Jesus's name

[Lisa44]

Hi,
I was wondering what Jesus was called, or what name Joseph and Mary gave him?

Wikipedia says Jesus comes from the Greek Iesous. Which is a transliteration of the hebrew/aramaic Yeshua or Yehoshua.

Yeshua is pronounce something like yay-SHOO-a.

Does anyone know what scholars say about his name?

 

[Henning]

Hi,
I was wondering what Jesus was called, or what name Joseph and Mary gave him?

Wikipedia says Jesus comes from the Greek Iesous. Which is a transliteration of the hebrew/aramaic Yeshua or Yehoshua.

Yeshua is pronounce something like yay-SHOO-a.

Does anyone know what scholars say about his name?

I’m not a scholoar but,

Yeshua = Salvation

for example in Exodus 14:13 “And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the **salvation **of the LORD”

salvation here is ישועת pronounced ‘Yeshua-t/th’

or in Exodus 15:2 “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation”

again here L-Yeshua-h לישועה the root (in blue) of which is salvation

a shorter form ישעי ‘my salvation’ in Psalm 18:2 pronounced YeSha

 

[Lisa44]

Thanks. Interesting.

Why don’t we still call him Yeshua?

Did Mary and Joseph speak Hebrew or aramaic?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

We don’t call Mary and Joseph “Miryam and Yusef” either, Lisa. Paul would have been “Paulus” as a Roman citizen, too, right?

FWIW, for most English speakers, it’s Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and has been for centuries.

I don’t think Jesus minds that.

 

[Henning]

Thanks. Interesting.

Why don’t we still call him Yeshua?

Did Mary and Joseph speak Hebrew or aramaic?

Also,
can’t think of anyone except messianic Jews, or Hebrew speaking Christians in Israel that would call Jesus Yeshua. Jesus is a transliteration from Greek to English…ιησους pronounced ‘EeAySooS’. Maybe (?) because the NT was originally written in Greek that we transliterate his name from the Greek instead of Hebrew.

 

[Lisa44]

Also,
can’t think of anyone except messianic Jews, or Hebrew speaking Christians in Israel that would call Jesus Yeshua. Jesus is a transliteration from Greek to English…ιησους pronounced ‘EeAySooS’. Maybe (?) because the NT was originally written in Greek that we transliterate his name from the Greek instead of Hebrew.

Yes, indeed, it is because of the Greek that we say Jesus and not Yeshua. (or something else?).

I just wanted to know what his Mother called him, you know, what it sounded like.

Sometimes I feel weird saying “Jesus” because it wasn’t what people called him.

I know thats silly and dumb. Its just that if I moved to another country, and people started calling me another name, it would be weird.

I know Jesus hears us, I just long to know what his birth name sounded like and what it sounded like when people spoke his name.

I’m an emotional person I guess.

 

[Henning]

I just wanted to know what his Mother called him, you know, what it sounded like.

I dunno, I would think (?) she would have said ‘Yeshua’

Sometimes I feel weird saying “Jesus” because it wasn’t what people called him.

I know thats silly and dumb. Its just that if I moved to another country, and people started calling me another name, it would be weird.

I don’t think it’s a silly/dumb question. Consider how important it is when saying the LORD’s name in Hebrew. Something like YaWeH, but nobody knows except God (and some angels) exactly how to pronounce his name. Jewish people won’t even attempt to pronounce it, fearing that they could be taking the LORD’s name in vain by mispronouncing it. Also I think (?) the CC has (or is in process) of removing name YaHWeH from liturgy and instead just using ‘LORD’ (I don’t know the reasons for this).

But since the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the NT I think we are safe with Jesus transliterated from Greek EEAySooS.

Also consider this, there was a disciple whose name sounded like ‘Yakov’ (for Jacob) but we call him James . I sometimes wonder how he’d reply to that.

I know Jesus hears us, I just long to know what his birth name sounded like and what it sounded like when people spoke his name.

I wonder how we’ll pronounce his name in heaven?

 

[brambling21]

Different languages have different names, I prefer Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus.

 

[patrick457]

Hi,
I was wondering what Jesus was called, or what name Joseph and Mary gave him?

Wikipedia says Jesus comes from the Greek Iesous. Which is a transliteration of the hebrew/aramaic Yeshua or Yehoshua.

Yeshua is pronounce something like yay-SHOO-a.

Does anyone know what scholars say about his name?

Well, we do know at least that Jesus was named Y’shua. Even those who do not believe that the Gospels are an accurate account of Jesus’ life do not contest that His name was Y’shua, a rather common name at that time.

Since Jesus was (legally) the son of Joseph and was from Nazareth (and since there were other Jesuses around), He may have been known to other people as Y’shua bar-Yosef (Jesus, the son of Joseph) or Y’shua Natsraya/Y’shua ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth). After all, a lot of people did not have surnames back then and commonly used their place of origin or their fathers to identify themselves (Christ is not Jesus’ surname but is rather a title, meaning “Jesus the Messiah” or “Jesus the Anointed”).

