For example, if I am called “Paul” and some other language calls me something else, say “Pablo”, it might mean the same thing, but it’s just different. Am I making that clear? In others words, if my family and friends called me Paul, but years after my death people began referring to me as Pablo, there would be something missing there. Not a big deal, just something that always made me wonder.

 

[Omyo12]

As a side note, I have often wondered why, if the Apostles called Him “Yeshua” or a name that sounded like that, why it would ever have changed at all? For example, if I am called “Paul” and some other language calls me something else, say “Pablo”, it might mean the same thing, but it’s just different. Am I making that clear? In others words, if my family and friends called me Paul, but years after my death people began referring to me as Pablo, there would be something missing there. Not a big deal, just something that always made me wonder.

Well, Paul is in English. Generations from now, I doubt your family will start calling you Pablo for no reason. Of course, if your family moves to Spain and after a century no one in your family speaks English anymore but Spanish, then when telling their children about their Great-great-great grandfather Paul from the United States, they’d probably say “Tatara-tatara-tatarabuelo Pablo de los Estados Unidos”

 

[andrewagill]

As a side note, I have often wondered why, if the Apostles called Him “Yeshua” or a name that sounded like that, why it would ever have changed at all? For example, if I am called “Paul” and some other language calls me something else, say “Pablo”, it might mean the same thing, but it’s just different. Am I making that clear? In others words, if my family and friends called me Paul, but years after my death people began referring to me as Pablo, there would be something missing there. Not a big deal, just something that always made me wonder.

Well, I suppose it would have been the standard transliteration for ישוע. Jesus, son of Sirach would have had the same Hebrew name, and they probably would have simply followed that tradition.

 

[Omyo12]

If the NT was written in Hebrew or Aramaic, we would probably call him Joshua the Messiah

The Hebrew-Aramaic name for Jesus is ישוע but the Hebrew name is יהושע

Joshua (from the Book of Joshua) has the same Hebrew name (יהושע)

the LXX transliterates it Ἰησοῦς which is Jesus in English

 

[andrewagill]

The Hebrew-Aramaic name for Jesus is ישוע but the Hebrew name is יהושע

Well, that’s what I get for trusting Wikipedia.

 

[Omyo12]

Well, that’s what I get for trusting Wikipedia.

You’re right though, Jesus Christ, Jesus son of Sirach, and Joshua son of Nun all have the same Hebrew name

All three are rendered Ἰησοῦς in Greek

If the KJV translators (who set the standard English names) translated from the LXX, we’d have the Book of Jesus (instead of the Book of Joshua)

 

[Omyo12]

I’ve also heard the same argument used referring to God as “God” and not Yahweh, Yah, or Elohim.

In regards to the Divine Name, how do you pronounce it?

Remember that the Name is יהוה with no vowels so all we have is (YHWH or JHVH)

Traditionally, it has been vocalized as יְהֹוָה (Yehowah or Jehovah)
however, today scholars believe it is יַהְוֶה (Yahweh or Jahveh)

 

[NHInsider]

As a side note, I have often wondered why, if the Apostles called Him “Yeshua” or a name that sounded like that, why it would ever have changed at all? For example, if I am called “Paul” and some other language calls me something else, say “Pablo”, it might mean the same thing, but it’s just different. Am I making that clear? In others words, if my family and friends called me Paul, but years after my death people began referring to me as Pablo, there would be something missing there. Not a big deal, just something that always made me wonder.

I don’t know, in my experience if you have a name that translates and you are introduced to someone in another language, you meet them as Esteban or Guillerme or whatever . . .

 

[Mark77]

God is not interested in these useless and childish arguments about His name in one language or another. He is interested in how you honor Him by living a life of love and service to others.

**“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 7:21)
**
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

mark

 

[Evan]

We call JP II, John Paul the second, rather than Ioannes Paulus II, his formal Latin name chosen at his election. We do that so we can pronounce it and become familiar with it and with him.

Joshua does not work in Greek or Latin because a is a feminine ending. In Latin, you need to end in o or us. So Jesus, Paulus, Petrus, works But not Jesua, Paula, or Petra.

Many people in Judea had both a greek (Luke, or Paul) and Hebrew (Mark, or Saul) name.

 

[andrewagill]

Joshua does not work in Greek or Latin because a is a feminine ending. In Latin, you need to end in o or us. So Jesus, Paulus, Petrus, works But not Jesua, Paula, or Petra.

I’ll have to call you out on this:

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

Catiline (Catilina) was a dude.

From the Bible, we have Aquila, also male.

You may be thinking of first declension nominative nouns in Latin, which end in -a, and most of those are feminine, but there are some masculine first declension nouns (e.g. poeta, agricola) as well.

And just to be clear,

Many people in Judea had both a greek (Luke, or Paul) and Hebrew (Mark, or Saul) name.

Mark was not Luke, and Saul changed his name to Paul, ceasing to be Saul. Paulus means small, while Saul means asked for or borrowed, by the way. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that Mark (Marcus) is a Latin name.

 

[LilyM]

Was not at least some of the NT actually written in Greek originally? Paul was writing to an awful lot of Greek (and Gentile, not Jewish) Christian converts after all. He had no reason to be writing to THEM in any language but Greek, as they wouldn’t have understood Hebrew or Aramaic.

This being the case, the word “Iesous” - in Greek lettering of course - would have come from Paul’s own pen in the original inspired manuscripts of his letters to the Philippians, Corinthians, Thessalonians and so on, no?

How can we then say it’s wrong to call Him other-than-Yeshua if Paul did so in inspired scripture?

 

[WJL]

For instance, these people will say:

The name YAH is pronounce as YAH in any language. It’s universal, for example the praise HalleluYah. It can’t be mistranslated.

And therefore it’s wrong to translate YHWH / Yahweh as the LORD or Jehovah and Yeshua / Yehoshua as Jesus, according to them.

How would you refute this?

 

[WJL]

Another claim of theirs is that:

“There’s no proof that the original accounts of Yahshua were written in Greek. They are all second hand accounts at best.”

Again, how would you refute this?

 

[LilyM]

Another claim of theirs is that:

Again, how would you refute this?

Again, I would ask them if they accept the Epistles of Paul as being God-breathed scripture or not. If their answer is ‘yes they are’, then case closed as I’ve argued above.

If not, I’d point out that many perfectly orthodox Jews of around Jesus’ time used the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament - complete with Greek words for ‘God’ (‘Theo’ instead of ‘Yah’) included. They clearly saw no problems with it.

 

[WJL]

Again, I would ask them if they accept the Epistles of Paul as being God-breathed scripture or not. If their answer is ‘yes they are’, then case closed as I’ve argued above.

If not, I’d point out that many perfectly orthodox Jews of around Jesus’ time used the Septuagint (Greek) translation of the Old Testament - complete with Greek words for ‘God’ (‘Theo’ instead of ‘Yah’) included. They clearly saw no problems with it.

They apparently believe that the New Testament is corrupted. Does anyone know some sources which prove otherwise?

 

[LilyM]

They apparently believe that the New Testament is corrupted. Does anyone know some sources which prove otherwise?

Firstly - why would they care what he’s called if they believe the New Testament is corrupted? Absent the New Testament we actually know precious little about him, and certainly could make no claims to His being divine or anything.

His name not being sacred (it’s not called so anywhere except in the New Testament) there’s nothing any more wrong with using local translations than there is if someone writes about me and uses local variations on MY name.

Do they believe the OT is corrupted too? As I’ve said, the Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament much-used among certain Jewish groups in the first century AD - I don’t recall anyone objecting to it merely because it contained Greek translations of the various names and titles for God.