 

[Lisa44]

Thank you for your helpful posts. I’m trying to wrap my mind around this information.

I dunno, I would think (?) she would have said ‘Yeshua’

I don’t think it’s a silly/dumb question. Consider how important it is when saying the LORD’s name in Hebrew. Something like YaWeH, but nobody knows except God (and some angels) exactly how to pronounce his name. Jewish people won’t even attempt to pronounce it, fearing that they could be taking the LORD’s name in vain by mispronouncing it. Also I think (?) the CC has (or is in process) of removing name YaHWeH from liturgy and instead just using ‘LORD’ (I don’t know the reasons for this).

But since the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the NT I think we are safe with Jesus transliterated from Greek EEAySooS.

Also consider this, there was a disciple whose name sounded like ‘Yakov’ (for Jacob) but we call him James . I sometimes wonder how he’d reply to that.
I wonder how we’ll pronounce his name in heaven?

Reminds me of Shakespeare - “What’s in a name?..”

I ask myself that too, what is in a name?

For me, it is important. A name to me is of utmost importance. Anyone who has been introduced to someone and then called them another name knows the embarassment. Of course, a name is more than a name. Its not inconsequential.

What will we call him in Heaven? Good question! Its a very mind expanding question as well. I don’t have the answer though.

Different languages have different names, I prefer Yeshua, the Hebrew name of Jesus.

Hi, and how do you pronounce that?
My Priest said in his Homily that his name was pronounced: (if I remember right…what a dummy I am if I can’t even remember that which I wanted to know so badly… Yeah - oshua.

Is that how you pronounce it?

Well, we do know at least that Jesus was named Y’shua. Even those who do not believe that the Gospels are an accurate account of Jesus’ life do not contest that His name was Y’shua, a rather common name at that time.

Since Jesus was (legally) the son of Joseph and was from Nazareth (and since there were other Jesuses around), He may have been known to other people as Y’shua bar-Yosef (Jesus, the son of Joseph) or Y’shua Natsraya/Y’shua ha-Notsri (Jesus of Nazareth). After all, a lot of people did not have surnames back then and commonly used their place of origin or their fathers to identify themselves (Christ is not Jesus’ surname but is rather a title, meaning “Jesus the Messiah” or “Jesus the Anointed”).

Good. My next question was did he have a last name.
How do you pronounce Y’shua?

 

[Lisa44]

We don’t call Mary and Joseph “Miryam and Yusef” either, Lisa. Paul would have been “Paulus” as a Roman citizen, too, right?

FWIW, for most English speakers, it’s Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and has been for centuries.

I don’t think Jesus minds that.

Thanks, that would be my next question - What was Mary’s name in hebrew?

You speak for Jesus do you…haha, just kidding.

Its not that I don’t know that languages change over time and place. Its just that I wanted some historical truth. Imagine you were a saint, and then 500 years later people were calling you something in Chinese and they didn’t even know what your name was? That would be weird don’t you think?

I guess it boils down to the respect we give to names. I think the Jewish people were right to not say God’s name but instead to call him hashem. Its like giving respect to a name as having a power all of its own. And sinse we are such little tiny ants then if we consider the name of our savior, well that is a great thing isn’t it?

I mean, even to hear his name, that alone is a great thing.

 

[patrick457]

Hi, and how do you pronounce that?
My Priest said in his Homily that his name was pronounced: (if I remember right…what a dummy I am if I can’t even remember that which I wanted to know so badly… Yeah - oshua.

Is that how you pronounce it?

What your priest gave is the pronunciation for Yehoshua, the original form of Y’shua (Joshua’s Hebrew name is Yehoshua).

Yeshua was a contraction that emerged later during the second Temple period (538 B.C.-70 A.D.) There was convention in late Biblical Hebrew in which spellings for earlier names often contracted the theophoric element Yeho- to Yo- (for example, Yehohanan=Yohanan). The name Yehoshua is actually unique because aside from this name, there are no other names in which Yeho- became contracted into Ye-.

Good. My next question was did he have a last name.
How do you pronounce Y’shua?

1.) The same as “Yeshua.” I originally preferred spelling the name that way, though the Hebrew pronunciation, something like yay-SHOO-a’, had actually proved me wrong (the yodh [Y] is vocalized with the Hebrew vowel, tsere, a long e as in “neighbor”).

2.) If you consider bar-Yosef/ben-Yosef (son of Joseph), which is more properly a patronym, or Natsraya/ha-Notzri (-of Nazareth) as last names, then you can say that He had one (or two!).

 

[patrick457]

Thanks, that would be my next question - What was Mary’s name in hebrew?

Hey, she just said it – it is Miryam.